Summer Wishes Update - Cheesecake

June 23rd and I've accomplished 2 of my summer wishes!

#5. experiment with cheesecake

So I wanted to experiment with cheesecake because I am planning to make 2 cheesecakes for my wedding.  My dad can't eat gluten so we want to have something that he can eat. Also, Clay and I LOVE cheesecake and it would be fun to have it at our wedding.  We'll also be having some regular (bought!) sheet cakes for the majority of people there. 

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but shortly after I made my list I made two cheesecakes with two different recipes. I had a party and a cheesecake testing.  People voted on best filling and best crust.

The first recipe I tried was from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook.

The second was this recipe from The Food Network website. Unfortunately I took this cheesecake out of the oven too soon, and it was a little goopy. The recipe says "The cheesecake should still jiggle (it will firm up after chilling), so be careful not to overcook." and so I took it out before I thought it was ready because of this. Next time I'll wait longer.

I wanted to make a completely gluten free cheesecake so that my dad could eat it. It's not hard to do, because only the crust has gluten to begin with.  I chose gluten free shortbread cookies and smashed them to crumbs for one crust, and then for the second crust I chose a gluten-full shortbread cookie and did the same thing.

So the moment of truth...  

The second recipe from the Food Network won out for the filling. It has more sour cream in it than the other recipe and we thought that this probably lent it the lighter, tarter flavor that it had.

And.... people actually preferred the gluten free crust!!!

Interesting, eh?

I still have more experiments to do.  I'm going to make another cheesecake using the Food Network recipe again. Hopefully I can get it un-goopy. I also want to try it with an animal cookie crust, which Clay and his mom swear is the best. I'm planning on making one larger gluten-free cheesecake and one smaller gluten-full one for me and Clay and whoever else wants it.

Coming soon:   #3. make at least 2 new artistamps