Mother's Maple Cheesecake

Mother's day was never a big event in our family when I was young. Growing up in a church, it's merely just another event of the many events. Also, my mother was such a practical mum that she never encourage us to buy anythings or do anything special on these days ( or any other days ). I still remember on some occasion, she used to buy our shampoo which were running low, and ask us to wrap it up and give it to her during the sunday school presentation as the sunday school teacher ask each kids to give a present to thank our mother during Mother's day!!! I seldom show my gratitude and appreciation towards her, and always took her for granted.

It was when I leave home to study aboard, and trying to live independently then i truly appreciate my mother. My first year was particularly a hard one, trying so hard to fit in and adapt the new culture, living with a foreign relatives, have to juggle my heavy uni workload, and trying to cook my own meals ( which i never did before!! ) How easy it was when I was living with mum that my only worries was to pass my exam. She would thoughtfully prepare many delicious and nutritious meals which according to her, is good for the brain . My mum is great in kitchen, so much so that we're never have to dirty our hands to cook. I must admit that I never touch any kitchen utensil other than the spoon and the fork ( if that's consider a kitchen utensil at all! ) After many years of living aboard, I've develop a closer relationship with the kitchen utensils, and cooking is not merely just for survival now, but a great enjoyment, and i often found my mum inside me when I'm preparing meals. I tend to do it just like she used to do it, it's a strange thing!! I guess the love of preparing food genes do runs in the family, from my grandmother, to my mother and to me.

I would love to bake my mother this cheesecakes when the parental visit next month. They love cheesecakes as they can't desired anything too sweet, and a good cheesecake is hard to find in Malaysia. I've never baked a whole cheesecakes before, so i decided to do a little experiments and practice well before their arrival. In addition, I can also take this opportunity to treats all those homesick overseas students in my church with my experimental cheesecake, it's very rich and good for the soul, the best we can make do during Mother's day, without our mothers!!



It's not hard to decide which cheesecake to experiment, the autumn wind is chilling, and there were falling maple leaves everywhere, perfect season for a rich, maple cheesecake!


Maple Cheesecake
Ingredients for the crust:

• 8 digestive biscuits
• 1/3 cups pecan nuts
• 85g butter, melted

Ingredients for the cake:

• 600g cream cheese
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 125ml maple syrup, plus more for later
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius, or 160 degree if fan force.
2. Grease and line a 20cm round spring foam cake tin with baking paper.
3. Process biscuits and pecan nuts in the food processor until finely crushed.
4. Add butter, combined well, and press the biscuit mixture firmly onto the base of the cake tin. Chilled in the refrigerator while making the cake filling.
5. With a electric beater, beat the cream cheese until they are smooth, gradually beat in sugar, corn flour, maple syrup, eggs and lemon juice until well combine. Do not over beat or else it may cracks, or develop bubbles ( like mine :( ).
6. Pour the cake fillings into the cake tin with the biscuit base. Wrap 2 layers of al foil around the cake tin to prevent water from sipping in from the water bath.
7. Put the cake tin into a large baking tray, and pour boiling hot water around the cake tin. ( your cake tin should sit in the middle of the baking tray, with hot water around it )
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour and 3o mins. i check the cake every 10 mins after the 1st hour. When the cake is set but still a bit wobbly in the middle, it is done.
9. Switch off the oven temperature, and cool the cheesecake in the oven with the door ajar, and then take it out and cool it to room temperature before leave it in the fridge overnight.
10. Pour extra maple syrup over the cheesecake before serving. Best serve cold.

Because of my over beating, my cheesecake develop some bubble on the surface, but it's not a fatal one, and I'm overall very satisfied with the taste and texture of the cheesecake. This recipe is adapted from NQN, and she was very kind to give me a few tips and hints for baking this cheesecake as I'm very unsure about the water bath thing. Apparently, the most important thing with baking cheesecake is not to "shock" the cake, ie: the cake dun get shock when first entered the hot oven by baking it gently with the water bath, and the cake dun get shock when comes out of the oven by cooling it in the oven first and then room temp, and then fridge. If the cake is shock, it'll cracks, very much behave like us don't you think?!!!

I think it'll be the perfect welcoming cheesecake for my mum, and hopefully the first bite would shock her taste bud and she'll cracks a big smile!!