Monday, April 27, 2009

Daring Bakers - Chestnut Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

This month the Daring Bakers made cheesecake! Yeah! I love cheesecake; it's not too sweet and doesn't have to have chocolate or custard. We were given a basic recipe for a plain cheesecake, but we had the option to flavor it any way we wanted to. I decided to try making a chestnut cheesecake as I love all things chestnut.

I followed the basic recipe, except: I added about 3/4 cup of sweetened chestnut cream, I reduced the amount of heavy cream to 1/2 cup, I reduced the amount of sugar by at least 1/2, and, I added an extra egg since the chestnut cream is so dense.


Instead of graham crackers for the crust, I used crushed cinnamon cookies since they have a nice spicy flavor that works well with chestnuts.

I followed the recipe for baking the cheesecake, and I did use a water bath. I topped the cheesecake with a little bit of chestnut honey.



And, as a decoration, I used some marron glaces, (candied chestnuts), with a bit of whipped cream.

This cheesecake was amazing! The plain version was also very delicious and creamy. Please see Jenny's blog for the recipe, and check-out some of the many daring baker blogs to see the other gorgeously creative cheesecakes.

24 comments:

  1. that's such a great idea. i adore chestnuts.

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  2. WOW!!! Chestnut honey as well????
    Magnificent;-)

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  3. Wow, how do you find the time to do so much cooking? I am envious.

    PS can you transport me a slice of this gorgeous chestnut cheesecake via the 1970s Star Trek portal, so I can have it with a cuppa coffee, it looks really delicious.

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  4. mangocheeks- I try to make dinner just about every night, and then I do most of the baking in the middle of the night.

    I wish I could send you a piece!

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  5. that is the prettiest little thing!!!!! yummmmmy!

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  6. Chestnut cheesecake sounds delicious. Great job!

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  7. Your cheesecake is lovely. Great job on this month's challenge.

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  8. Chestnuts on chestnuts on chestnuts on chestnut honey I was hoping that somebody would do a chestnut cheesecake I just love the pictures and it seems that it worked great. Bravo yours from Australia, Audax.

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  9. Thank you Lauren!

    Sandy- I do sleep! Just not very much.

    Thanks Wendy!

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  10. Thank you so much Jamie and Audax!

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  11. Your cheesecake looks amazing! Great job!

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  12. Ooohhh VERY nice adaptations! I've never tasted anything with chestnuts before, but this looks so yummy!

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  13. Christine- Thank you!

    Cupcake- Thank you! I love the taste of chestnuts, though they are rather hard to come by.

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  14. i've never had chestnuts before what are they like?
    your cheesecake looks delicious

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  15. All the chestnut made me think of christmas. The cheesecake looks divine! Well done

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  16. Chestnuts are hard to describe- they are sweet and earthy all at once. Fresh chestnuts are hard to find as they have a short season, but canned whole chestnuts are pretty widely available.

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  17. Chestnuts. I haven't had them in YEARS!!! That looks fantabulous.

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  18. Thank you! I love chestnuts but they are so hard to find.

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  19. This sounds so delicious, and looks beautiful. Chestnut is not an easy flavor to come by around here, and I'm fascinated by it. Thanks for being a part of this challenge. It is taking me a while to get to every post, so sorry for being delayed in commenting.

    Jenny of JennyBakes

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