June 5, 2015

Maple Caramel and Apple Cheesecake

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wiping a little bit of drool that’s dripping down your chin at this very moment. In fact, there’s a very good chance that the mere words Maple Caramel Apple Cheesecake got you salivating before you even got here or saw the pictures.

And then your eyes caught sight of beautiful that piece of cake, all dressed up and looking so scrumptious, so sweet, so creamy, so excessively decadent. And then you started scrolling to get to the recipe and probably thought – “NO WAY! What Sonia, are you out of your mind? It took me close to an hour just to get to the bottom of this page, and you think that I’ll even want to attempt making the actual cake? From the looks of it, it’ll no doubt take me a full week!!”

Not at all! Believe it or not, while it may seem like this cheesecake is extremely demanding and takes forever to make, that’s not exactly how it goes. Granted, it needs to be made over the course of 2 days, but it won’t have you working all that hard, I swear.

It’s just that I got a little bit carried away with the pictures (as usual) because I really I wanted you to get a very good visual of all the different steps. Honestly, though it’s not as bad as it looks.

Plus, this cake is a lot of fun to make, I swear.

Alright, since this post is already pretty long as it is, what do you say we get right to it and get started on this baby?

Follow me, if you please.

THE MAPLE CARAMEL

Since this caramel needs to cool down completely before you can use it, you’ll definitely want to start here.

There isn’t much to it, really. Just bring some pure maple syrup to a boil in a medium saucepan and then let it boil until it reaches 225°F, about 5 minutes. Just make sure you choose a saucepan that’s large enough so your maple syrup doesn’t boil over.

While the syrup is raising in temperature, place another, smaller saucepan over medium heat. Bring some heavy cream, maple sugar, ghee and vanilla seeds to a simmer, stirring occasionally, then kill the heat. Note that it is very important that you do not let this come to a full boil, else the cream may curdle on you.

As soon as your maple syrup reaches the right temperature, slowly pour in the warm cream mixture while constantly stirring with a long handled wooden spoon.

Be very careful here, as the caramel will boil very violently. If it rises too much and threatens to boil over, remove the saucepan from the heat, let the syrup come back down and then put it back over the heat source.

Once all the milk has been added and completely incorporated, bring the caramel to a boil and continue cooking for 3 full minutes while stirring constantly, then turn off the heat.

This is the consistency that your caramel should have at this point. Smooth, velvety, deliciously thick. Time to stir in the salt, then set aside to cool.

I don’t suggest you taste the caramel at this point: it’s way too hot and you’ll only end up resenting it for burning your tongue. Just let it be for now. Besides, we’ve got other things to think about.

Let’s move to the crust.

THE CRUST

We’ll be blind baking this crust, so first thing you need to do is preheat your oven to 375°F

Then, line the bottom of a 9″ springform pan with parchment paper. To do that, remove the ring and cover the bottom circle with the paper, then fold the excess paper back under the plate; While holding it in place with one hand, put the ring back in its position with the other hand. Bring the excess paper back from under the pan but do not cut it off.

This is what it should look like.

Now grease the sides of the pan with lard or ghee or any other healthy and heat resistant fat you prefer.

Then, put all the ingredients for the crust in the bowl of your food processor and process until well combined and the mixture has the texture of wet coarse sand.

Press this mixture at the bottom and side of the prepared pan with your fingertips. You want to bring the crust up to about halfway up the side of the pan.

Place your crust in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.

Not too complicated so far? It’s already time to get working on the cheese filling.

THE CHEESE MIXTURE

Before you do anything, decrease oven temp to 350°F and bring 2 to 3 cups of water to a boil.

Beat the cream cheese in the food processor (yeah, you might want to rinse the bowl first) until super smooth and creamy and there are isn’t a lump in sight. Scrape the sides a few times if you have to.

Add the sour cream and resume processing until smooth and well combined, which should take about one minute.

The batter at this point will be fairly runny.

Your caramel should be fairly cool by now… I guess you could go ahead and get a little taste at this point, but don’t overdo it, alright? You will need the whole lot to make the cake. So just a little spoonful and then you put the spoon down. Go on, be good. It’ll be hard, I know, but you can do it.

Alright, now add 1/2 cup of that delicious maple caramel as well as 1 cup of pure maple sugar to your cheesecake batter. Again, process until well incorporated.

With the motor running, add the eggs through the feeding tube, one at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds between each addition.

If you’re not feeling all that confident about cracking your eggs directly over the batter like this, crack them in a bowl first and then feed them through the tube. That way you can be certain that you won’t be sending a bad egg or a piece of eggshell through that tube.

Finally, add some tapioca starch, cinnamon, salt, scraped vanilla seeds and lemon juice to the mix and resume blending for a final 20 to 30 seconds.

Place your prepared springform pan in a broiler pan and slowly pour the cheese mixture right over the par-baked crust.

Remember the water you boiled earlier? This is the time to use it. Pour it delicately into the broiling pan, under the cake, so it goes to about 1/8 of the way up the side of the springform pan. Place that rig on the middle rack of your oven and bake for 15 minutes then decrease the temperature to 250°F and bake for 75 more minutes.

After that time has elapsed, you’ll want to kill the heat, crack the oven door open and allow the cake to cool for a few hours before transfering to the fridge where it will stay overnight to cool completely.

THE APPLES

While the cake is in the oven, peel, core and slice the apples fairly thinly.

Again, I find a small melon baller works unbelievably well to remove the core from the apples (or pears, for that matter).

Melt some ghee in large skillet placed over medium-high heat. Add the apples and sauté them until they turn a beautiful shade of golden and are slightly softened, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Pour in 1/4 cup of that delicious maple caramel, along with the salt and yet more vanilla seeds.

As a side note, I like to use whole vanilla beans when making fancy cakes like this one, because one- their fragrance is simply unparalleled and two- I adore the cute little black specks that bring. However, you could very well use pure vanilla extract, if you preferred, or if you didn’t have any beans on hand. A teaspoon per vanilla bean should do the trick.

Alright so you now need to sauté your apples until they get completely coated in the delicious caramel and practically no liquid remains at the bottom of the pan. Let your apples cool completely and then place them in the refrigerator right next to your cheesecake so they all get to chill overnight.

And what about all that leftover caramel, you ask? Can you eat it all now? Haha. Nice try! You’re still going to need the rest of it tomorrow, so don’t touch! Transfer it to a squeeze bottle or other container with fitting lid and keep it at room temperature, away from sight, until you are ready to use it.

ASSEMBLY

Now that everything is nice and cold, take it all out of the fridge; Carefully run a thin blade around the cake to ensure it unmolds well, but leave it in the mold at this point.

See how beautiful and perfect that cake is when it comes out of the fridge? No cracks, not a single one. Just a beautifully smooth, flawless golden surface. It’s almost a shame that we’re going to cover it…

But it WILL taste so much better after we’ve topped it with all the nommy noms.

So go ahead and dump the apples over the flawless surface of the cake and spread them evenly and delicately all the way to the edge.

Sprinkle some chopped pecans over the apples. You could toast them if you wanted to, but I chose to leave mine raw.

At this point, you can now unmold the cake, but if you are planning on taking it to a party or some other location, leave it in the mold for now and wait until you get to your destination to finish it. That way you can carry your cake super easily, without running the risk of damaging it.

Once your cake has been unmolded, drizzle the rest of the Maple Caramel all over its top, either with a squeeze bottle or with a simple spoon.

Transfer to a nice cake platter…

And drizzle yet more of that Maple Caramel so it oozes and drips on the sides. .

It makes the cake look that much more decadent!

Now sprinkle with Fleur de sel, if you so desires, slice and serve.

And there you have it.

I know, right? Don’t you wish you could just reach for that slice and eat it right now? That certainly would be quick and convenient, but you’d be missing on all the fun.

And tell me, really, honestly, was it really all that bad?

Please answer before you look at the kitchen and after you’ve had your first, or second bite.

In my opinion, indulgences don’t come much better than this one…

Maple Caramel Apple Cheesecake | thehealthyfoodie.com

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