{"id":5672,"date":"2013-04-19T11:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T18:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/?p=5672"},"modified":"2013-11-24T19:02:21","modified_gmt":"2013-11-25T03:02:21","slug":"foolproof-frazzled-mamma-cheesecake-or-the-pope-made-me-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/foolproof-frazzled-mamma-cheesecake-or-the-pope-made-me-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Foolproof Frazzled Mamma Cheesecake or The Pope Made Me Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Culinary Comedy of Errors and Experimentation
\nAdri\u2019s Great Blog Cook-a-thon #7<\/p>\n


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\"Cream<\/a><\/p>\n


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This is the story of three women, eleven pounds of cream cheese and two Popes.<\/em><\/h4>\n


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It started innocently enough when I read a post by Trisha Thomas<\/a>, AKA Mozzarella Mamma. “Dear Blog Readers \u2014 I’m seeing RED. I’ve become obsessed with Cardinals. I am constantly contemplating Cardinals.” It was mid-February 2013, and Trisha, an APTN reporter in Rome was covering the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and the Conclave that would elect his successor. That’s where the two Popes come in.<\/p>\n


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The third woman is Linda Prospero, author of the Italian food site Ciao Chow Linda<\/a>. She too reads Mozzarella Mamma. There we were, connected online by a mutual love of Italian culture and food and an interest in i papabili<\/em> (men likely to be elected Pope.)<\/p>\n

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\"Chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n


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Aside from being an intrepid reporter and blogger, Trisha is a wife and mom to three teenagers. Her home life did not stop just because the Catholic church was in transition. Her kids needed all her Mamma doings and her husband Gustavo needed a birthday cake. Trisha opted for her Foolproof, Frazzled Mamma Cheesecake<\/em>. She wrote “I love my foolproof, frazzled Mom cheesecake because I figure I can drop it on the floor, flip it upside down, throw it across the room, and my kids will still eat it. The ingredients just make it taste so good, it doesn’t matter how much you mess it up\u2013 which is fairly often in my case.” That’s where the eleven pounds of cream cheese come in.<\/p>\n


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Trisha, a self confessed non-cook, made a birthday dinner for her husband, three kids and in-laws. When it was time for dessert she asked her son Nico to help. ” I told him to spread the whip cream on top of the cheesecake and grate some chocolate flakes on top. But once again, I messed up. I forgot the cake was still hot from the oven and when he put the whipped cream on top it melted into a messy liquid. Oh well, like I said, we ate it anyway and it was yummy.”<\/p>\n


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\"Chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n


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The comedy of errors was on. Trisha invited her readers to make the cheesecake. Linda and I could not resist the challenge. Trust me. It was a challenge. You see, even though Trisha calls this Foolproof, Frazzled Mamma Cheesecake<\/em>, Linda and I had quite a time trying to duplicate her recipe. We also had fun. We compared notes along the way, sharing photographs and cheesecake contemplation. Click here for Linda’s report<\/a>. Read on for mine.<\/p>\n

I started with Trisha’s original recipe. There was a little trouble at the beginning. No oven temperature was called out and no pan size was listed. Undeterred, I thought about Cheesecake 101, set my oven to 300 degrees F. and grabbed a 9-inch springform pan.<\/p>\n


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\"Chocolate-Chips-Cheese-Cake\"<\/a><\/p>\n


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I pressed the graham cracker crust into the pan and turned to the filling, a blend of cream cheese (Philadelphia brand, per favore,) sweetened condensed milk, and eggs. The question of what to do with the chocolate chips quickly arose. No directions were included, and I had no photo of the cheesecake. I dropped the chocolate chips into the batter, gave a quick stir, turned the mixture into the prepared crust and watched as the chips fell to the bottom of the pan. Oh dear. There was nothing to do but spread them evenly about the bottom and bake the cheesecake. After forty minutes in the oven it was ready. When I cut the cheesecake I saw that the chocolate chips had formed a layer over the bottom.<\/p>\n


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\"Chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n


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This could not be right. I tried again. This time I dredged the chips in flour thinking the coating might keep them in suspension. Again, like little stones the chips descended, once again forming a layer on the bottom. What to do next?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, on the drive to the market I had plenty of time to think of a new approach. Maybe the chocolate was supposed to be melted and marbleized into the batter, I thought. Marble cakes are, after all, quite beautiful. I melted the chocolate and lightly swirled it into the batter. Trouble again. While it looked pretty, there was too much chocolate. I set another pound of cream cheese on the counter to warm to room temperature.<\/p>\n

This time I decreased the amount of chocolate by half, melted it and combined it with 1 cup of the batter. I poured the plain batter into the prepared crust and poured the chocolate batter in a ring on top, \u00bd inch in from the border and used a spoon to lift and move the batter to marble it. It looked great, and baked up beautifully.<\/p>\n


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\"Marble-Cheese-Cake\"<\/a><\/p>\n


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The trouble was I had now altered Trisha’s recipe, and as good as it was with the play of rich chocolate against the sweet plain batter, I really wanted to make Trisha’s cake This, for those of you who are counting, was Attempt Number Four<\/em>. To those among you who are wondering why I did not email Trisha and inquire about the true nature of this dessert, I respond I was having too much fun figuring it out for myself. Bart remarked that I was like the blind man who was trying to describe an elephant.<\/p>\n


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\"Marble<\/a><\/p>\n


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Blind or not. Elephant or no. I would not be deterred. For Attempt Number Five<\/em> I proceeded to the experiment’s logical conclusion, a chocolate cheesecake, the melted chocolate completely incorporated into the batter. This really was the no-hassle cheesecake – no fretting over falling chips, no worry about marbling, and no swirling. I figured this had to be the real deal. At last.<\/p>\n


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\"Chocolate-Cheese-Cake\"<\/a><\/p>\n


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In case you are wondering, I finally did ask Trisha about the true nature of this dessert. The answer is Foolproof, Frazzled Mamma Cheesecake is chocolate all the way through. Now I know. This cheesecake is also, by the way, crack-proof. Having made five, I can attest to that. I suggest that if you are serious about cheesecake experimentation, consider the purchase of a second pan, possibly a third. There is less waiting that way. Get a cooking buddy too. It makes the entire process great fun.<\/p>\n


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\"Chocolate<\/a><\/p>\n


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So ends the account of six of the eleven pounds of cream cheese, my five and Trisha’s one. For the account of the remaining five pounds, read Ciao Chow Linda’ s report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for Trisha’s recipe.<\/p>\n


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Note: You can click on any picture for a slide show!<\/em><\/p>\n

I have no affiliation with any product, manufacturer, or site mentioned in this article.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Culinary Comedy of Errors and Experimentation Adri\u2019s Great Blog Cook-a-thon #7 This is the story of three women, eleven pounds of cream cheese and two Popes. It started innocently enough when I read a post by Trisha Thomas, AKA Mozzarella Mamma. “Dear Blog Readers \u2014 I’m seeing RED. I’ve become obsessed with Cardinals. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1534,34,3,14,59],"tags":[1523,1575,1574,1572,1573],"class_list":["post-5672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-cook-a-thon","category-dessert","category-default","category-personalities","category-recipes","tag-ciao-chow-linda","tag-foolproof-frazzled-mamma-cheesecake","tag-linda-prospero","tag-mozzarella-mamma","tag-trisha-thomas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pYzzK-1tu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5672"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6552,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5672\/revisions\/6552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adribarrcrocetti.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}