THE CHEESECAKE EXPERIMENT

Ah, the weekend is almost over and it feels like it just started. It is just not fair. It also stinks that St. Patrick's day is on a Monday. How do you drink green beer and wake up feeling good on a Tuesday? Ah yeah--yah don't.

So, we ended up celebrating last night at Doolins Pub. So nothing about the place is Irish, except for the name---but it's close to home, it has a good mix of people, cheap drinks, and excellent service. The DJ always plays good music, and not a bunch of trendy techno crap that all sounds the same. And you can dance your little heart out--which is exactly what we did!

Over the last few days, I also did some baking. My newest invention is what I have dubbed "Cadbury Creme Cheesecake". It is exactly what it sounds like-cheesecake with chopped cadbury creme eggs mixed in. It tastes very good, mostly creamy and chocolately--but not quite what I had in mind. I thought if I froze the cadburys first that they would stand up to the baking in the oven....but the nougat pretty much got lost in the cheesecake. Next time I don't think I will use the chopped big eggs, but instead just drop in the mini eggs whole. It just needs some tweaking.

I'll post what I did below, but feel free to play with it.....I know it could be better!

CADBURY CREME CHEESECAKE

1 1/2 cups shortbread cookies, crushed
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
14 cadbury creme eggs, FROZEN
2 pounds cream cheese, softened
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup chocolate chips
12 mini cadburys to garnish
1 recipe for Creme Egg Drizzle (listed below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Toss cookie crumbs through tablespoon sugar in the bottom of a greased 9 inch springform pan and press into bottom of pan to form crust.

In mixer bowl, blend cream cheese with condensed milk, sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, flour and whipping cream, blending until smooth, about four to six minutes.

Turn out half of batter into prepared pan. Chop up the cadburys to your liking, and scatter half of them on top of batter in pan. Scatter half of the chocolate chips. Top with remaining batter, more cadburys, and remaining chocolate chips.

Place pan on prepared baking sheet and place in oven. Bake until just set, reducing oven temperature to 325 degrees around the midpoint and baking a total of 45 minutes. Turn off oven, open oven door, and let cool in oven one hour. Refrigerate cheesecake several hours or overnight.

Before serving garnish with mini cadburys and drizzle creme over top.

CREME EGG DRIZZLE
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/8 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 drops yellow food coloring

Combine corn syrup, butter, salt and vanilla in a bowl. Beat well with electric mixer until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar and mix well to form desired consistency. Add yellow food coloring and mix well.



P.S. I only recommend messing around with this recipe when the cadbury eggs are on sale--otherwise you would have a fortune in those little devils!