We'll start with the not so good first, getting called on to brief a case in class. It was Torts, and even though I had read the case and done my brief I looked like a complete idiot. I knew the facts, I knew the procedural history, I knew the ruling, I knew everything, but when he called on my I was unable to form coherent sentences!! This usually isn't ever an issue for me, so the fact that I was flustered made me even MORE flustered. So I give the facts and my professor starts asking me questions and I have NO idea what he's talking about. I think maybe he's gone on to the next case I'm so lost. At one point I even have to say "I'm sorry, I just don't know" AND "I'm sorry, but I have NO idea where you are." It was humiliating. I wanted to go up to him and show him my notes and book and say "Look! I promise I read the case! I did my work!". After class, without me asking how I did, I had a few people come up to me and say that he had grilled me extra hard, and that made me feel a little better, but not much.
I think it was probably worse in my head than it was in reality, but I hated the feeling of helplessness- especially when I had done my work. Needless to say, I've learned to look over all my cases again before I go in to class in case I'm called on to give a case from last week.
Now for the awesomeness! I had already decided I wanted to bake something, but after my not-so-great performance in Torts, I was determined to make something extra unhealthy! If you don't know, I am ADDICTED to Pinterest, and was prowling the pages when I came across this picture for a butterscotch cheesecake:
It looks delicious, right? Well try as I might, I couldn't find the recipe, and I was upset.
Then I come across a recipe for these cookies:
These sounded great and I was all set on making them, when I came across this recipe:
Ok, now I'm hooked, and I decide I'm going to make my own butterscotch cheesecake by combining the cookie recipe and the cookie dough cheesecake recipe with a butterscotch ganache.
Here is my White Chocolate Butterscotch Cookie Dough Cheesecake
It is delicious! Here's the recipe in full.
For the Cookies:
½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoon water or milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
An additional 1/2 cup of both the white and butterscotch chips to fold into the batter with the cookie dough balls
For the Ganache:
1/4 a bag of 11 oz butterscotch chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
For the Cheesecake:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 1/2 cups Nilla Wafers
4 (8-ounce) blocks cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
For the cookie dough: In a medium bowl, combine the butter and sugars for the cookie dough. Add the water (or milk), vanilla and blend. Mix in the flour, salt and the chips. The dough will be fairly soft. Gently roll the dough into small balls (about a teaspoon size, maybe a bit larger) and place them on a wax paper lined plate or baking sheet. Place them in the freezer to harden while making the rest of the cheesecake.
For the ganache: Heat the butterscotch chips and heavy whipping cream in a small sauce bowl on medium heat until melted. Transfer to another bowl and let cool to room temperature while you make the cheesecake.
For the crust: Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan. In a medium bowl, combine the butter with the chocolate cookie crumbs (I had to crush these by hand and it was not fun). Press onto the bottom and about halfway up the sides of the prepared pan.
For the cheesecake: Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat the cream cheese, sugar, eggs and flour until smooth. Add the vanilla and sour cream and mix just until blended. Be careful not to overmix – incorporating too much air into the batter can contribute to a cheesecake cracking on top during baking. Mine still cracked, but I didn't mind because it still tasted wonderful!
Pour half the batter into the prepared crust. Gently stir in the cookie dough balls and the additional 1 cup chips into the remaining batter. Pour into the pan, spreading the batter to the sides of the pan and evening it out across the top (it is ok to see bumps of cookie dough here and there, smooth it the best you can). Bake the cheesecake at 325 degrees for one hour. Turn off the oven and prop the door open several inches. Let the cake sit in the oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, pour the ganache on top, and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate until chilled (ideally, overnight). Once the cake has pulled away from the edges, run a sharp knife around the pan to make sure none of the cake is sticking, and VERY carefully remove the outside of the spring pan.
Whew, that's a lot of steps, but it makes for a WONDERFUL cheesecake! I'm so glad I tried to make one!
Also, Kiyoshi took the MCAT today, so there's a BIG load of stress off of him and me. I know he did wonderfully, but now I can't wait for his score to come back so he can know he did wonderfully.
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