This weekend I made my very first incredibly flat cheesecake from this turtle cheesecake recipe. I had never made a cheesecake but it was my best friend’s birthday and she was having a dessert party, so I thought I should try.
It came out amazing!! I was so chuffed with myself as people ate it and complimented on how good it was. I can make cheesecake. Not just the whip up and put in the fridge kind but the baked kind. The HARD KIND!! I’m not a total kitchen failure afterall!
There were a few things I had trouble with as some of the things it called for weren’t available here in the Netherlands. It called for crushed vanilla wafers, but I found a mix for ‘kruimelbodem’ that I used in place of it that seemed to work ok. I had no idea what evaporated milk was, so after a mild panic I found out that what we call koffiemelk here is the closest thing. The caramels were hard to find and expensive, so I had to use Werther’s soft toffees as we don’t have the usual wrapped caramels like you see everywhere back home. Also, we can’t get the harder cream cheese here, just the soft spreadable stuff from the tubs. So the cheesecake is slightly softer than the texture that I think it’s supposed to have.
The deliciously gooey caramel layer. Was so tempted to just eat it with a spoon…
Chopped pecan nuts, seemed like a lot but not when you eat it you hardly notice them.
Chocolate cream cheese filling, I had that spoon out again but I resisted!
Cooked on the edges, darker and still a little wobbly in the center. It’s done!
A little more chocolate won’t hurt anyone, right?
All in all it worked out great though. Even I was impressed with it when I tried it and I’m usually a lot harder on myself than that. I tend to find something wrong with everything I make, but this was just downright delicious. My husband even had a leftover piece for breakfast and I don’t remember him ever doing the sweets for breakfast thing.
I’ll definitely be making this again, perhaps when I am in Canada in October to see how differently it comes out when made with proper North American products. Obviously, if I’m trying to lose weight then making cheesecakes isn’t going to be something I do often.
So if you are out this reading this and have always wanted to attempt to make a cheesecake, just go for it! It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be and if I can do it ANYONE can!
P.S. Just realized this was part of my 101 List! SWEET!! :)
That looks really good! I think the evaporated milk they talk about is gecondenseerde melk over here http://jonnys.nl/product_info.php?products_id=2571
My mother uses it in her Lemoncake and without it she can’t make the cake haha.
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No the condensed milk is much thicker and sweeter than evaporated milk. When I polled all my expat friends who bake more than I do here they all agreed that it’s koffiemelk. The condensed milk you are talking about is what I think we know as ‘Eagle Brand’ back home. So yummy, that stuff mmmm :)
WOW. You are so invited to my next dessert party.
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I’ll be there! :)
Looks delicious!!
Did you use the Mon chou brand cream cheese? I used it in place of Philidelphia for my last cheescake adventure and I found the texture was perfect. I also really like using Bastogne cookies as a crust.. lekker!!
Hopefully from this day one whenever you’re invited to a party people will be hoping you’ll bring along your Turtle Cheesecake ;)
I didn’t try the Mon Chou brand, maybe I’ll try it on my next one! For the bottom I used the AH Mix for Kruimelbodem and I think it worked quite well. I left the sugar out because I figured the cheesecake would be more than sweet enough to compensate, which it did.
Well done! Im a plain new york style cheesecake fan but this looks really tempting!
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I like plain new york style too, I felt like going for broke this time though. Now that I know I can make this one, no cheesecake will scare me! I want to make a NY cheesecake with blueberry sauce sometime :)
Wow Tammy! Very impressive! I have never made a cheesecake, other than the Jell-O brand non bake kind. This one looks soooooooooooo incredibly lekker! Not surprised with your being complimented. Good on ya!
Thanks Cath! I’ve never tried anything like this before either, just ones from a box!
Evaporated Milk, you didn’t know what evaporated milk was. Do you call yourself a true Caper and you don’t know what we call “Can Milk”. Tammy, Tammy, Tammy, Barb would be so dissapointed. LOL Looks yummy none the less!!!
haha Patti! I knew what canned milk was but that’s all I’ve ever known it by. I’ve been out of Canada now for almost 11 years so I wasn’t 100% sure if it was evaporated milk. When a friend told me evaporated milk was the same as Carnation milk I knew for sure what I was looking for. Please don’t tell Barb! haha
I love cheesecake. I made one for the first time about 4 years ago, and it was really good. My kid doesn’t like regular cake, so for his birthdays he wants me to make him cheesecake. I’ve never made anything other than the standard non-flavored variety, but we like plain cheesecake with strawberries on top.
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I love plain New York Cheesecake too, I am going to try that one of these days, maybe for my birthday!
I think I should make one this week. It sounds really good.
.-= Nobody™´s last blog ..Enough =-.
If you do take some photos for me. I’d like to see how it looks when made with the proper American products!
It looks just like New York style cheesecake. Except I’m not so good with the crust.
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I want it!
.-= Kara´s last blog ..Sleep is for the Weak =-.
Don’t make it, it’s deadly! haha I ate TWO pieces of it on Sunday and I don’t even want to know how many WW points it’s worth!
I want to leave a clever comment but I can’t think of one with all of this lust and drool going on!
I hear ya, I felt the same when I saw the photo for the recipe. There was much drooling going on!
Oh. My. Word.
That is beautiful!! {wipes away tear}
Truly and utterly.
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