Baked Cheesecake in the Thermal Cooker

You're going to think I am obsessed with cheesecake but I came across a recipe for cheesecake in a slow cooker and I wanted to try it out in my Saratoga Jacks Thermal Cooker ( Click HERE to see what a thermal cooker is.) using the smaller cake pan insert for the cooker.  I haven't had the best of luck baking cake in the cake pan so I was hoping this cheesecake recipe would break my losing streak.  

All good cheesecakes start off with a graham cracker crust.  I used homemade graham crackers from this recipe HERE.  Melt 3 T butter and mix with the graham cracker crumbs.  I mushed it all together in the bag...less mess...easy clean up.

Three ingredients...that's it...three!  That's all this recipe needs. 

Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and eggs, pour over the crust and it's all ready for the boiling stage. 

 The thermal cooker is all about the hard boil.  Bring the food to a hard boil, place in the thermal base, and it will slow "cook" for hours.  

1. Fill the larger pot with water to about 1 cm above the trivet (it comes with the cake pan).
2. Place the covered cake pan on top of the trivet and bring the water to a hard boil.
3. Lower the heat but keep the water boiling and boil for 20 minutes. 
4. Place the pot into the thermal base.

The directions I used were given to me by Amy from Saratoga Jackes for baking a cake in the thermal cooker, but I felt a cheesecake was close enough to a cake and needed similar instructions.  If that rings true the cheesecake should've been done in about an hour and a half, and I put the cake pan in the cooker at 9:30 am. What is really cool is that I wasn't home all day and the cheesecake didn't get taken out until 4:40 pm and it was not overcooked.  The thermal cooker will keep your food warm and ready to eat, even when the "done" time was hours before. 

  This cheesecake was DELICIOUS!!!  It was creamy and had just enough sweetness!  My husband and kids loved it!  It's a keeper!!

Thermal Cooker Cheesecake

3 packages cream cheese, softened (I used low-fat)

3/4 C white sugar

3 Eggs

6 graham crackers, crushed

3 T melted butter

Mix the graham cracker crumbs and melted butter and press into the bottom of a greased Saratoga Jacks cake pan.  Blend the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl using a hand mixer.  Mix in each egg one at a time, blending well after each egg.  Pour mixture over graham cracker crust. Place the cover on the cake pan and lock.  Put the cake pan into the larger cooking pot with the trivet in place and water filled to just 1 cm above the trivet.  Cover the cooking pot and bring to a boil.  Keep boiling for 20 minutes.  Remove pot from heat and place in thermal cooker base and close the lid.  Let sit for at least 1 1/2 hours or up to 8 hours.  Remove the cheesecake from the large cooking pot and let cool on the counter for 30-60 minutes.  Then cool for several hours in the fridge.  Slice and serve with fruit toppings. 

My next challenge will be making this with shelf stable cream cheese powder, butter, and eggs :)

For the slow cooker recipe click HERE. 

Prepare Today Homemade-- Shelf Stable Cheesecake Recipe

My cheesecake drama, you can read about here, actually turned into an experiment on how to use cream cheese powder.  I purchased a #10 can of cream cheese powder from Honeyville Grain and then attempted to make a no-bake cheesecake out of it.  Attempted because there aren't a lot of instructions on the side of the can to know how to reconstitute it! I asked a friend of mine to help me with measurements and she said 1 1/2 Cups of powdered cream cheese will equal 1 8oz. block of cream cheese.  Adding water to get the right consistency is what took a little experimenting.  I only used about a 1/2 cup of water to get a cream cheese texture that I could mix easily with a hand mixer.  So watch the water amounts when you are making this, you can always add more.

 Shelf stable whipping cream made by Gossner's is one of my favorite items to have in my food storage.  It can be used for whipped cream, you can make butter out of it, and it is great in soups.  I buy mine from Honeyville in Salt Lake City.  Totally worth it to have on hand!  And the cream cheese powder is now another one of my favorite shelf stable ingredients.  I picked that up at Honeyville as well.  It runs about $28 online right now.  I was not compensated for this post.  These are truly products that I have in my storage and that I use. 

As you can see from the picture I figured out this cheesecake craziness!  Much better than my first runny mess of a cheesecake attempt.  You can see that disaster in my last post, read it HERE. I was making the cheesecake for a preparedness class at church so I used a 13x9 pan to feed a crowd instead of a pie pan.  

The crust is simple, I used the same recipe from my last post HERE,  which has graham cracker crumbs, sugar, powdered butter, and then I added the water to reconsitute the powdered butter. 

I mixed it up with a fork and then used my hands to really mix it well.  Then I firmly patted it down into the 13x9 pan and let it chill in the fridge.

Now, onto the making of the filling.  I actually made two different cheesecakes so I could try out my shelf stable heavy cream in one of them.  The other recipe uses sweetened condensed milk with the cream cheese. 

No-Bake Cheesecake Using Heavy Cream

3 C powdered cream cheese (or 2 8oz packages cream cheese)

1/2 C- 1 C water (don't add the water if using real cream cheese)

2 t lemon juice

16oz (1 pint) heavy whipping cream, chilled

1/3 C sugar

Using a hand mixer blend the powdered cream cheese with a half cup of the water.  Slowly add more water until you reach a cream cheese texture.  Don't add too much water!  You don't want it runny. Mix in the lemon juice until well blended.

Add in the whipping cream and mix on medium high until stiff peaks form.  Add in the sugar and mix well.  Mixture should be slightly thick, not runny.  Pour into prepared graham cracker crust and chill at least 2 hours. 

This is the cream cheese powder mixed with a little water.  Don't let it get too thinned out or the cheesecake won't set up.  The cream cheese powder does thicken when it sits in the fridge. 

This is the mixture after adding in the lemon juice and the whipping cream. See the stiff peaks in the middle of the creamed mixture. 

The sugar gets mixed in lastly and mixed well.

Spread the mixture over the crust and chill. 

No-Bake Cheesecake With Sweetened Condensed Milk

Toothpicks held up the cover :)

Sweetened Condensed Milk

In a blender add:

1/2 C hot water

1 C non-instant powdered milk

1 C sugar

3 T melted butter (3 T butter powder+3/4 t water)

Blend until mixed well. Or substitute 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk.

In a mixing bowl add:

3 C cream cheese powder (or 2 8oz packages cream cheese)

1/2 C-1 C water (don't add the water if using real cream cheese)

Combine the cream cheese powder and water in bowl with hand mixer, slowly add 1/2 C water until well blended, smooth, and has a cream cheese texture. Add more water as needed to achieve the right cream cheese consistency. 
Add in:

2 t lemon juice

1 t vanilla

Blend well.  Add in the sweetened condensed milk from the blender, or 1 can sweetened condensed milk.  Blend well with hand mixer.  Pour into prepared graham cracker crust and chill at least 2 hours. 

This is the cream cheese powder, lemon juice, and vanilla mixed together.  

In goes the homemade sweetened condensed milk.

Chilled and ready for serving. I needed to transport this to where I was teaching and I first put aluminum foil over the top...see where it stuck to the top of the cheesecake!  I added toothpicks to hold up the foil.  I didn't want to mess it up even more by pulling them out before taking the photo. 

The cheesecake made with the shelf stable whipping cream set up a little better and had a firmer texture.  It also cut and held up on a plate better than the sweetened condensed milk version, which was kind of sticky. I preferred the cheesecake made with whipping cream because it had a lighter texture and wasn't too sweet. But they both tasted great!  It's always smart to have options when it comes to food storage. If plan A doesn't work, you can fall back to plan B or even plan C.  I will probably use real cream cheese to make these recipes most often, but knowing I have another option, if the situation arose that I needed one, is a comforting feeling.

Prepare Today Homemade-- Graham Crackers & Graham Cracker Crust Recipes

If we all looked as good as we portray ourselves on social media most people have perfect lives, with perfect children, and perfect recipes that bake up perfect every time.  Well, I'm here to keep it real.  A lot of what comes out of my kitchen is not blog worthy, but this oops deserved to blogged about.

It didn't quite set up.

 On Tuesday night I am helping out with a preparedness class at church and I volunteered to bring a food storage related dessert.  I thought a no-bake cheesecake would be perfect. I have wanted to try cream cheese powder forever! Thank goodness I decided to try it out on my family first!  That liquid mess in the pie dish above is suppose to be cheesecake.  It never set up.  It sat in the fridge and then the freezer for hours and never set up.  You can see we ate the crust from under it, which was yummy, but the cheesecake part was a total flop.  I may be panicking just a little if I can't figure this out by tomorrow. 

So I am going to share with you my graham cracker recipe and also the recipe for the graham cracker crust.  I did find a cheesecake recipe that worked, thank goodness, and I'll share that later this week.

Homemade Graham Crackers

2 C whole wheat flour
1 C white flour (can use all whole wheat)
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 C butter softened (1/2 C butter powder + 1 1/2 T water)
1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C honey
1 t vanilla
1/4-1/2 C milk  
extra flour for dusting and rolling out
 Cream the butter, sugar, and honey until fluffy.  In another bowl mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda and slowly add to the creamed butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla.  Only add enough milk for the dough to come together. The dough will be sticky and not quite like a bread dough when you have added enough milk.  (I had to add about 1/2 C more flour to be able to get it out of the bowl) Cover the dough and place in the fridge for an hour or up to overnight. 

Preheat oven to 350°. Divide the dough into fourths. Working with only one section, leave remaining dough in the fridge, roll out onto the bottom of an ungreased jelly roll pan.  Don't be afraid to use a lot of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and your hands.  It's a really sticky dough!

Roll as thin as possible, almost paper thin, using your hands to flatten if necessary.  Prick with a fork and score into graham cracker shapes. Bake 11-14 minutes.  Watch the crackers at the 11 minute mark, the edges tend to burn quickly.  Once done score the crackers immediately after taking out of the oven and remove to a cooling rack.  If they cool on the cookie sheet they will stick.

Repeat with the remaining quarters of dough.

 

These are a hit at my house, even my husband loves them!  They would be really good with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top before baking them. A great use for graham crackers is to make a super simple crust with them.  I needed to make a few crusts for my preparedness class and this was the best part of this whole process.

 It was kind of therapeuticec to bang all those crackers into crumbs.  They broke easily and then I was ready to make a few graham cracker crusts.

 Graham Cracker Crust

1 1/2 C finely ground graham crackers

1/3 C sugar

6 T butter melted (6 T butter powder + 1 1/2 T water)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.  (if using butter powder don't use all the water at first.  Pour about half and stir the mixture and add more as necessary until the crumbs start sticking together.) Don't be afraid to use your hands to incorporate all the crumbs and butter.  Press into pie pan or 13x9 pan.  Chill for 1 hour, or if the recipe calls for a baked crust bake at 375°for 7 minutes. 

Stay tuned later this week for the recipe for the cheesecake that filled this delicious crust!  I found two great ways to make a no-bake cheesecake that use all shelf stable ingredients!!!

Recipes Using Beans

Since we are storing beans this month I thought it would be helpful if I shared some great recipes to use them.  In the graham cracker recipe you will use white bean flour and this combined with the flour makes a complete protein.  This makes the cracker healthier and almost equal to the protein you would get from meat, nuts, or dairy.  In a situation where meat may be scarce using your beans a protein source will be helpful to keep your family healthy. 

Graham Crackers

1 ¾ C whole wheat flour
¼ C white bean flour
1/3 C powdered milk
¼ t baking soda
1 t (scant) baking powder
½ t cinnamon
pinch of salt
Mix all above ingredients and then add:
1/3 C oil
½ C warm honey
1 t lemon juice (or vinegar)
1 T vanilla
2 T water
Mix all until well moistened. Spray a jellyroll pan with cooking spray and roll out dough thinly onto pan. Prick with fork. (I actually flip my pan upside down and roll the dough on that side. It makes it easier to cut after cooking) Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and cut into graham cracker rectangles with a pizza cutter. It can be tricky finding the right depth to roll the dough. The thinner the dough the crunchier the cracker.


Black Bean Cakes with Mole Salsa (from tasteofhome.com)
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 egg beaten
1 C shredded zucchini
½ C dry breadcrumbs
¼ C shredded Mexican cheese blend
2 T chili powder
¼ t each salt, baking powder, and cumin
2 T olive oil
Mash the beans and add all ingredients and mix well. Shape into 6 patties and brush both sides with oil. Place on baking sheet and broil 3-4” from heat for 3-4 minutes.

Salsa-
2 med. Tomatoes chopped
1 T lime juice
1 small green pepper, chopped
1-2 t minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
3 T grated chocolate
1 t honey
1 green onion thinly sliced
2T minced fresh cilantro
Combine all ingredients and serve over patties.

October Goals
 
Beans-60lbs per person per year.  Beans, peas, lentils, nuts, and sprouting beans.  Store in a cool dry place and dry beans will last 30+ years.  Canned beans have a shelf life of around 2 years.  Rinse your canned beans and soak dry beans to lessen the "effects" of beans.  Soak dry beans for 8-12 hours, rinse and add new water.  Simmer and cook as directed. 
 
Cold weather clothing and bedding-Take inventory of your coats, hats, gloves, boots, sleeping bags, long underwear, ski clothing, bedding and blankets.  Have a year supply of clothing for children.  Keep blankets and gloves in your car for emergencies. 
 
Enjoy the journey!
Enjoy the blessings!
Feel the peace!