Cayo Cheesecake

Cayo Cheesecake

I've slipped into my old habits of not posting anything again… but this time I have an actual non-time-warp excuse! I've been here, Cayo Santiago:

Yes. My life is hard.

There are many many things I like about being here -- the weather, the ocean, the palm trees… oh yeah, and the DATA (did I mention that there are 1,000 monkeys living on that island? One. Thousand. What do I do with 1000 monkeys? I put on a show about magic fruit… no really, that's seriously what I do all day. Best. Job. Ever.)

If I had my dog, my kitchenaid mixer, and reliable internet I could stay here forever.

Speaking of a lack of a mixer, when thanksgiving came around last week, my colleagues and I decided that we would have a truly fabulous tropical thanksgiving feast -- pizza by the beach and cheesecake by the pool for lunch, followed by a traditional thanksgiving meal that night (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc). And more cheesecake. The only problem? We didn't have any kitchen equipment.

Ok. I exaggerate. We had a whisk. A pot. A potato masher. And a measuring cup. Yep. That's all. I didn't know exactly how we would make the cheesecake happen, but I had faith that we could figure it out.

Our original plan involved pumpkin cheesecake, and we bought ingredients for that, except, alas, there was no pumpkin to be had in all of Humacao, Punta Santiago, or Naguabo. So we had to improvise! We decided to make one a caramel cheesecake (regular cheesecake with a layer of caramel on the bottom) and one a peanut butter cheesecake with oreo crust and crushed up reeses cups inside.

The caramel cheesecake we ate at the pool -- it was delicious! A big hit!

Alas, tragedy occurred later that day, as, overcome by too much fun (that's what we're calling dehydration from being in the sun all day and drinking almost nothing but pina coladas), had to skip out on the thanksgiving feast to try to keep death at bay. However, while I was trying not to die, I got text messages from my colleagues -- peanut butter cheesecake was "the best thing I've ever eaten. so much love." and "this peanut butter cheesecake is crack. I have never eaten anything so delicious ever. It is insanely delicious!!!!!!!"

So. Um. Yeah, I guess it was a success. Many thanks to Alia and Lindsey for struggling through this with me! Alia proved to be an energetic crust crusher, and Lindsey amazed us all with her abilities to whip cream with only a whisk. Amazing.

If you find yourself in the tropics, without any pumpkin, without a mixer, without any kitchen equipment at all except a whisk and potato masher, now you know what to make for dessert--peanut butter or caramel cheesecake! (Forgive my inexact and creative measurements and lack of pictures!)

Peanut-Butter Cheesecake

Crust:
8-12 oreos (whatever you've got, and if that's not enough to make sufficient crust you can add more oreos or supplement with graham crackers if you've eaten all your oreos).
½ stick butter

Cheesecake:
1 ½ lbs cream cheese
½ lb peanut butter (just fill up one of your cheesecake tubs with peanut butter and use that)
1 ¼ c granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 t vanilla
¼ c heavy cream
¼ c whipped cream (I swear it can be done with a whisk! just whisk the hell out of it!)
reeses cups (we used about 12 - 15 small ones, again, a matter of preference)

First, set the cream cheese out on the counter to soften. This works really well if you're somewhere where it's 85 degrees -- they soften up really well really quickly! If you're somewhere less tropical, you may need to leave them out for a couple hours to reach the desired level of creaminess.

Then make your crust -- crush the oreos with your potato masher and incorporate the butter. Add more oreos or butter as needed until you have a crust you're happy with. There's no right answer here, totally a matter of preference.

Make your cheesecake -- use your whisk or potato masher, whatever you've got, to mix together the cream cheese and peanut butter. Add the sugar and mix until you can no longer feel the granules of the sugar if you smoosh some batter between your fingers. Add in 1 egg at a time until well mixed.

Stir in the vanilla, heavy cream, and whipped cream.

Then smash up some reeses cups and fold them in. Try not to eat them all. You know you want to.

Bake at 325 for about an hour. You know it's done when you poke the side of the pan in the sides are firm but the middle jiggles like jello.

When that happens, turn off the heat and let it cool for about an hour. I recommend taking this time to go boogie boarding.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool. Chill for 3 - 4 hours and enjoy!

Caramel Cheesecake:

Caramel Sauce:
½ stick of butter
1 c packed brown sugar
½ c heavy cream

Crust:
6 or 7 graham crackers
A sprinkling of sugar (about 1 T or so)
4 or 5 T of butter

Cheesecake:
1 ½ lbs cream cheese cut into 1 inch chunks
1 c granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 ½ t vanilla
¼ c heavy cream
¼ c whipped cream (whipped with a whisk! it can be done!)


First, set the cream cheese out on the counter to soften. This works really well if you're somewhere where it's 85 degrees -- they soften up really well really quickly! If you're somewhere less tropical, you may need to leave them out for a couple hours to reach the desired level of creaminess.

Then make the caramel sauce -- melt the butter in whatever saucepan you happen to have around, then stir in the brown sugar and cream and bring to a boil. Reduce to low and boil for 5 minutes.

While you let this cool, make your crust. Use your potato masher to mash up your graham crackers. Add in some sugar. Melt the butter and add to the crumb / sugar combo. Stir until it begins to cling together. Push into the bottom of your pan (we bought the walmart special -- an aluminum casserole pan).

Now pour your caramel sauce on top of the crust and set aside to cool a little.

Make your cheesecake -- use your whisk or potato masher, whatever you've got, to mix together the cream cheese and sugar. Once you can no longer feel the granules of the sugar add in 1 egg at a time until well mixed.

Stir in the vanilla, heavy cream, and whipped cream.

Bake at 325 for about an hour. You know it's done when you poke the side of the pan in the sides are firm but the middle jiggles like jello.

When that happens, turn off the heat and let it cool for about an hour. I recommend taking this time to go boogie boarding.

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool. We actually ate it when it was still warm and it was delicious!