They say that the hallmark of a really good patisserie is the cheesecakes they make. Chocolate is easy-peasy, but a really good cheesecake is really rare. So imagine my delight, when a select few journos and bloggers got to visit the central kitchen of Love and Cheesecake, which is tucked away in a quiet corner of a shady-looking industrial estate in Powai. ‘This has never been done before’ was a statement that was repeatedly emphasised through the afternoon. But it hardly matters, because it turned out to be a brilliant Sunday afternoon.
Sixteen excited people, that’s us, gathered that afternoon at this cute place, which is furnished from wall to wall with gleaming rows of ovens, blast chillers, dryers, KitchenAid equipments and everything else needed to run a pattisserie. Chef Amit Kumar, a pattisserie chef par excellence presided over the event to guide us through our baking session.
I was pretty kicked at the idea of having to bake my first-ever cheesecake. I had baked the occasional cakes, brownies and pies in the past, but always feared baking a cheesecake. The vision of dry, cracked cheesecakes keep haunting me.
So it was with bated breath that I began mixing and pounding the cream cheese for the very first session on the menu – a baked Philadelphia cheesecake. Inwardly, I cursed and huffed as we pounded the tight unyielding cream cheese that simply bounced through the bowl at the beginning like badly kneaded dough. But as the chef extended a helping hand, the cheese magically unravelled and became a smooth, creamy and submissive bit of lactose, waiting for the eggs, sugar and cream to be mixed in it.
It was fun to do it in teams, to see who got the better batter, to pound the crumbled Oreo biscuits into good behaviour and as a solid base for the cheesecake.
But mixing for the cheesecake was really a cakewalk compared to the Apple Crumble Cake. The whisks and spatulas were taken away, much to our dismay, and there was just cold blocks of butter and the hard unyielding surface of a granite table counter. And then came the directive – we had to pound the blocks of butter on the granite counter first into a mashed pulp and then whip it using nothing but our hands into a creamy mixture that turns from pale yellow into white. And when it reached that stage after 10 excruciating minutes of using our fists and palms, castor sugar was added to that mixture and it started all over with a scoop-and-pound rhythm sequence. “This is just the basics of baking,” pronounced Chef Amit, with a grin, as we laboured over the counter. “In cooking school, we were made to do this several times a day.”
Much to everybody’s chagrin, chef Amit Kumar pronounced that everybody’s butter-sugar mixture needed more work and off it went into the KitchenAid mixer. Next up, the caramelising of the apples, for which we gathered around to watch, was some sweet holy relief. It was a divine sight to watch the golden syrup daintily coat the cooked apples. Off they went onto a tray and to be popped into the oven.
The chocolate chip cookies were the last on the list and by this time, honestly all of us were too pooped to do anymore butter-sugar pounding, which Chef Amit promised was on the list for this one too. We graciously threw in the towel and watched the making of the cookie dough in an electric mixer, easy as you please, while shamelessly helping ourselves to unlimited amount of Belgian choco-chips, which were actually meant to be used in the cookie dough. “This batch of cookies is going to have less choco-chips in it if you guys eat too many of those,” he quipped.
All we had on our minds was the dessert buffet, which they had promised to serve us post baking. And boy was it a spread – about five types of mini-cheesecakes – macademia, pecan, choco-chips and this lovely goat cheese and rosemary cheesecake that was simply marvellous; strawberry tarts, strawberry-filled dark chocolates, tiramisu, a layered fresh fruit pudding, poached pears frangipan, chewy meringues, crème brulee and the centrepiece – a gorgeous Christmas cake complete with a snowman. A few savoury quiches were also on the buffet, to provide relief from the sugar.
We went home dizzy with a sugar high and a small box of goodies, but I came away with one important observation. Baking done by following recipes online from blogs and cookery sites are good enough, but if you want to make the transition from good to excellent, you need training in techniques. We got a small glimpse of that today. Basically more butter pounding. Achy hands, but truly worth it. I just wish we could have seen the results of our baking efforts, but the cheesecake takes a whopping two hours in the oven and we just didn’t have that much time. I am inspired to try it at home though.
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