WWCR - Secret Ingredient

Cheese of the Week: Chocolate Cheese Fudge Rating: 8

Quote of the Week: "What is in this? Aaaah. The first ingredient is sugar. Naruhodo Ne?" (Japanese for something like "It all makes sense now.")

In an effort to keep Jared in the game (the last few weeks have kind-of turned him off of the weekly cheese tasting), I selected a cheese full of Jared's "secret ingredient". Sugar. We were fascinated with the idea of chocolate cheese when my cousin Melanie told us about it before we came and this week we finally got to try it. It was delicious. We had to try it with a piece of real fudge, just to see how it compared. Such a sacrifice. I know. The fudge is on the left and the chocolate cheese is on the right. The cheese had more of a sour taste, while the fudge was more sweet, but both were delicious. Needless to say, this was by far the kids' favorite. "Mo chocate. Mo chocate."

Next week we are trying Havarti cheese (Styder, sadly, we couldn't find Party Havarti). Anyone have a favorite way to eat this cheese? Maybe we will just skip the crackers and go straight to the yumminess!

I haven't done a Wisconsin cheese recipe for several weeks, but this week, with a fridge full of freshly picked strawberries, we decided to try the cheesecake recipe from our Wisconsin cookbook. Yum! How could it not be? My favorite dessert topped with my two favorite fruits. Life is good.

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
Spread a generous amount of softened butter on the bottom and sides of a 9 or 10 inch springform pan (we used a 9x13 pan due to our large selection of cooking utinsels in our summer apartment). Combine crust ingredients and press into the bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool

Filling:
4 eggs, seperated
3 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Zest and juice of one lemon
Beat egg yolks until light. Add the cream cheese; beat until creamy. Mix in sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and zest. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold into cheese mixture. Pour into shell. Bake 50-60 minutes at 350 degrees, or until edges puff up slightly and are lightlybrowned and center is firm.

Topping:
2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Spread evenly on top of cheesecake. Return to oven and bake an additional 10 minutes. Cool and refrigerate. Makes 12 servings.