(upbeat music)
- Hey! It's Alix,
and today I'm gonna show you how to make
my chocolate fudge brownie cheesecake.
(upbeat music)
So this one's actually the first cheesecake
I every did for Tasty.
So I guess you could say it was the cheesecake
that started it all.
(laughs)
I really love cheesecake.
So when I was developing this recipe,
what I was really looking for
was some really beautiful layers.
And the flavor is pretty easy.
I mean,
what's better than chocolate fudge brownie
and cheesecake?
So the bottom of this three-layer cheesecake
is the brownie,
arguably the best layer.
I chose to make the brownie layer
out of box brownie mix,
but feel free to make your own brownie recipe
if you choose to.
It just makes it a little easier.
(upbeat music)
So the second layer is the cheesecake,
of course.
I chose to do a classic baked cheesecake recipe.
So we're gonna have to double-bake this cheesecake.
Because you have to bake this cheesecake twice,
a lot of people were worried
that the brownie layer would actually burn
or get too hard by the time
the whole cheesecake is done baking.
But don't worry.
The cheesecake layer creates a sort of a barrier
and keeps your brownie really fudgy and moist.
And if you really wanted to,
you could swap out the cheesecake layer
for a no-bake cheesecake
and just pop it in the fridge
after your brownie is done baking.
But I will always prefer a baked cheesecake
to a no-bake cheesecake.
So a springform pan is really useful
because the sides release.
So it's great for like a softer cake
like a cheesecake,
when you don't wanna mess up the sides
and stuff.
So you just release--
Am I describing this well?
You just, okay.
You just open the clip on the side
and lift it up,
and you're ready to go.
In case your cheesecake cracks
a little bit on the top,
don't worry.
We're gonna cover it in our third layer,
which is the beautiful chocolate ganache.
Also very delicious.
So chocolate ganache sounds scary to make,
but it's super super easy,
and it's delicious and very beautiful.
All you have to do
is melt down your chocolate
with hot heavy cream,
and mix it until it creates
a beautiful silky mixture.
Once all the chocolate is melted,
you're ready to go!
This moment where I drizzled
the chocolate ganache over the cheesecake
was one of my proudest Tasty moments.
So the easiest way to do this glaze
is to move the cake onto a rack
on a baking sheet.
So when you pour over the chocolate ganache,
it runs off into the pan
instead of all over your table.
Out of all of the videos I've made,
I still go back to this shot
because it's so beautiful.
Just the way the chocolate drips over the cheesecake.
(sultry saxophone riff)
And if you want to,
since nothing should go to waste,
you can take the rack off
and pour back any of the residual chocolate ganache
into a bowl,
pop it in the fridge,
eat it!
Later.
The chocolate ganache creates
a beautiful silky shiny layer
on the outside
that will be sure to impress anybody
you're trying to impress.
(laughs)
(atmospheric music)
- Hi! I'm Rie,
and this is my recipe for rose crepe cake.
(atmospheric music)
So a few years ago,
there was a trend
where you roll up apple slices
onto a pie sheet,
and made a little tart.
So I was wondering if there was anything
I could make that would look pretty like that.
And I came up with this idea
using crepes instead of pie sheet.
I wasn't sure if it's gonna work first,
but I tried it anyways.
And when I think of crepes,
my favorite filling is strawberry
and whipped cream.
So instead of apples,
I decided to use strawberries.
The important thing about making crepes
is rest the dough for at least 30 minutes.
Because we are mixing with milk and flour,
which creates gluten.
And you don't want to make chewy
and rubbery crepes.
If you want,
you can also rest it overnight
and make it the next day.
I chose cream cheese filling
because it's a little thicker,
so easy to work with.
You are ending up making a bunch of crepes
for this recipe,
and that will take time.
But I also think it's fun as well.
So I tested this
and made a pretty small version
that was really really cute.
But when I make dessert I usually want to share,
so I don't want to make it just for myself.
When you are making it at home
it's a little bit messy,
because you're spreading cream onto the crepe
and rolling it up,
but it's worth the effort
and worth the mess,
because it's really pretty,
and I'm sure whoever you're going to give it to
will be super impressed.
Make sure to cut the strawberries very thin.
It's similar to a crepe cake
because it's layered,
but just a different presentation,
because the crepes are vertical
instead of horizontal.
So instead of stopping,
making small little tart,
I was just kept rolling,
and rolling and rolling.
And I ended up making a large crepe cake.
I think rolling it up is the most fun
and difficult part,
because it's kind of like building a snowman.
It's the same cake all the way through.
It just gets bigger.
Also after you make this rolled crepe
big enough,
then you can start layering it on the side
instead of rolling it.
What you end up with
is a super pretty roll of crepes
all standing up,
with strawberries kind of looking like
a flower,
which is why I called this a rose crepe cake.
This is a perfect dessert to bring
an afternoon tea party,
or just to make with your friends sometime.
I was filming this recipe late at night
because I wasn't sure if it's gonna work,
so I was kind of testing and shooting
at the same time.
And Alix and Scott was also shooting
late at night,
so we shared together
and both of them was super impressed.
So this recipe is something I'm really proud of,
because I've never seen this type of cake before.
So I would like you to make it.
And I also want you to be proud of it.
(jazzy music)
- Hey! I'm Alvin.
I'm a Tasty producer,
and today I'll be showing you
how I came up with my recipe
for the five-layer brownie cookie cheesecake.
Five-layer brownie cheesecake
was probably one of my greatest
architectural feats,
if I would say so myself.
I was actually studying engineering in college.
Not really a good student to be honest,
but one thing that I definitely did pick up
was the ability of how to approach a problem.
How to look at it from certain angles,
especially when things don't exist.
A lot of times we're asked
to do hypothetical questions,
like, "If you wanted to accomplish this,
"how would you go about achieving it?".
And I learned that the easiest way
is to break down the problem
into its parts,
and kind of almost work backwards.
Cookie dough,
Oreos,
and brownies
are a very common combination,
and I wanted to take that further.
I really wanted to turn the flavor profile
of a triple-stacked brownie
into something else.
I wanted to turn it into more of like
this spectacle dessert that you could
really wow everyone at a party with.
And I just absolutely love layers,
and clean layers,
so that was something that I set out to do,
was to turn a triple-decker brownie
into a cheesecake.
The challenge with this recipe
is that all of these elements
all bake at different times,
different temperatures,
and have different thicknesses.
I kinda wanted to go after the vibe
of when you go to Cheesecake Factory
and they set down a slice of
this beautifully-cut and assembled cheesecake.
I really didn't know how this was gonna go
until I made it.
And I had to do a lot of pre-planning and thinking,
and being able to try to predict how the food
will behave in a way that I had never
done before.
I was hoping that the brownie batter
would not get dry.
I guessed that the cream cheese in the mixture
would give the brownie moisture.
It was really gratifying to pull something
like this off,
especially when you have never
really done this before.
I guess I felt really happy and relieved
that it actually worked.
After the brownie and cheesecake were set,
that's when I put the Oreos
and the cookie dough on top.
(jazzy music)
I don't try to do recipes a lot of times
because I think I really enjoy the challenge
of getting it right on the first
or the second try.
Kind of nerve-wracking to cut it open,
because you really don't know
how it's gonna turn out
until you actually slice it open
and see the layers.
And to my luck,
it really worked out well.
I was able to see all four elements
in their entirety.
I love to spend time just thinking about
the food,
and really just trying to guess
and predict how food is going to behave.
And sometimes I really just
sit down and write things down
and try to map out or draw out
how certain foods will look
before and after.
And so for this one,
I thought about it a lot
and made some decisions,
and that's the sort of approach
that I like to take,
because there's something really cool
about trying something that's completely new,
and somehow landing it on the first try.
What combination of desserts do
you want me to attempt next?
(jazzy music)
(claps)
I think that's it.
Hopefully it's good, yo.
(jazzy music)