This Thanksgiving I wanted to add something truly Filipino to our table – to be precise our dessert table !
I made ube cheesecake a couple of years back and blogged about it here. The first time I made three miniature ones but on this occasion I made a slightly bigger one using a 7 inch spring form pan.
The key to making really good ube cheesecake is making your own ube jam or halaya. I usually make it one day ahead since it takes more time and effort than making the actual cheesecake itself. Make sure that you get the real Ube and not purple sweet potato or even the okinawan purple sweet potato. A lot of people think they are one and the same. Here is a short and simple primer on how to distinguish between the three. Below is a photo of ube from the market that my mom sent me while she was doing Christmas food shopping back home. Ube has a dark, course and almost hairy outer skin, it’s not pale like the okinawan purple sweet potato or red or purple toned like purple sweet potato.
The one thing I did differently was placing the springform pan inside a much larger cake pan before placing in a water bath. I didn’t want to take the risk of water seeping through the foil into my cake. Sometimes even with three layers of foil, one can still get leaks or holes that are undetectable.
After baking and letting it cool and set in the fridge. I carefully released it from the pan and topped it with macapuno (coconut strings). I again let this sit for at least an hour in the fridge before slicing and serving. This year’s Thanksgiving will always be remembered because of this ube cheesecake.
