It took a long time before I baked a cheesecake. Primary reason is cheesecake isn’t my favorite dessert or at least the ones I had tried didn’t taste or have a good mouth feel. Many were very dense and lack much in the way of flavor. It was strange on one level in that I love pretty much any kind of cheese. I also enjoy bagels and cream cheese.
But I got requests for cheesecake from my friends and family so I started looking for a recipe that I could in good conscience make.
I wanted something that was more than just a plain cheesecake and being a fan of Oreo cookies I found this recipe (I don’t recommend the recipe as posted though)
But in reading the comments I realized that this basic recipe would result in a cheesecake that was one that I wouldn’t like. Going through the comments and searching other recipes I modified the recipes by adding heavy cream, some sour cream and more vanilla. Here is my basic recipe.
In making the cheesecake some lessons I learned about mixing, preparing the crust and how long to bake. If you have read my other posts you know I can’t do things simple.
The first thing I discovered was the importance of bringing ingredients to the right temperature before mixing. We revisit “room temperature”. Many recipes mention “softened” or “room temperature” for the cream cheese without indicating what that really meant. Room Temperature for many recipes is based on butter and is in the area of 65 F (18C). But this turns out to be too cool for cream cheese. Mixing things with the cream cheese at this temperature resulted in a heavy batter that didn’t mix well, prone to lumps and didn’t pour very well.
For better mixing getting the cream cheese to at least 75 F (24C) or warmer will result in a much easier time mixing. In researching recipes some of warm the heavy cream, sometimes to boiling, before pouring it into the bowl with the cream cheese. If you built my room temperature refrigerator you can adjust the temperature up to 75F (24C) temporarily to bring the cheese to a good “room temperature”, just remember to return it to 65 F (18C) for normal baking ingredients.
Adding the cream and sour cream make things mix better and greatly contribute to the flavor and mouth feel. By mouth feel I am looking for something that is a bit creamier and smoother and not as dense as many cheesecakes I have tasted in the past.
A big factor contributing to how dense a cheesecake turns out is the final temperature the cake reaches. Most recipes call for baking the cake until the middle still “jiggles” or is “just set”. Since these terms are subjective, I had to find a means to quantify them so I get the same results each and every time.
I found several discussions on what temperature to bake the cake to. Many referenced between 145-155 degrees (63C – 68C). So, I used my trusty Thermowork Instant thermometer to check the middle of the cake. This means that I have to open the oven and poke the cake with the thermometer. Since most of the time I would be checking before it gets to the target temperature that results in multiple pokes and multiple door openings. Door openings dramatically lower the temperature of the oven each time it is opened which means the cake goes through wild swings. And people will ask about all the small holes in the middle of the cake.
So as with my room temperature refrigerator to get butter to the right temperature I needed to find a solution that kept the oven door closed and still report the temperature. In a separate posting I’ll detail how I did that.
Cracking of the cake is a regular comment when researching cheesecakes. The most common solution is a water bath that the cake pan sits in. The challenge is doing that without allowing water to leak into the cake pan.
There are three techniques that work, from least effective to most effective.
Wrap the pan with aluminum foil, you have to make sure you form it high enough up the outside and that you don’t create a break in the foil that allows water in. Best to use at least two layers, put one layer on at a time. About one in five times doing this I’d get some water in the cake pan.
Next option is to use a plastic roasting pan bag. These bags from Reynolds work well. Just pay attention to the highest temperature permitted, which is 400 F (204C). If you are careful you can reuse the bags.
The best solution for a water bath is to use a Cheesecake Wrap designed for Cheesecake pans. This one fits the cheesecake pans I have from Lloyd Pans. There are others that fit different styles of cheesecake pans.
With any of the above solutions I use a 12″ round cake pan to put the cake pan in and then surround with water. But any large pan will do.
The temperatures to bake cheesecake are all over the place. Some have you start at 450F (232C) or 500F (260C) for 10 – 20 minutes and then lower it to 325 or 300 or 200 or ???. Most seem to be 325-350 (163 – 177C) for the whole time. I didn’t have much luck with the start high and then go low. At the moment I set at 325F (163C) and then stop when the middle of cake gets to 145F (63C), turn off oven, crack door with a spoon and let it cool. Most of the time I don’t get a crack. I have some upcoming experiments to see what some changes I have in mind that might give better results. I’ll update you with the results.
Once cooled put into the refrigerator overnight, take out of pan, cut and serve.
In my next post I’ll go into how I measure the temperature of the cake without opening the oven along with some other tips.
