Tag: temperature

Finally, the perfect way to bake a cheesecake (so far)

My basic cheesecake recipe gets praise that I have to accept as I am not a big fan of cheesecake so not the best person to rate cheesecakes.  What I have found is many people like cheesecake that isn’t as dense as many traditional “New York Style” cheesecakes.  My basic recipe yields a cake that is a bit creamier due to the addition of heavy cream and baking it to a lower final temperature (145-150 F/ 63 – 66 C).  See my article on use of a temperature probe to constantly monitor baking temperature.

Once I got the recipe sorted out, I would sometimes get cakes that ended up with a crack.  A crack doesn’t affect the taste but isn’t visually appealing.  So, my journey to figuring out how best to bake a cheesecake that consistently came out without a crack began.

Most of the suggested approaches utilize a water bath to surround the cake while it is baking.  My first attempts at this used aluminum foil to create a barrier between the water the cake pan.  Needless to say, not every time did I get the foil just right to keep out water.  The crust would get a little soggy. 

To avoid this problem, I purchased a silicone wrap that works perfectly to keep out water.

While I got less cracks, even when I got the foil right or used the wrap, I would still get a crack occasionally.

Next were directions to control the cooling process.  Some recommended turning off oven and cracking the door open with a wooden spoon and allow the cake to cool slowly.  Still got a crack occasionally. 

One reason I think is the cake remained in the water bath so was still “baking” since the water was hotter than the cake. Taking pan out of water bath helped a little bit but didn’t markedly change the crack occurrence.

Another suggestion was to free up the cake from the sides of the pan so that as it cooled the cake was free to contract.  Run a paring knife around the edge to free it from the sides. Still got a crack occasionally.

The light at the end of the tunnel was when I considered what the water bath was doing.  Water when it boils holds its temperature at 212 F (100 C) until all the water has turned to steam.  The water bath is intended to slow the rate and final temperature of the cake while it is baking. 

Most of the recipes that included using a water bath baked the cake at 325 (163 C) or 350 F (177 C).  If the water bath is doing its primary job of controlling the rate of the cake baking and can’t go above boiling point why not just lower the temperature of the oven.  My thought was why not go to about the temperature of boiling water and do away with the water bath?

With that in mind I did some researching to see if others had considered this.  I found a few recipes that lowered the temperature to 300 F (149 C) and just a few that said take it all the way down to 200 F (93 C).  Some recommend a period of time at a very high temperature (450 F / 232C)) and then lower to 200 F (93 C).; tried that and got the biggest crack I have ever gotten.

My process now uses 200 F (93 C) as the baking temperature for cheesecake and no water bath.  I monitor the cake temperature using a temperature probe (see article).  With the temperature probe no need to open oven, set a timer or guess when the cake is done.

So far baking at 200 F (93 C) for the entire time yields a creamy cake with no cracks.  For my convection oven I set it on convection and 225 F ( 107 C) which the oven adjusts to 200 F (93 C).  When the cake reaches 145 F (63 C) I turn off oven and take the cake out.  Allow it to cool to room temperature, put in refrigerator over night and then take it out of the pan next day. If you like your cake a bit firmer you can raise the final temperature a few degrees.

One thing I have noticed is if the cake has a topping such as cookie pieces you may still get small cracks adjacent to the cookie piece.  One thought is to leave them off until the cake cools and then put them on top.

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Is It Really Done?

Figuring out if a cake is really baked all the way is a challenge.  Recipes give an oven temperature and a range of time.  Recipes might indicate using a toothpick to test if the cake is done. Depending on the cake the place to test might be the center or for brownies halfway between center and sides.  Others recommend touching the middle of the cake to see if it bounces back.  Cheesecakes talk about the jiggle test, if the center jiggles a bit its done.

For the toothpick test one challenge is how many crumbs are ok?  What constituents a proper jiggle?

Recently I have been baking French Apple Cake several times, a recipe I got from Cook’s Illustrated.  It recommended the toothpick test.  Using that test I got no crumbs and took the cake out.  Turned out it was a fair bit short of being baked all the way.  The cake has a ton of apples and depending on where the toothpick goes in it will come out without crumbs long before it is done.

So of course, I had to find a way to objectively determine when a cake is done.  Several websites recommend using an instant read thermometer to test when the cake is done.  This turned out to be exactly what was needed for my French Apple Cake.  Baking it until the center reached 205 F is the sweet spot where the cake is baked but isn’t starting to dry out.

The pain is you have to open the oven to test the cake and this usually involves 2-4 tries before the cake is done.  Each time you have to be careful not to burn your hand and each time you open the oven door the temperature drops significantly.  Also, you’ll end up with either one hole that is a bit large if you test in the same spot or several holes if you move around a bit where you have tested the cake. To avoid opening the oven door I needed a mean of measuring the temperature with the door closed.  I searched on line to see if there were any existing temperature probe clips that would support the probe vertically in the center. I found these clips

The next challenge was how to support the clip.   I needed some sort of jig or structure to support the clip.  So off to Home Depot. I figured a piece of angle “iron” would do the trick. “Iron” of course would be a bad choice as it rusts so Angle Aluminum is what I wanted. If the link isn’t working this is the Home Depot part number:887480014075

The angle was perfect and would easily support the clip but it wasn’t thick enough.  The clip would slide and tip left and right very easily.  The metal needed to be thicker, Home depot didn’t have anything that was thick enough in aluminum. I didn’t want to use steel as it might rust.

So, looking at the flat stock I found this material.  By doubling it up with the angle the clip was firmly in place. Home Depot part number: 887480019377

I cut both pieces to be long enough to cover my cake pans with some to spare. That was about 14 inches.  I drilled several holes in the angle to help circulate air. I’ll likely go back and drill some more holes.  File any sharp edges.

This is my Cookies and Cream Cheesecake. I’ll post the recipe soon.

Using my ChefAlarm and probe I position the probe so that it is in the center of my cake.  The tip is inserted just so that the narrow pointy part is in the batter.  For thin cakes be very careful that you don’t go too far and get near or touch the bottom of the pan.

When choosing which holes in the clip to use, pick the holes nearest to the angle.  For me the middle one works.  If you use the farthest hole away from the angle you risk the assembly tipping.

Set the ChefAlarm high temperature for your target temperature and relax.  No need to check cake until the alarm goes off.  With that said you will want to experiment to see what is the sweet spot temperature wise for each type of cake you bake.  The temperature will vary from cake to cake and from how you like the results versus others.

For my French Apple Cake, it is 205 F.  For my cheesecake it is 145 F to get a creamier lighter result.  If you like cheesecake that is a bit firmer go 150-155F. I am continuing to work on my support jig as for some cakes the aluminum angle blocks some of the oven heat causing some “banding” on lighter cakes such as the French Apple Cake.  It doesn’t affect the taste and doneness, just is an appearance issue.  First, I am going to try more and larger holes in the aluminum.  I have some other ideas that as I try them, I will share.