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Posted: 10/19/2014 10:38:27 AM EDT
I've always had a problem with that (cheesecake cracking - I changed the title since then.) I haven't made one in a while and I just came into a pile of cream cheese. I want it to look cool.
base cheesecake recipe 32 oz cream cheese 4 large eggs 1 1/3 c sugar 1/4 c heavy cream 1/4 c sour cream For a plain cheesecake, add 2 tsp vanilla and 1 tblespn lemon peel. Grate it yourself and it will be much better. Bake at 325 for 60 minutes. I use a water bath; plenty of other people say you don't have to. I got a cheap, foil turkey pan and bent it to fit a 9" springform pan. You can get 16" foil at the supermarket to wrap the pan so it doesn't leak. I use 2 c water in the pan. I tried more than that, but it created too much steam and it made the cake soggy. |
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Cooking it with a tray of water in the oven helps, keeps it moist. Also letting gradually cool down. Just turn the oven off a little sooner than the recipe calls for and let it sit in the oven for about 2-3 hours. This is always how I made them when in the restaurant business and it worked about 95% of the time. The other option is if it does actually crack a little bit just cover it ganache, covers the crack and you get extra presentation points!
Thanks, Mike DS Arms |
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Watch your bake time as well, I usually set my timer ten minutes less than what the recipe calls for. Gently tap the center of the cake it should have a jiggle like jello. Also, don't whip your cream cheese or other ingredients too long, air is your enemy when it comes to cheesecakes. The water bath is the only way I've made cheesecakes, if you take the cakes out of the oven, leave them to cool in the water.
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Thanks. The science lab opens sometime this week. Pics of Frankenstein's Cheesecake will be posted.
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The cracks let the strawberry juice run into the cheesecake. Cracks arent a problem.
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Americas Test Kitchen went into the science of that before and had a good episode on it. It's a couple seasons back. I remember the water pan and the cool down being part of it......or at least something they tried.
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Water bath make sure your spring pan is wrapped in either foil or I have used those crock pot liners this keeps the cheese cake from getting water in it.
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I don't bake my cheese cake in a water bath but I keep a cast 12" Iron skillet filled with water under the springform, shut off the oven when done. Leave door closed and wait until morning to open. Of course I bake mine at night but you get the idea.
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Quoted: I've always had a problem with that. I haven't made one in a while and I just came into a pile of cream cheese. I want it to look cool. View Quote |
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If using a spring-form pan, loosen the spring-steel part and pull it away from the cheesecake while it is cooling.
If it cracks anyway, you can usually get it to seal back up if the cheesecake is still warm. Carefully remove the spring-form and replace it with a ribbon of cloth. Pull the ribbon gently and hold it tight with a spring clip to close up the crack.
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Quoted: I've always had a problem with that. I haven't made one in a while and I just came into a pile of cream cheese. I want it to look cool. View Quote I always add a teaspoon of dissolved lemon jello. |
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The question is in the edited title - I'm thinking of adding Bailey's Irish Cream to one, so I wonder if anyone's tried it.
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Try adding a tablespoon of cornstarch while you are whipping your filling. It will help to prevent cracks.
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Quoted: The question is in the edited title - I'm thinking of adding Bailey's Irish Cream to one, so I wonder if anyone's tried it. View Quote Absolutely. Baileys, Kahlua, Frangelico, Chambord, just about anything is good. Incidentally, crushed up Oreos, vanilla wafers, ginger snap or lemon drop cookies make a great crust. Graham cracker crust for cheesecake has been done to death. Just butter the sides and bottom of your spring-form and stick the cookie crumbles to the butter. |
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Quoted: This one is half chocolate, half Bailey's, with a Nilla Wafer crust and a white chocolate Toblerone ground and julienne cut for the topping. It also has a little almond extract. Yes, it's very tasty. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/robertlhess/Snapbucket/C6A7B300-orig.jpg View Quote You need to do a death by chocolate one with baileys. OH MY GOSH. Also... 1 sheet of gelatin dissolved in vanilla infused simple syrup will make it very creamy and keep everything from cracking through this one looks awesome. |
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Quoted: I bought a stainless steel salt shaker to use to form the crust. It worked much better than my other attempts. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/robertlhess/Snapbucket/D7A4D0A2-orig.jpg View Quote |
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I bought a stainless steel salt shaker to use to form the crust. It worked much better than my other attempts. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/robertlhess/Snapbucket/D7A4D0A2-orig.jpg Thank you. The layers were supposed to be even, but it looks cool the way it is. I could refrigerate the layer on the bottom to keep the boundary straight, but I kinda like the way this one turned out. I haven't had a problem with cracking since I used the water bath. I use two cups of water. I tried four cups, but the steam settled in the foil around the pan and the crust was soggy. The blueberry one didn't crack. I cut it with a plastic spatula and it made a mess. What would you put in a death by chocolate one? |
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Quoted: Thank you. The layers were supposed to be even, but it looks cool the way it is. I could refrigerate the layer on the bottom to keep the boundary straight, but I kinda like the way this one turned out. I haven't had a problem with cracking since I used the water bath. I use two cups of water. I tried four cups, but the steam settled in the foil around the pan and the crust was soggy. The blueberry one didn't crack. I cut it with a plastic spatula and it made a mess. What would you put in a death by chocolate one? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I bought a stainless steel salt shaker to use to form the crust. It worked much better than my other attempts. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/robertlhess/Snapbucket/D7A4D0A2-orig.jpg Thank you. The layers were supposed to be even, but it looks cool the way it is. I could refrigerate the layer on the bottom to keep the boundary straight, but I kinda like the way this one turned out. I haven't had a problem with cracking since I used the water bath. I use two cups of water. I tried four cups, but the steam settled in the foil around the pan and the crust was soggy. The blueberry one didn't crack. I cut it with a plastic spatula and it made a mess. What would you put in a death by chocolate one? Fold a high quality tempered bittersweet into the filling. Fold in chopped twix bars Then I top it with vanilla infused genache. Sprinkle the top after putting the genache on it with mini chocolate chips. It's AMAZING. |
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Crust is Oreo Cookies butter sugar and almond with a touch of vanilla. Fold a high quality tempered bittersweet into the filling. Fold in chopped twix bars Then I top it with vanilla infused genache. Sprinkle the top after putting the genache on it with mini chocolate chips. It's AMAZING. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I bought a stainless steel salt shaker to use to form the crust. It worked much better than my other attempts. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/robertlhess/Snapbucket/D7A4D0A2-orig.jpg Thank you. The layers were supposed to be even, but it looks cool the way it is. I could refrigerate the layer on the bottom to keep the boundary straight, but I kinda like the way this one turned out. I haven't had a problem with cracking since I used the water bath. I use two cups of water. I tried four cups, but the steam settled in the foil around the pan and the crust was soggy. The blueberry one didn't crack. I cut it with a plastic spatula and it made a mess. What would you put in a death by chocolate one? Fold a high quality tempered bittersweet into the filling. Fold in chopped twix bars Then I top it with vanilla infused genache. Sprinkle the top after putting the genache on it with mini chocolate chips. It's AMAZING. That sounds positively evil. I used Scharffen Berger cocoa powder because the ingredients were: cocoa. It's pretty good stuff for in a supermarket. |
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This isn't quite death by chocolate, since it has a regular cheesecake layer, but it is a pretty decadent cheesecake.
Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake. |
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I do a water bath, start at 425 with boiling water in the pan. Reduce to 360 as soon as it is in the oven. Bake for up to a hour and fifteen minutes or until center is 165 degrees. I rarely have one crack. I also put my cheese in a bag and sit it in a pan with hot water until it is really soft. Minimal mixing is also a key and eggs and heavy cream in last. Going to make a key lime cheesecake this week.
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You have done a great job.
Just exactly how much cream cheese did you have? I think a pile was accurate! |
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Around here you can often find buy one, get one free sales on the various brands. When the cost is around a buck a block, it's not too expensive to make the cakes.
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Quoted:
The next one will be Bailey's, almond extract, and ground/julienne cut white chocolate on top. It'll be a few weeks before the cherry cheesecake with blackberry goo. The cherry extract takes two or three weeks to extract. http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g85/robertlhess/Snapbucket/F19C9DAE-orig.jpg View Quote It'll be easy, they said. Anyone can do it, they said. It's simple, they said. Yeah, yeah. I left this stuff for three weeks and I got a Mason Jar full of red stuff that smelled like Svedka and crappy cherries. I don't know what went wrong. Fortunately, I found a store that sells cherry extract, so fuck science. I'm going to sacrifice some Jack Daniels to the junk food gods and make the cherry cheesecake with blackberry topping. I didn't like the consistency of the last batch. The remnants of some of the berries turned crunchy. These will all be mushed into something like a very thick jam. |
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Cornstarch. Turn the oven off, open the oven door and put a towel in the door. Let cheesecake cool slowly.
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modified base recipe
32 oz cream cheese 4 large eggs 1 c sugar 1/3 c powdered sugar measure 1/4 c sour cream, then fill cup to 2/3 with heavy cream 2 tsp vanilla 1 heaping tsp lemon zest - about two lemons worth of peel Bake 1 hour at 325. I use a water bath, though at that temperature, it probably isn't required. The consistency was incredible. Perfect. Awesome. You might want to back off a little on the lemon peel if you want a more mellow flavor, but this thing was the shiznit. |
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I need to wipe the drool off the key board now. Your stuff looks great and I have gained about 4 lbs just reading/looking at this thread.
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My wife makes a good cheesecake. I will have to pass on these recipes.
Who is eating all of these? |
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Quoted: modified base recipe 32 oz cream cheese 4 large eggs 1 c sugar 1/3 c powdered sugar measure 1/4 c sour cream, then fill cup to 2/3 with heavy cream 2 tsp vanilla 1 heaping tsp lemon zest - about two lemons worth of peel Bake 1 hour at 325. I use a water bath, though at that temperature, it probably isn't required. The consistency was incredible. Perfect. Awesome. You might want to back off a little on the lemon peel if you want a more mellow flavor, but this thing was the shiznit. View Quote Dude...are you selling these cakes? You realize people get $30-80 for great cheesecakes? Your expertise could make you a small fortune selling custom ordered cheesecakes. |
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Dude...are you selling these cakes? You realize people get $30-80 for great cheesecakes? Your expertise could make you a small fortune selling custom ordered cheesecakes. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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modified base recipe 32 oz cream cheese 4 large eggs 1 c sugar 1/3 c powdered sugar measure 1/4 c sour cream, then fill cup to 2/3 with heavy cream 2 tsp vanilla 1 heaping tsp lemon zest - about two lemons worth of peel Bake 1 hour at 325. I use a water bath, though at that temperature, it probably isn't required. The consistency was incredible. Perfect. Awesome. You might want to back off a little on the lemon peel if you want a more mellow flavor, but this thing was the shiznit. Your expertise could make you a small fortune selling custom ordered cheesecakes. I've thought about it and a lot of the people who've eaten them told me I should. But, the stupid ^#%^$@ Texas home kitchen law specifically excludes cheesecake. I think one of the primary motives for the law was that it was technically illegal for you to bake a chocolate cake and sell it at your kid's school fundraiser. It seems like they wrote it primarily for that goal and then added language so you can bake cakes or bread and sell them from your home. Anything with cream cheese is not allowed. They say it needs refrigeration. I'm not sure if the Texas legislature understands that these newfangled electric iceboxes thingies are everywhere and if you're too stupid to put your cheesecake in the refrigerator, you're also too stupid to put your eggs in there before you bake your Chocolate Salmonella cake. |
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I have totally been wondering the same thing! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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My wife makes a good cheesecake. I will have to pass on these recipes. Who is eating all of these? Me and a few friends. They loved me at the work Christmas party - they got plain, blueberry, and Bailey's. The Bailey's one disappeared in two minutes. |
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Caramel cheesecake.
The first thing you need is a thin caramel sauce. If you never made caramel before, it's pretty simple if you follow the directions. There are plenty of good recipes on the web and those pages also have detailed instructions on how to make it. You have to follow the directions if you want it to come out right, especially the part about the 4 qt. pan. You might get away with a 3 quart pan, but it foams up dramartically when you add the cream. You might end up with a sticky mess on the stove or, since it's 320 degrees and sticky, some nice burns. The mix is too thin in a 5 qt. pan. It's too easy to burn it. This page tells you everything you need to know. http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-soft-chewy-caramel-candies-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-180832 I didn't want candy. I wanted sauce that would blend easily with the batter. Another page said to use 1/2 and 1/2 instead of heavy cream. I did that and it made a sauce somewhere between the consistency of ketchup and New England Clam Chowder. I cooked the sugar to 320, removed from heat, added the 1/2 and 1/2 mixture, and then heated it to 220. I couldn't get it higher than that without cranking my electric heating element all the way up and I didn't want to burn it. I left it at 220 for a little while and watched it turn brown until it was a good color. Then I added the vanilla and whisked it, since that would cool it a little. Then I poured it into a Pyrex bowl and left it to cool. It blended easily. The caramel has more sugar than I normally use. I realized that if I used that, I didn't need any more sugar. I made the first one with no lemon, no sugar, and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. I didn't want to mask the flavor. It also had a lot of cream in it, so I only omitted the heavy cream. It was good, but it wasn't what I wanted. I could taste the sour cream and it didn't have the candyish caramel flavor I wanted. I made another batch of caramel sauce and made the batter with 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. You could use 2 tsp. I added 1/2 cup of heavy cream, no lemon, and no sour cream. I also used a little less than 1/2 tsp of almond extract. You don't really taste it and it adds a nice complexity to the flavor. The top of it will have blotches. It's loaded with sugar, already caramelized, and sugar burns. It tasted fine, but it looked bad. Chocolate sprinkles. Cheat. Yes, it's really good. |
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