I love cheesecake. It's my weakness. Diet or no diet, I can't resist a nice slice of cheesecake. So what better way to enjoy one than to learn how to bake one of my own. After much research on how it's made, finding a great recipe from All Recipes, and learning a lot of tips online, I made my first cheesecake last night. I learned a lot but I also need to improve on a lot of things to get this recipe right.
The recipe and ingredient came from Chantal's New York Cheesecake with a serving size of 12.
Here are the ingredients I used and the ingredients measured out according to the recipe.
First thing was crush the graham crackers. By the way, when the recipe calls for 15 graham crackers, they actually meant 1 small square of graham cracker. I started out with 15x4 squares (which came in platters of 4) and realized this was too much for 2 tablespoons of butter.
Crush the crackers to manageable size then place them in a zip lock bag.
Use any solid round object like a handy empty bottle of honey and use it as a roller to roll over the bag.
An actual roller would have been better of course. This helps getting the proper crumbs you need.
I mixed the butter and crumbs in a bowl and if you want the crumbs to stick together more, add more butter to give it more moisture to come together better.
I made sure to rub some butter to the pan to make sure the cake won't stick when you pull the cake out later on.
I padded the bottom of the pan with the crumbs as evenly as possible.
I also decided to line the bottom of the springform pan because this pan did leak from an earlier test. It was a Cephalon Classic 9" springform pan from Target store for about 12-13 bucks. You can never tell if a pan will leak or not until you've tested it out. However, this pan is sturdy and will not warp in the oven. I simply cut out a circular aluminum foil and wrapped the bottom with it.
Next, the mix. I placed 4 x 8oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese in a bowl and mixed it together. I added the sugar and started mixing. Oh boy was that a tough job. You better have some guns under your sleeves if you do it by hand.
Luckily, I found an old mixer in my mom's basement and put it to good use. But even the mixer brought problems with it. I'll go over that later.
While in the mixer, I mixed the cream cheese and sugar to a smooth mix. I then followed the recipe and added the rest of the ingredients one at a time.
I kept mixing the batter till I got most of the dreaded air bubbles and lumbs out.
This is what I had at the end. It was nice smooth mix with little lumps or bubbles.
I then poured the batter into the pan, making sure not to fold in any air.
I used a tray filled to about 3/4" its height of water or half the height of the tray for the water bath which should help keep the cake from overcooking on the rim of the pan.
I placed the pan in the tray and put it in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 mins.
I checked back after the timer was done but when I jiggled the cake, there was a jiggle on most of the surface of the cake. I raised the temperature to 350 degrees and put it back in for 15 more minutes. I rechecked and saw only the middle 2" diameter jiggled.
I turned off the oven and let it sit overnight. By morning, the cake had firmed up. As you can see, unfortunately, the dreaded crack was there. I had been trying to avoid that with all my online research but I guess I missed something.
The possible reasons my cheesecake cracked were.
The recipe and ingredient came from Chantal's New York Cheesecake with a serving size of 12.
Here are the ingredients I used and the ingredients measured out according to the recipe.
First thing was crush the graham crackers. By the way, when the recipe calls for 15 graham crackers, they actually meant 1 small square of graham cracker. I started out with 15x4 squares (which came in platters of 4) and realized this was too much for 2 tablespoons of butter.
Crush the crackers to manageable size then place them in a zip lock bag.
Use any solid round object like a handy empty bottle of honey and use it as a roller to roll over the bag.An actual roller would have been better of course. This helps getting the proper crumbs you need.
I mixed the butter and crumbs in a bowl and if you want the crumbs to stick together more, add more butter to give it more moisture to come together better.
I made sure to rub some butter to the pan to make sure the cake won't stick when you pull the cake out later on.
I padded the bottom of the pan with the crumbs as evenly as possible.
I also decided to line the bottom of the springform pan because this pan did leak from an earlier test. It was a Cephalon Classic 9" springform pan from Target store for about 12-13 bucks. You can never tell if a pan will leak or not until you've tested it out. However, this pan is sturdy and will not warp in the oven. I simply cut out a circular aluminum foil and wrapped the bottom with it.
Next, the mix. I placed 4 x 8oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese in a bowl and mixed it together. I added the sugar and started mixing. Oh boy was that a tough job. You better have some guns under your sleeves if you do it by hand.
Luckily, I found an old mixer in my mom's basement and put it to good use. But even the mixer brought problems with it. I'll go over that later.
While in the mixer, I mixed the cream cheese and sugar to a smooth mix. I then followed the recipe and added the rest of the ingredients one at a time.
I kept mixing the batter till I got most of the dreaded air bubbles and lumbs out.
This is what I had at the end. It was nice smooth mix with little lumps or bubbles.
I then poured the batter into the pan, making sure not to fold in any air.
I used a tray filled to about 3/4" its height of water or half the height of the tray for the water bath which should help keep the cake from overcooking on the rim of the pan.
I placed the pan in the tray and put it in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 mins.
I checked back after the timer was done but when I jiggled the cake, there was a jiggle on most of the surface of the cake. I raised the temperature to 350 degrees and put it back in for 15 more minutes. I rechecked and saw only the middle 2" diameter jiggled.
I turned off the oven and let it sit overnight. By morning, the cake had firmed up. As you can see, unfortunately, the dreaded crack was there. I had been trying to avoid that with all my online research but I guess I missed something.
The possible reasons my cheesecake cracked were.
- I had over beaten the mix with the mixer. The mixer was a little too fast even at the lowest settings. Maybe it's just too old.
- I might have folded in air bubbles into the mix especially with the way the mixer was. I also think the accessory on it wasn't the right attachment. I need a wider/bigger wisker attachment.
- I forgot to remove the water bath when I left the cake overnight. I'm not sure but instructions on some websites says remove the water bath before leaving it in the oven.
- I might not have cooked it all the way. The cake wasn't firm after cooking it so I was uncertain if I had cooked it properly. However, the jiggle test should be enough to confirm it's cooked.
- Changing the temperature from 325 to 350 during the cooking process may have affected the cake. The egg component is definitely sensitive to temperature changes from what I'm reading.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment