Sous vide cheesecake in a jar

[Mike Forman]

This is my mother's recipe, which always cracks.  If followed to the recipe it's texture is more chunky than creamy.  Recently I've tried using a water bath at 350 for 15 minutes, then 325 for 35 more.  I've had decent success in stopping the crack, but I lose the texture -- though more people seem to prefer it that way.

 

1 lb cream cheese

1 lb ricotta

1 pint sour cream

4 eggs

1 ½ cup sugar

¼ lb salt butter

1 ½ tbs lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

3 tbs cornstarch

3 tbs flour

 

Bake 1 hour @ 350

 

In any case, for a change I was thinking about trying to use wide mouth mason jars (8 oz) for individual cheesecakes using my Anova stick. Using the same ingredients (I'm ok with skipping the flour and starch) what temperature should I use and for how long should I "bake" for?

 

I was thinking I would pour the custard into the jars, and put the jars in the bath with the water level reaching above the custard.  Or should I try sealing the jar and just submerging the whole shebang?  I'm unsure of the latter, due to condensate and I definitely don't want these guys cracking.

 

TIA for your suggestions.

 

[Lisa Shock]

350° is too high for cheesecake, a lot of suzie-homemaker recipes call for #25°, but, that's also pretty hot. I prefer to preheat at 350° then reduce the oven to 200°, it takes longer but gives a better, custardy texture.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

My favorite cheesecake is crostata di ricotta, said to be one of the oldest of Roman recipes.  The Time Life Cooking of Italy volume (1968) calls for cooking at 350 deg F for 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

[gfweb]

The cheesecake won't ever get hotter than 212F in an oven, so why not SV it at 190-200 or so?

[EnriqueB]

Because this is cornstarch-thickened you need to almost boil it for a couple of minutes to kill the enzymes in the yolks that would otherwise thin it after the initial thickening. Don't know what the exact threshold temperature would be for this recipe, but I guess you likely need to take it to 95ºC/203ºF.

[Barrytm]

Mike,  I have made cheesecake in a steam oven a few times,  it cooks very quickly and does not crack, even though it is nearly solid in the middle by the time I take it out of the steam oven.    I cooked at 190 F.  Here is a Miele steam oven recipe, it says 1 hour and 30 minutes, which was solid across the top, not jiggly in the center when I did it, so I  think a shorter time would work, and cooked the second one in under an hour.  http://mieleusa.com/mielerecipe/recipe_list.asp Here is another site that says if you are cooking in a steamer at 100 C it should only take about 30 minutes.  http://www.blackbookcooking.com/white-chocolate-cheesecake

 

Since you are making small individual cakes,  I would definitely do a test run, and check them early and often.  BTW,  I did the plastic wrap around the springform pan held in place by a rubber band , and it worked great.