Help with a cheesecake bonbon

[Bentley]

I just looked at Norman Love's website and strawberry cheesecake was replaced with "New York Cheesecake" and the description is "rich, freshly baked New York Cheesecake is blended into a white chocolate ganache for a big city flavor" so maybe my friend gave me more than a little inside info.  Looks like they really do just cut up cheesecake and blend it into a white chocolate ganache.They make a lot of cheesecake on the pastry side of the business, so it's certainly possible.

Edited July 6, 2019 by Bentley (log)

[Kerry Beal]

12 hours ago, BeeZee said:

Is the cream cheese within a bonbon anerobic because it is encased in chocolate?

I don't think so - there is migration to and from the filling of fats and liquids - and I suspect O₂ as well. 

[covjeculjak]

Hi all,

Any detailed Susanna Yoon cheesecake recipe?

I have seen only the ingredients, but maybe cool to see the whole recipe with steps?

Tnx

[Vojta]

On 7/3/2019 at 1:08 PM, Rajala said:

There's a recipe in So Good from a year back or so.

 

150 g cream cheese

75 g mascarpone

75 g fromage blanc (couldn't find this, used low/non fat quark)

418 g white chocolate (opalys)

30 g invert sugar

50 g glucose

3 g salt

Orange and lemon zest (don't recall how much)

One vanilla bean

 

I can check the "magazine" when I'm home. This is just from my notes.

 

Please pardon a little side-branch out of main discussion here, I am just interested.

 

Whats the reasoning of using such amounts of invert sugar and glucose? Is it because of viscosity, sweetness level, crystalization prevention? I seek knowledge.

 

PS: Ï know I need to learn a lot

[Pastrypastmidnight]

2 hours ago, Vojta said:

 

Please pardon a little side-branch out of main discussion here, I am just interested.

 

Whats the reasoning of using such amounts of invert sugar and glucose? Is it because of viscosity, sweetness level, crystalization prevention? I seek knowledge.

 

PS: Ï know I need to learn a lot

The glucose prevents the sugars in the chocolate from re-crystallizing and the invert sugar is there to keep it from drying out, and both sugars bind water, leading to a longer shelf life. 

Edited July 18, 2019 by Pastrypastmidnight (log)

[Vojta]

5 hours ago, Pastrypastmidnight said:

The glucose prevents the sugars in the chocolate from re-crystallizing and the invert sugar is there to keep it from drying out, and both sugars bind water, leading to a longer shelf life. 

 

 

Beautiful! Thank you very much!

 

What should I do in order to be capable of inventing such a recipes? I feel like theres no way of me thinking up 30g of invert and 50g for glucose for a bonbon. Is it years of experience, chemistry + math or trial and error?

[curls]

@Vojta much of what you are asking about has already been discussed and debated on eGullet (and elsewhere). I recommend that you look at the chocolate index in the Pastry & Baking forum (

) and read "Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner" by Peter Greweling.

[Vojta]

Awesome! Truly appreciated <3

 

PS: The boat looks delicious.

[Jim D.]

I had misgivings about using cheese in a bonbon filling but was still intrigued by the idea of a cheesecake ganache. I was looking in Greweling for something else and came across his crème fraîche ganache, which uses a large amount of the dairy ingredient. Elsewhere he has a paragraph on cultured dairy products and mentions no caveats (except that they require care when being heated). Then I recalled that I myself include sour cream in a recipe where it is used to cut some of the sweetness of an otherwise very sweet filling. So I put aside my doubts and forged ahead. First I purchased issue 18 of So Good magazine, which contains Susanna Yoon's recipe (discussed above). In addition, I emailed her shop (Stick with Me Sweets) and inquired specifically about the shelf life of that bonbon. The answer was "Our bonbons are best consumed within 10 days." Of course that was not really an answer to my question. I noticed that the shop has fillings called puddings and custards, so I assume the 10-day rule is a stock warning for everything.

 

I decided not to use the mascarpone and fromage blanc for the sake of simplifying things, so instead used cream cheese for 2/3 of the total amount of dairy, with the other 1/3 being sour cream. I bought Greek yoghurt (recommended as a substitute for fromage blanc) but did not use it. As long as the cream cheese and sour cream were not overheated, they were fine and combined well with the white chocolate (I used the recommended Opalys). I had made a dark chocolate shell and piped a little apricot pâte de fruit into it, then piped the ganache on top of that. I melted white chocolate plus coconut oil to make a barrier and piped a little of that to cover the cheesecake ganache, then placed a graham cracker cookie (recipe here--I must say homemade graham crackers are a revelation) on the white chocolate, covering it with a little more white chocolate.

 

I really like the result:  There is enough tang to let you know you are not eating just another white chocolate ganache, and the white chocolate plus coconut oil preserve the crunchiness of the graham cracker. Apricot is a little too unassertive in this case; it was what I had on hand, and next time I will probably use strawberry or raspberry. 

 

The crucial information (besides the taste):  The Aw reading was 0.81. Melissa Coppel says that should last 3-6 weeks (0.81 is toward the high end of that block of time); J.P. Wybauw says maximum of 3 months.  That's a big discrepancy, perhaps showing that the Aw is a very approximate guide? I made enough bonbons so that I can check them from time to time for any issues.

 

Possible future experiments:  I will probably try the original dairy products (cream cheese, mascarpone, and fromage blanc), might try the yoghurt. I think there could be a little more sharpness to the taste but am not sure which of the ingredients might provide that. Susanna Yoon molds her cheesecake bonbon in white chocolate, so I might try that next time.

[Jim D.]

On 7/6/2019 at 5:20 PM, Bentley said:

Jessica - your graham cracker crust looks denser than a regular crust.  Does it have chocolate in it?

 

On 7/6/2019 at 5:41 PM, Pastrypastmidnight said:

It’s a praliné layer. So yes, it does

 

@Pastrypastmidnight, could you say a little more about how you make that layer?  Grind up graham crackers?  Then add ... ?  I can imagine using the same chocolate as the shell or using white chocolate plus cocoa butter, which would detract less from the taste of the graham cracker. I ask this because I just finished a strawberry cheesecake bonbon and included a graham cracker cookie surrounded with white chocolate (plus coconut oil to keep it softer). But it's difficult to get a cookie the right size, both in diameter and in height.  The graham cracker recipe I use calls for baking soda, which makes the cookie rise a little; therefore it is nearly impossible to keep the cookie thin (without perhaps putting a baking sheet on top of the cookies as they bake). Let's just say there were some filled bonbons that took a bit of effort to seal neatly. I think your praliné layer piped in would make that process much easier, but I wouldn't want to lose the wonderful crunch and taste of the cookie inclusion.

[Merry Berry]

On 9/16/2019 at 8:54 AM, Jim D. said:

Was there ever an answer to this question?  I am interested in starting to utilize a "crust" in my bonbons.

 

@Pastrypastmidnight, could you say a little more about how you make that layer?  Grind up graham crackers?  Then add ... ?  I can imagine using the same chocolate as the shell or using white chocolate plus cocoa butter, which would detract less from the taste of the graham cracker. I ask this because I just finished a strawberry cheesecake bonbon and included a graham cracker cookie surrounded with white chocolate (plus coconut oil to keep it softer). But it's difficult to get a cookie the right size, both in diameter and in height.  The graham cracker recipe I use calls for baking soda, which makes the cookie rise a little; therefore it is nearly impossible to keep the cookie thin (without perhaps putting a baking sheet on top of the cookies as they bake). Let's just say there were some filled bonbons that took a bit of effort to seal neatly. I think your praliné layer piped in would make that process much easier, but I wouldn't want to lose the wonderful crunch and taste of the cookie inclusion.

 

[Jim D.]

I did not get a direct answer to the question, but someone else sent me a PM explaining it thus:

 

Quote

Someone else asked her about the "crust" on instagram and here is what she said: "the crust is a praliné with graham cracker, browned butter, oil, and milk chocolate. Because there’s no water in it and all the crumbs are surrounded by fat, nothing gets soggy. "

 

After that, I experimented, guessing at the proportions. In one version I used cocoa butter instead of chocolate, and it was inedible. In another, I used white chocolate, and it tasted OK. But as great as it was to do away with all the fuss involved with baking tiny cookies and then surrounding them with a protective layer, the end result was not what I wanted. The crunch was mostly gone, and the flavor of the chocolate dominated. And yes, I do realize that the crust of a cheesecake is not crunchy, but I have returned to baking tiny cookies and have expanded my list of them--besides graham cracker, I now have gingersnaps, basic vanilla shortbread, and spiced shortbread to accompany fillings like apple and apricot.

[jbates]

6 hours ago, Jim D. said:

I have returned to baking tiny cookies and have expanded my list of them--besides graham cracker, I now have gingersnaps, basic vanilla shortbread, and spiced shortbread to accompany fillings like apple and apricot.

Did you need to make any significant variations on the usual recipes for these? Do you portion before or after baking?

[Jim D.]

4 minutes ago, jbates said:

Did you need to make any significant variations on the usual recipes for these? Do you portion before or after baking?

 

I use a separate recipe for graham crackers (found online, it has molasses that really adds to the flavor), but for the others I use Ina Garten's recipe for shortbread cookies, adding spices to the one that accompanies the apple and apricot items I mentioned. For the gingersnaps, at first I used a recipe I found online for basic gingersnaps, but it was too chewy, so I am returning to Ina's shortbread, substituting dark brown sugar and molasses powder for some of the white sugar and adding appropriate spices (ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg). The gingersnap cookies go especially well with a lemon filling.

 

I roll out the dough then cut it with a 7/8" round cutter, so that the final cookies, which may spread a very small amount, will fit in cavities about 1" in diameter. The trick, I have learned, is to make sure the cookies are thin; otherwise they take up too much room in the shell. I pipe in some of what I call "moisture barrier meltaway," consisting of chocolate of whatever type is appropriate or gianduja, plus about 25% of that weight in coconut oil, which keeps the resulting meltaway from being too firm, plus about 1% cocoa butter silk), then add the cookie, plus more meltaway if the cookie has not filled the cavity sufficiently.

[Merry Berry]

How about something like a craqueline?  Would that work since it is basically a sugar cookie paste.  Roll it thin, cut out pieces with an upside down piping tip and bake off?  I was going to try that first, but your idea, Jim, sounds good too.  I guess since no one else is chiming in, it is time to experiment this weekend haha.

[Jim D.]

 I don't know much about craqueline, but it sounds as if it might rise more than you want for this use. But as they say, you never know until you try. I was looking for something that would be crunchy but would not shatter, and Ina's shortbread filled the bill. 

Edited October 19, 2019 by Jim D. (log)

[teonzo]

Craquelin has almost the same recipe of the Ina Garten shortbread, it's 100 g flour, 100 g sugar, from 80 to 100 g butter, made with the creamed butter method.
For this use it's better to avoid chemical leaveners (baking soda and so on), you loose control on the final volume and on how the cookies spread.
To get consistent results you need to roll the dough at the same width, you can use 2 thin bars (around 2 mm) as a guide on the opposite sides of the dough, when the rolling pin touches the bars you are done. Of course the rolling pin must be a good one with a regular shape (no bends, no bumps).
Just after cooking the cookies (as soon as they come out of the oven) it's better to put a sheet of parchment paper on their top, then a sheet pan on it and press lightly. This way you end up with cookies that are flat and the same width.
You let them cool to room temperature, then you dry them in the oven at 270 F for about 15 minutes. This way you eliminate almost all moisture, this helps a lot on shelf life, not in the sense of molds, but in the sense of taste.
After the drying process and cooling, you move the cookies and put them all near the others, so there's the less free space possible between them. Then you spray the surface with cocoa butter. Allow some minutes for the cocoa butter to crystallize, then put a sheet of parchment paper on their top, then a sheet pan on it, flip everything together, pull away the sheet pan and the parchment paper (which were on the bottom when you sprayed the cocoa butter and now are on the top), then spray again with cocoa butter (so the cookies are completely sprayed on both sides). You can prepare a big batch of these, if you do things properly they keep for around 6 months. You need to store them in an airtight container, if it's one of the container where you can suck out the air with the proper pump then much better. I prefer spraying with cocoa butter than using a no-water layer in the bonbon.

 

As for the recipe, you can use the basic streusel recipe: 100 g butter, 100 g sugar, 100 g all purpose wheat flour, 100 g almond flour, pinch of salt. Mix everything together, let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour, then roll. It has the added almond flour if compared to the craquelin / shortbread, it adds taste and makes it more crumbly.

 

Another road to try is the feuilletine, Valrhona sells it as Eclat d'Or. You prepare a no-water component (usually a gianduja), add the feuilletine, spread it thin on a sheet of parchment paper, cut the small rounds. You can re-use the trimmings, you just need to re-melt them. But I would not use this for a cheesecake bonbon for a taste matter.

 

 

 

Teo