Creating a Perfect Cheesecake

[nightscotsman]

The production team in our pastry kitchen bakes cheesecakes for the hotel - all of them are baked in water baths. Large, full-size cakes are baked in removable bottom cake pans (not spring form) with heavy duty foil, and individual cakes are baked in rings with waterproof baking cups (like muffin cups) around the bottoms.

The bottom crusts are never soggy. I think this might partly be because they use a graham cracker crumb mixture that is very dry to start with - crumbs, a bit of sugar, and just a little bit of butter, not even enough for it to hold together. The crumbs are tamped into the bottom of the molds before pouring in the batter.

Another detail is we use very little water in sheet pan around the baking cakes. Only a 1/4 inch is plenty. The idea is you don't need to actually poach them in a bath of water. The water is there to act as a heat sink and keep the eggs in the batter from overheating. This is the same way be bake creme brulees.

[CanadianBakin']

Thanks for the tip, nightscotsman! I've always read that the water had to go half way up the side of the pan. I can handle a bit of water on a sheet pan, which would also rid me of the need to find deep pans to set the springforms in. I've never had a problem with leaking. Double sheet of foil has always worked.

[Redsugar]

Lindy's famous cheescake from the 1950s & '60s was baked (not in a waterbath, mind you!) for 10 minutes at 500° F. Then the oven temp. was reduced to 200° F. and the cake baked for about an hour more. Apparently springform pans were used. [steven Wheeler (The Book of Cheesecakes) instructs for Lindy's Cheesecake that it be baked initially at 475F for 15 minutes; and then baked for 50 minutes more in an adjusted oven temp of 275F.]

I am a longtime (about 23 years) devotee of baking cheesecakes in non-springform pans in bain maries. I generally use 8-, 9-, 10, and 12-inch cake pans that measure 3 inches in depth. The slower a cheesecake bakes, the creamier it becomes. Moreover, when cooked at a low temperature in a water bath, its surface is less likely to crack (don't mix the batter too long or at too high speed so as to avoid over-aerating it). And set the pan on a trivet so that the water will circulate under it in the bain marie. Also, don't allow the water to boil! Drop in a few ice cubes, if necessary.

However, according to David Joachim in his Brilliant Food Tips & Cooking Tips, cheesecakes don't need a water bath when it bakes in a remarkably cool oven overnight That is for 6 to 8 hours!

As for the estimable use of earthenware pans to bake cheesecakes, remember that the traditional Russian Easter cheesecake known as pashka is baked in a special kulich pan. I mold pashkas in 7" x 7" clay flowerpots.

For some of the heavier cakes, it may be advisable to run a thin-bladed knife around the edge of the pan once it has been removed from the oven, in order to ensure that the cake won't adhere to the sides of the pan and cause the top to crack via contraction in cooling.

Also, not all cream cheese react the same during baking. Some have more stabilizers (gums), or different stabilizers, than others. Additonally, you must be cognizant of the baking properties of other types of cheese used in these cakes...such as curd, mascarpone, ricotta, Neuchatel, Triple-Crème, and Quark; and cured cheeses, including Blue, Gouda, and Feta.

In many cases, a cheesecake must be regarded as a type of custard – and handled accordingly for optimal results. Keep in mind that when you're making a chiffon-style cheesecake, the whipped egg whites create another integral element. If the whites were overbeaten or become overheated, this delicate structure might collapse, and the result will be a soggy product.

Finally, accurate oven temps are critical. And baking the cheesecakes in a convection oven is usually benefical for many recipes.

Edited August 28, 2004 by Redsugar (log)

[chefpeon]

the truth is springform pans suck....for many reasons.

Hear hear! I never use them. I always use a regular cake pan. Line the bottom with parchment, press my crumbs in, pour in the batter, place on a sheet pan, put in the oven, pour some water in the sheetpan and bake away. I let them cool overnight, then stick them on top of my gas cooktop for a minute or so, run a knife around the edge, invert the pan on top of a cardboard cake circle, and remove the pan. Peel my parchment off, then flip the cake right side up onto another circle. Done.

I've baked my cheesecakes with and without water baths, and I'm in the water bath camp too. I've had more success with water baths.

[chefpeon]

I came across this thread at the most appropriate time, as I'm introducing a line of cheesecakes for my employer to wholesale to restaurants around town.

I've always baked my cheesecakes in a regular cake pan in a water bath in a regular conventional oven.....never a problem.....nice creamy cakes, no browning, no cracks.

All I have to work with now is convection ovens. My cheesecakes bake up nicely, except now,

they are very brown on the top. Ugh. I hate that. This was baking them at a temp of 350 for

about 45 minutes. I'm guessing I'll have to drastically lower the oven temp (maybe 200 or

250) and bake them a lot longer. I really don't want to have to do this because having my

one oven at such a low temp means I can't bake anything else in there til the cheesecakes

come out. This really screws up my ultra efficient baking day. I'm also concerned that

the lower temp would alter the creamy texture I'm currently getting. However, if turning

down the oven solves my browning problem (and is the only way) I guess I'll do it.

So I ask you all who are more experienced with convection ovens and cheesecakes.....

what you do?

Thanks in advance!

[KarenS]

350 in a convection oven is way too high for cheesecake. I bake mine at 250 in a conventional oven- with a pan of water for steam. A 350 convection oven will be equal to a 375 conventional oven. I would lower your oven to 225 (and if you have the high/low fan option- set it to low fan). We always have a cheesecake on the menu- right now it is banana with a coconut crust, served with milk chocolate sauce and peanut brittle. We bake seven of them 2-3 times a week, they take almostthree hours to bake.

[tan319]

The production team in our pastry kitchen bakes cheesecakes for the hotel - all of them are baked in water baths. Large, full-size cakes are baked in removable bottom cake pans (not spring form) with heavy duty foil, and individual cakes are baked in rings with waterproof baking cups (like muffin cups) around the bottoms.

The bottom crusts are never soggy. I think this might partly be because they use a graham cracker crumb mixture that is very dry to start with - crumbs, a bit of sugar, and just a little bit of butter, not even enough for it to hold together. The crumbs are tamped into the bottom of the molds before pouring in the batter.

Another detail is we use very little water in sheet pan around the baking cakes. Only a 1/4 inch is plenty. The idea is you don't need to actually poach them in a bath of water. The water is there to act as a heat sink and keep the eggs in the batter from overheating. This is the same way be bake creme brulees.

Glad I decided to take a look in here.

Neil (et al), I have a question for you.

I'm on the verge of caving in and putting a cheesecake on my fall menu.

What I'm thinking of doing is using flexipan demispheres, lining the molds either half way or all the way up with crumbs, pouring my mix in and baking on a sheetpan with that bit of water.

Let them cool, refrigerate (maybe freeze?) then unmold.

I want to serve them upside down, so they're resting on what would typically be the top.

Sour cream ice cream, maybe strawberry granizado

Think the baking procedure will be ok?

Thanks, all!

Edited August 30, 2004 by tan319 (log)

[CanadianBakin']

I have another cheesecake question.

I was at a large market on the weekend and one of the bakeries was selling their cheesecake in about 2-1/2"x4" squares. It looked like it had been cooked in a sheetpan. Any ideas on how to adjust the baking time to do this and also do I still need to come up with a water bath of some sort?

[KarenS]

Cheesecake is easy in sheet pans (sure speeds up baking time!). I place a pan of water in the oven to create steam. It is easiest to cut sheets when they are almost frozen.

[Wendy DeBord]

Ted I just made cheesecakes in my indi. pans this past week for the first time. I poured about 1/2" of h20 in the bottom of the pan they were in. They bake really fast and perfectly. I used the pyramid mold and they were done in like 10-15 minutes at 250F (barely more time then a mini mold). I frozen them to remove.

I was doing a cheesecake baklava combo so I made my baklava independent and I think I would do any crust in the rubber flex. molds seperately again.........just because it's so reliably perfect then.

Whats strawberry granizado?????

I think now I've baked cheesecake in every concievable pan/form. Keeping you oven temp. low 200f to 250f will always work with or with-out a water bath. It is a custard basicly and so long as you don't over heat it your fine. I usually put a pan of h20 in the bottom of my oven when I bake full sheet pans to give the oven more humitity but it works fine with-out it too. Oh, I use a convection oven-don't have access to reg.-it works fine on low fan.

CanadianBakin'- yes you can bake in full size sheet pans. Just keep your temp. down 250f or lower and the biggest thing is-don't over bake! Remember that the cake will retain it's heat....continue cooking out of the oven like a piece of meat-so adjust accordingly.

I've had too many failures and hassles with foil or other methods-I think they're a complete pain. A solid cake pan works wonderfully and you don't need to line it with parchment paper either (including full sheet pans). I warm the bottom of the pan to release mine-works perfect 100% of the time.

Achevres- my favorite publications for baking books.........oh baby, that would be a long list. Typically I prefer to follow well known pastry chefs work over a test magazine. The pastry chefs work tends to taste better in my opinion. I've only baked a dozen or so recipes from that magazine and none were in the 'wow' catagory....they typically were just average at best. If your interested in cheesecakes specificly, I have a couple books on the topic I can highly reccomend.

I've been working alot out of "125 Best Cheesecake recipes" by George Geary lately. Every recipe I've tried has baked perfectly and tasted pretty good.

I also like "Cheesecake Extraordinaire" by Mary Crownover.

"The Perfect Cheesecake", by the editors of consumer guide. HA-well that makes me a lier! What can I tell you-this little book is pretty good, they're all winners.

Anything from Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Kraft..........they're alway decent.

[tan319]

So Wendy, you were using flexipan type silicon molds?

The Granizado is just spanish for granite, an old habit from when i was in NYC in nuevo latino food.

An ice, fluff with a fork, know what I mean?

I don't really want to do a compote, too easy to waste.

Although I think if I end up doing this, it will be all I sell.

Oh, I'm going to use fromage blanc.

Thanks for the tip!

[Wendy DeBord]

Yes I used flexipans......worked great. I didn't spray the pan at all either.

........more reasons to learn Spanish................

[Raynickben]

I love cheesecakes. Making them, eating them, it's all good. However, about 90% of the time during the "cooling in the oven period" the cheesecake develops cracks. Sometimes they are small but the one I made this weekend had a crack so large it completely ruined the visual appeal of the cheesecake.

How do I avoid this? I read one recipe that said "dont' worry if your cheesecake develops cracks. At least everyone will know it is homemade". Sorry, that's not quite what I want people to think.

Help!

[phaelon56]

Are you puting the springform pan in a water bath and then lesaving the oven door closed until it's cooled off for awhile? I've neevr made cheescake but my daughter was doing it for awhile and that's how she did hers. I don't recall seeing any cracks and she was a very inexperienced baker. I think the water makes a difference.

[duckduck]

Alice Medrich suggests setting it on the counter and putting a large bowl over it after you bring it out of the oven. I think the water bath would make a differnce too. I've never had mine crack so, being in Oregon, I wonder if high humidity is a part of it.

[chefpeon]

One word.

Overbaking.

My cheesecakes never crack. Ever.

I bake them in a water bath. Always. I never use a springform pan because

A) you don't really need them, and

B) it's a bitch to use them in a waterbath. Even if you do line the bottoms with foil, there's

always some kind of leakage problem.

C) Once chilled, they are so easy to remove from a regular pan. Just heat the bottom slightly,

invert onto another cardboard, then flip again. Voi-freaking-la!

When I see students and people unfamiliar with cheesecake baking bake a cheesecake, they

always pull the cakes out way too late. The whole jiggling thing weirds them out. They just

can't believe it's done when it jiggles like that. But it is.

Just the other day, my co-workers (who are experienced chefs-but savory chefs, mind you),

really swore up and down that my cheesecakes weren't done. I said, "You wait and see".

Next day, I unpanned them, and gave them a slice. Mmmmmmm. Creamy and firm.

They now know how to bake crack-less cheesecakes. They aren't afraid of the jiggle!

[bloviatrix]

I have to tell you, you're going to get 101 different suggestions -- many the opposite of the other.

Myra Chanin, in her book Mother Wonderful's Cheescake says to take the cheesecake out of the oven to rest for 10 minutes, then spread a sour cream glaze on, return to oven and upon removal from oven....... here's the key: put it directly in the refrigerator.

Edited October 4, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[ruthcooks]

1. Don't overbeat.

2. Run a knife around the edge when cheesecake comes out of oven. Clinging edges will cause cheesecake to stretch and crack as it tries to shrink away from pan.

3. Let cool very slowly. In turned off oven with door open (but remove from water bath or it will continue to cook), and/or move to draft-free counter, cover and refrigerate when completely cooled.

[MsRamsey]

I would never invert my cheesecake and flip it over. Disastrous! Maybe it's overbaking, but maybe it's the recipe.

[chefpeon]

I would never invert my cheesecake and flip it over. Disastrous!

I do it all the time. No disasters whatsoever.

Maybe you should try it sometime.....unless you live in some sort of parallel

universe where inverting your cheesecake might interfere with the space-time

continuum.......then, well, I could see your point.

[aidensnd2]

2. Run a knife around the edge when cheesecake comes out of oven. Clinging edges will cause cheesecake to stretch and crack as it tries to shrink away from pan.

I think this hits it on the head. Most cracking in cheesecake is caused by the mixture not being able to rise and fall smoothly without sticking to the sides of the pan. If you grease the sides of the pan really good you shouldn't have any problems but I agree that running a knife around the edge before cooling would probably help.

[GG Mora]

Anne, your advice sounds perfectly reasonable. I only bake cheesecake once a year – at Thanksgiving – but look forward to trying your technique. Thanks.

[chefpeon]

I have to tell you, you're going to get 101 different suggestions -- many the opposite of the other.

Bloviatrix is right. You will get lots of different suggestions....everyone swearing what they do is the THING to do, because it works for them. I wouldn't be surprised if someone suggested to perform a voodoo tiki dance during the last 20 minutes of baking time with the oven door open.

Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks I guess. I won't argue.

But I will say, that as a professional, it's important to keep things simple. It's a matter of efficiency. Professionals are professionals because they're good at what they do and know what

they are talking about somewhat. You know how there are great strides in medicine during wartime? It's because you have surgeons trying to save lives and limbs in the worst conditions....and often with sub-standard or no equipment. A lot of times doctors have to take risks in the field and wing it. I liken that to what I do. Sometimes I'm asked to do the impossible in an impossible amount of time. It's like being in the war.......I'm in the trenches....I gotta figure out how to do it the best way and the fastest way without any casualties. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I can tell you I learn a lot from the experience and I can do it better (or perfectly) the next time around.

So, I guess my point is, you can take all those suggestions about leaving the oven door open, or cool it slowly, or cool it quickly, or don't overbeat, or run a knife around the outside, or use a springform only, or use a waterbath only, or using a different recipe, or doing the tiki dance, and try them. All points have some validity, and some may be critical depending on what type of recipe you are using and how you want the final texture to be.

I just say, start with the basics. I know from experience, that most (but not all of the time), the reason that cheesecakes crack is from overbaking. Before you resort to the tiki dance, just try again and pull it earlier. It may be the easiest and most efficient solution for you.

[bloviatrix]

Bloviatrix is right. You will get lots of different suggestions....everyone swearing what they do is the THING to do, because it works for them. I wouldn't be surprised if someone suggested to perform a voodoo tiki dance during the last 20 minutes of baking time with the oven door open.

←

Personally, I find a lilting minuet is more effective than a voodoo tiki dance. But that could just be my recipe.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Edited October 4, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[AlexP]

I have been making a few cheesecakes lately, I have not have too much trouble on the cracking side. I do not have any useful tips, besides those mentioned above.

However, I do have a question: What would be the ideal internal temperature of the cake prior to taking it out of the oven (or turning the oven off if that is your method)? 165 F, 175F...

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Alex