This recipe goes well in the Shortbread Crust from the previous entry.
Preheat oven to 500F.
Mix till smooth and creamy:
2 & 1/2 lbs cream cheese (room temperature to soften)
1 & 3/4 cup sugar
Mix in (scraping sides of mixing bowl often):
3 Tablespoons flour
Add:
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
Mix in, one at a time, till incorporated:
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Add:
1/2 cup heavy cream
Mix thoroughly.
Pour into prepared Shortbread Crust in 9 inch x 2 - 2(1/2)
Bake at 500F for about 15 minutes. You should start to get some browning to the top of the cheesecake. Be careful to not let it get to dark. Reduce the temperature to 200F. If the cake is getting dark, you may want to open the oven door to help get the temperature reduced. Bake for about 80 minutes at the reduced temperature, till partially set. Tap the side of the pan with a large knife to check how much it wiggles. It should still wiggle some near the center at the end of the bake time. Turn off the oven and leave the cake in the oven to cool (overnight is good). After the cake is cool, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate, preferably at least one day before serving.
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Some notes:
Never whip the filling. I mix in a bread mixer, using the dough hook. In the end, you do not want to have any air whipped into the filling.
A better end product requires better ingredients.
Light whipping cream costs a lot less than heavy cream, and your cake will turn out closer to a pudding than a cheesecake.
Set the cheese out on the counter several hours ahead to bring it to room temperature. It will be softer. If you take the cheese strait from the fridge to the mixer, the mixing will be a lot more work.
Shortbread Crust
Most of the Cheesecakes I make start with a crust. I do have a variety of crusts (that goes well with having a variety of cheesecakes, don't you think?). This time let's work on a shortbread crust.
Preheat oven to 400F
In a small mixing bowl, combine:
1+1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
Using a pastry blender or food processor, cut in to make a crumbly meal:
6 Tablespoons cold butter
Still with the pastry blender or food processor, cut in till thoroughly mixed:
1 large egg yolk
If mixture is still to dry, I will then add a little milk, as much as a tablespoon.
Evenly press about one third of the mixture into the bottom of the pan that you will be using for your cheesecake. Place the remaining two thirds in the fridge in an airtight container (you will use it later for the sides).
Bake for about 13 to 14 minutes, just until it is starting to get a very light golden color, usually just on some of the edges.
While this is baking you can get started on mixing the filling, or the baked crust can be held as long as the next day if you are going to make the cake a little later.
When the filling is ready, carefully press the remaining crust mixture around the inside, sidewalls of the pan. Take care to not allow extra thickness at the bottom of the sides, where it joins together with the bottom crust. Fill and bake. The side crust will get adequately baked with the rest of the cake, but it will not be the same as the bottom crust, and that is okay.
______________
Some notes:
Always in cooking, as with most things, if you skimp on cheaper, inferior ingredients, you will end up with a cheaper, inferior product. Use the best ingredients! For example, when I say "Use butter," I mean to use a good quality, fresh butter. Not margarine, or some other substitute, or blend. Figure out which of the butters you can find is of the best quality, and fresh. Quiet often when others cover specifics of ingredients they will say that you should only ever use unsalted butter, because salt is only added to help it last longer, so the unsalted will be fresher. I suggest that you can, with effort, learn to tell which butter you want, salt or no salt. (By the way, if you use unsalted butter in the above crust, I would recommend about 1/8 teaspoon of a salt mixed with the flour and sugar.) This is just a start of what I may offer about butter, and it is obviously just one, rather small, ingredient. Ingredients will get a lot more coverage, but first I want to give you some reason to care about ingredients (reason = recipes to use them in).
When I started out making these treats, I had a typical pastry blender that I used for mixing the crust. I wore that thing out in nothing flat. Okay, it did hold up for a while, but if you use one of those very much they will require replacing. I replaced it with a bigger, hefty, stainless steel model. It has held up much better, still works great. But then when I got producing cheesecakes in greater numbers, such that the time it takes to mix a crust by hand makes a difference, then I got a food processor specifically for that purpose. It does simplify and speed up the process. If you are going to purchase one for this reason, consider the size (go bigger). Again, equipment like ingredients, will receive much more coverage down the road.
When pressing crust mixture into the pan, it should press and stick together. If it wont, it may be a bit to dry. But do not allow to much moisture either.
Depending on pan variety, you may choose to place the pan on a sheet of aluminum foil, and fold it up around the sides of the pan. As the crust bakes, it may leak some melted butter out through the cracks or seams of the pan. This would indicate that you have too much butter in the mixture, and perhaps you would want to decrease the butter quantity by a tablespoon or so next time.
Good luck with this. If you are ready to give it a try, let me know how it goes. The next entry here will be a filling to put in this crust to make a New York style cheesecake.
Preheat oven to 400F
In a small mixing bowl, combine:
1+1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
Using a pastry blender or food processor, cut in to make a crumbly meal:
6 Tablespoons cold butter
Still with the pastry blender or food processor, cut in till thoroughly mixed:
1 large egg yolk
If mixture is still to dry, I will then add a little milk, as much as a tablespoon.
Evenly press about one third of the mixture into the bottom of the pan that you will be using for your cheesecake. Place the remaining two thirds in the fridge in an airtight container (you will use it later for the sides).
Bake for about 13 to 14 minutes, just until it is starting to get a very light golden color, usually just on some of the edges.
While this is baking you can get started on mixing the filling, or the baked crust can be held as long as the next day if you are going to make the cake a little later.
When the filling is ready, carefully press the remaining crust mixture around the inside, sidewalls of the pan. Take care to not allow extra thickness at the bottom of the sides, where it joins together with the bottom crust. Fill and bake. The side crust will get adequately baked with the rest of the cake, but it will not be the same as the bottom crust, and that is okay.
______________
Some notes:
Always in cooking, as with most things, if you skimp on cheaper, inferior ingredients, you will end up with a cheaper, inferior product. Use the best ingredients! For example, when I say "Use butter," I mean to use a good quality, fresh butter. Not margarine, or some other substitute, or blend. Figure out which of the butters you can find is of the best quality, and fresh. Quiet often when others cover specifics of ingredients they will say that you should only ever use unsalted butter, because salt is only added to help it last longer, so the unsalted will be fresher. I suggest that you can, with effort, learn to tell which butter you want, salt or no salt. (By the way, if you use unsalted butter in the above crust, I would recommend about 1/8 teaspoon of a salt mixed with the flour and sugar.) This is just a start of what I may offer about butter, and it is obviously just one, rather small, ingredient. Ingredients will get a lot more coverage, but first I want to give you some reason to care about ingredients (reason = recipes to use them in).
When I started out making these treats, I had a typical pastry blender that I used for mixing the crust. I wore that thing out in nothing flat. Okay, it did hold up for a while, but if you use one of those very much they will require replacing. I replaced it with a bigger, hefty, stainless steel model. It has held up much better, still works great. But then when I got producing cheesecakes in greater numbers, such that the time it takes to mix a crust by hand makes a difference, then I got a food processor specifically for that purpose. It does simplify and speed up the process. If you are going to purchase one for this reason, consider the size (go bigger). Again, equipment like ingredients, will receive much more coverage down the road.
When pressing crust mixture into the pan, it should press and stick together. If it wont, it may be a bit to dry. But do not allow to much moisture either.
Depending on pan variety, you may choose to place the pan on a sheet of aluminum foil, and fold it up around the sides of the pan. As the crust bakes, it may leak some melted butter out through the cracks or seams of the pan. This would indicate that you have too much butter in the mixture, and perhaps you would want to decrease the butter quantity by a tablespoon or so next time.
Good luck with this. If you are ready to give it a try, let me know how it goes. The next entry here will be a filling to put in this crust to make a New York style cheesecake.
What Is Comming
I need to keep this one short, but thought I should give some idea of what I will be adding here. I plan list several recipes, give instruction on technique, discuss ingredients, suggest variations, ramble a little about cooking methods, and even share my experience about what kind of pans to use, and what for.
Keep checking back for more information. Or if there is something you are specifically looking for that should be here, or you just have a question, let me know and I see what I can do.
Keep checking back for more information. Or if there is something you are specifically looking for that should be here, or you just have a question, let me know and I see what I can do.
Time to Share
So, I have spent countless dollars (mostly for ingredients) and thousands of hours, over a good number of years, in the pursuit of the ability to make the perfect cheesecake. I have worked from many, very many, recipes and have come to a point where I can consistently produce a fabulous product that has brought great complements and praise. The time has now come for me to share what I have learned and discovered.
I have been asked if I would share my recipes. I have not previously done so. I have sold and given many cheesecakes, and will likely continue to do so, but I have given great consideration and recently come to the definite conclusion that I should share what I have found.
This Blog will be dedicated, at least as far as I can see from this point, to sharing what I have learned in this process over these many years. I expect that it will take me some to time pass along all that I have to share on this topic, so I hope that you will check back on occasion to see what I have added. And please share this with anyone you know that might be interested.
I have been asked if I would share my recipes. I have not previously done so. I have sold and given many cheesecakes, and will likely continue to do so, but I have given great consideration and recently come to the definite conclusion that I should share what I have found.
This Blog will be dedicated, at least as far as I can see from this point, to sharing what I have learned in this process over these many years. I expect that it will take me some to time pass along all that I have to share on this topic, so I hope that you will check back on occasion to see what I have added. And please share this with anyone you know that might be interested.
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