I made cheesecake (specificcally Pumpkin Cheesecake) for the first
time. It came out pretty good but I wanted to improve on it.

The crust came out great, half graham crackers, half ground almonds,
1/4 butter and some cinnamon. I used parchment paper on the bottom of
the springform and all around the sides. Besides somecrinkling the
cheese cake looked great. Two cracks on the top, but very nice
otherwise. (I didn't do the sour cream topping).

The first problem was the very center was not set right. It was too
creamy and not firm enough. It was wetter and stuck to the spatula.
The top, bottom and sides were more solid and firm. Does that just
sound like too little cooking time? I cooked it for 60 minutes at
325, then turned off the oven and left it in for another hour. The
center jiggled like it was solid, but under a 1/4"-1/2" of solid was a
more mushy consistency.

The second thing and most important thing was the cake was dense,
rich, heavy. I've tasted ones that were much lighter on the tongue and
I wonder if that is from more eggs? Longer beating time in the mixer?

The cake was also fairly tall in the 9.5" springform. Next time I will
use 3 8oz cream cheese instead of 4.

Lastly, what have been peoples' experience with using a mix of regular
and fat-free cream cheeses to bring the calorie and fat count down
some. I used 3 regular and one fat-free in this experiment.
DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)