"Michael" > wrote:

>Thought I'd weigh in with a cheesecake report. I was really
>attracted to the chocolate type, but I thought I should bake
>something standard the first time, and branch out after that.
>Several recommended the recipe off the Philly package, so
>I did that. I had to do it in two 7" x 11" bake pans because
>after walking into Wal-Mart and seeing the huge Christmas
>crowds, I turned around and left without a springform.
>
>I increased the crust ingredients and cut back 15 minutes
>on the bake time, and it came out pretty good. One thing
>I didn't care for was the recommended topping using cherry
>pie filling. It was too sweet. I'm curious about the tart
>cherry topping that you make, David. Would you care to
>reveal your recipe for that? I would like to try it out.
>
>I sat at Borders bookstore for a while and looked at some
>cookbooks. One thing I noticed is a split on the standard
>way of doing cheesecake crusts. Most recommend doing
>a short bake on them before shoveling in the filling and
>going for the long run, but I noticed one cheesecake book
>recommended putting it in the freezer after pressing it into
>the pan, and then doing just one bake. Any thoughts on
>this?

I had read that baking first it results in a crispier crust. Don't
know if that is true. Having a cold pan+crust would make the warm up
of the batter slower in the baking.

One big warning... water baths are a pain in the ass with springforms.
Many aren't waterproof and I've had three leak water in and make soggy
crusts. I tried using multiple layers of tin foil wrapped around the
springform but I still have some water around the springform. Once
this worked really well, once let in a little water but not bad, once
a lot of water. Just did it tonight and there was considerable water.
I don't know if the crust is soggy yet... still cooling.

As for recipes... they don't have too many unique ingredients that
make differences. but there are variations that you may want to
experiment with..

For basic cheesecakes...
1 egg per 8 oz cream cheese + 1-4 extra yolks
Sub 8oz of c.c. for cup of cottage cheese, sour cream or ricotta
1/4 cup to 1/3 cup sugar per 8 oz. cream cheese
separate egg whites, whip n fold them in last (lighter texture)
1 - 2 tablespoons lemon juice & zest
1-3 tablespoons cornstarch/flour (I !think! this affects texture)
14 oz can Condensed sweetened milk (trying this tonight)
1/2 to 1+1/2 cup extra sour cream (fold in late) **I like this**
1/2 - 1 cup of whipping cream, whipped, fold in last
1/2 to 1+1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Folding in egg whites seems to work well--I don't like it so dense it
feels closer to fudge. Adding sour cream makes the taste better. I
just tried adding lemon and condensed sweetened milk.

I've been making a pumpkin cheesecake with 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp
ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves, a 15 oz can of pumpkin
puree, and a combo of dark brown sugar/white sugar. Very well liked.

I haven't tried a chocolate recipe I really liked. They weren't
chocolatey enough. The ones I tried had 1-2oz of chocolate to each 8oz
of cream cheese. They all seem to say 1/3 cup of cocoa, but I've found
recipes that add between 1 and 12 oz of melted chocolate for 24 oz of
cream cheese.

I've had some chocolate cheesecakes (like at the Cheesecake Factory)
that were amazing, but I wonder how much of it is really a cheescake.
The multilayer chocolate ones seem to have very moussey top
layers--which might be more of the no-bake cheesecake offering.
Basically adding gelatin for texture and structure.

I haven't tried the no bake cheesecakes yet.

>Thank you, Michael

DiGiTAL_ViNYL (no email)