5 Cheesecake-Making Tips That’ll Have You Cheesing
Very few desserts can compare to the exquisite concoction that is cheesecake. Combining the richness and flavor variety of ice cream with the sturdiness of cake or pie, all the while providing no risk of a brain freeze, it really is the perfect dessert. In fact, it’s my personal favorite, and, being the slightly-above-amateur chef that I am, it is the only dessert I know how to make from scratch.
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably looked up a recipe for cheesecake and you’re probably wondering, “What is this knucklehead talking about? Cheesecake is about as complicated as any other baked good that didn’t come from a box or can!” And at first glance, it is. You’ll have to combine at least five ingredients, make at least two separate components, be meticulous about measurements, oven temperature and bake time, and are guaranteed to make a mess of the kitchen in the process. But hopefully, you’ll be less afraid to try making one yourself after reading these five helpful tips for a good homemade cheesecake!
#5: There Are Actually TWO Ways to Bake It!
Most people who cook as a hobby often have their limits. Some don’t like to deep-fry, some don’t cook with whole animals or large roasts, and others don’t enjoy prepping fish or crustaceans. For me, it’s baking, and I’ve met plenty of people who agree. I’ve always found desserts the messiest and most time-consuming to make unless they’re boxed, pre-made mixes. And since I’m trying to lose some weight, not having a ton of sweets around provides plenty of incentive. While plenty of savory dishes can be equally tedious to prepare, the multitude of steps combined with the less healthy nature makes baking less worth it to me.
Cheesecake is different from most baked goods in that it doesn’t require many appliances (some can even be made without an oven!), nor a separation of the dry and wet ingredients. You basically just throw everything together from the get-go, and baking it only takes thirty minutes. In fact, the way a cheesecake is cooked is where all the complexities come from.
To bake it the traditional way, you have to wrap your pan in foil while making sure to keep the top of the cheesecake exposed. You then have to set it inside a larger, oven-safe dish and fill that with hot water. And as if that didn’t sound convoluted enough, regardless of whether you did those prior two steps, you can’t just take it out of the oven once it’s finished; instead, you have to shut it off and crack the door until it’s completely cooled down.
The reason behind such a process is solely cosmetic, as it prevents the cheesecake from puckering and browning along the top edges. However, it won’t affect the flavor in the slightest, so if you’re a little more rushed for time, it might be easier to just bake the cheesecake as is without some of those extra steps. Regardless, if you have any inquisitive pets or small children around, you’ll have to keep an eye on them while the oven is cracked.
#4: Build a Strong Foundation
You can’t assemble a pizza without a crust — not traditionally, anyway — and the same is true for a cheesecake. Traditionally, the crust is assembled by pulverizing graham crackers and mixing the crumbs with melted butter, packing it all together at the bottom of the pan. But for those who enjoy switching things up, don’t fret!
You can use pretty much anything crunchy as a substitute, whether it be digestive biscuits, lady fingers, nuts, or pretty much any type of hard cookie. Other variants of cheesecake exist, which use pastry, shortbread, or sponge cake as the base, but right now we’re talking to the newbies. Sticking to a crunchy base is the simplest way to go about it, and it pretty much guarantees the right texture: firm, but pliable.
I remember when I first tried to make a cheesecake, I bit off more than I could chew and tried making the crust out of crushed old-fashioned donuts in order to go with the coffee-infused filling. While it did hold together and taste nice, the texture was rather dense and mushy, and it didn’t absorb the butter very well. Thankfully, I had the sense to stick to graham crackers (albeit flavored ones) next time, and it turned out so much better. An important tip for anyone new to a field is to stick with the tried and true methods that are recommended, and cheesecake making is no exception.
#3: Texture is Your Friend
One of the reasons why cheesecake is my favorite source of sugar is because of just how customizable it is. You can make it as chocolatey or fruity as you want, or even take the savory route. But things get a little more complicated once you add solid mix-ins as part of the flavor, and that can cost you some points.
Some mix-ins, like nuts, cookies, or candy will turn out just fine, losing a portion of their crunch but blending into the rest of the cheesecake in terms of texture. Chocolate chips won’t be affected at all, much to my surprise. And raisins can become even chewier, especially after the dessert has been refrigerated.
Pulling from personal experience, one of the better cheesecakes I’ve made was maple bacon flavored, inspired by a donut I’d eaten not that long prior. While the flavors turned out as intended, a common complaint I received was that the chopped bacon had become chewy, almost resembling beef jerky. From there, I figured the best approach to take would be to make sure crunchier mix-ins are chopped as finely as possible, and hopefully, you take my advice.
#2: With Great Flavor Comes Great Responsibility
So this is the point where we get a little more serious about the art of cheesecaking. Cheesecake is unique from other desserts in that it has to juggle two flavors at once: the distinctive taste of cheesecake itself as well as whatever you choose to flavor it with. But a very easy mistake to make is to bake one that only tastes like your chosen flavor, bearing a resemblance to cheesecake in every way except for the main draw.
I’ve been fortunate to not make this mistake before, but I have seen others make it. Not too long ago, I bought a piece of pumpkin cheesecake from my local supermarket, and while it was good by store-bought standards, the fatal flaw was that I could not detect any of the ingredients that make cheesecake so great! Instead, the spiced pumpkin overpowered everything else and while I normally enjoy such a flavor, not even that could stop my mood from being soured for the rest of that fateful evening.
Long story short, don’t overdo it with the customization. When in doubt, dial back the flavor. If you taste your mixture (provided you haven’t added the egg yet) and don’t detect much of what you added, don’t fret. Your taste buds will thank you later. I reluctantly took this advice while making the maple bacon cheesecake I mentioned earlier, and I’m so glad I did.
#1: ALWAYS Use a Springform Pan!
Perhaps the most crucial of all five tips, but thankfully it’s also the easiest, and it’s something you can’t miss if you Google any cheesecake recipe. And there’s a very good reason why that’s the case, as not having one makes the process of making a cheesecake needlessly limited. I would know because the first several times I did, all I had access to was a simple, circular cake pan just over an inch tall.
While it did get the job done, I found that it could barely hold the dessert, forcing me to limit the ingredient quantity and making a larger batch impossible unless I was willing to use two pans. On top of that, because I lacked the ability to simply remove the pan’s walls with the click of a buckle, the first slice I cut out was destroyed. Thankfully, the others were fine, but the fact remains that if you don’t use a springform pan, it can mess up the presentation of such a lavish dessert.
That, combined with the ability to make a taller dessert, makes such a pan an absolute necessity if you want to make a professional-quality cheesecake from the comfort of your home kitchen.
