I’m making a pumpkin cheesecake as my Thanksgiving contribution and I would like the texture to be something a little lighter than lead. It’s not a calorie thing, I don’t want a cheese brick that sticks in one’s throat. Looking at the approximately 6 million recipes on the net I see a pattern of thought in different versions. Some use a lot of eggs or a combination of eggs/egg whites and some have flour and some have cream. I’ll be throwing the usual stuff in plus fresh ginger, a little hazelnut flour and maybe some hazelnut coffee creamer for flavor.
So am I adding egg yokes to mousse it up a little or cream or what?
IME, the more eggs, the denser and heavier, which you do not want. You might try using a little less cream cheese and adding sweetened condensed milk and Cool Whip for a lighter texture.
Cheesecake is usually dense, and not fluffy so tweaking the recipe to fluff it up will probably require more than one or two substitutions/additions and possibly a different technique altogether (depending on the cheesecake recipe in question). If you are looking for something light and fluffy you might consider making a pumpkin chiffon pie or a “cheesecake” (such as those made with Cool Whip instead of cram cheese) or a bastardization of recipes like this:
Fluffy Pumpkin Cheesecake
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 (8-ounce) container of nondairy whipped topping (Cool Whip, but real whipped cream might work too, I have never tried it.)
1 graham cracker pie crust
Beat cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar and pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until smooth. Stir in whipped topping. Spoon into crust. Refrigerate until set.
Beat the eggs into an egg foam, use the egg whites, some cream of tartar, and sugar, and make them into stiff peaks. This will definitely lighten up the cheesecake. Also a cup or two of sour cream will not hurt either.
I guess practically, my first step would to be to divide the eggs, cut the yolk to white ratio, and whip the whites, fold them into the cheesecake mixture… I guess this could be termed the souffle’ solution. I would also fold in a small amount of sifted flour.
How this would work, I am not sure, because I can’t imagine why anyone would want to change the texture and flavor of a perfect cheesecake.
Although, I had an amazingly different gooseberry cheese cake in Deutschland, She(my exchange Omas and Muttis) made a typical boxed cheesecake, German manufacture, with local Quark and added the berries… this particular German cheesecake I have never eaten the equal… naturally much lighter, tangier, and fresher than the American Counterpart. It was much more liquid, fresh, and delicate. Wish I could duplicate it… best bet, Aldi’s or Trader Joe’s!
From personal experience, I can tell you that mixing the batter in a stand mixer with the whip instead of the paddle will put so much air into the batter that the end result is more of a cheesecake mousse. By amazing coincidence, I was making a pumpkin cheesecake as well.
It was fluffy, once it eventually baked - all that extra air really jacked up the cooking time. IIRC, I pulled it after two extra hours of baking as the top was starting to look overdone, and prayed that the insides were good.
Regrettably, I have no idea how to predictably replicate my goof.
I always add a cup of sour cream to my cheesecake batter (greek yogurt is also acceptable!) and it results in an exceptionally creamy cheesecake. Not exactly “light,” but not a dense brick of cream cheese either.
I’d try a German Cheesecake recipe for a naturally lighter and “fluffier” cheesecake. Perousing some of these German Cheesecake recipes it seems like the secret to the lightness of the German cheesecakes is the naturally more creamy German Quark, the addition of butter, and sometimes cream. Which might make it inherently difficult to reproduce here in the states as I have never seen real German Quark available here anywhere. This excellent kasekuchen recipe from Diana’s Desserts however, offers these alternatives as substitutions to the Quark…
*Note:
There are 3 substitutions that can be used for the Quark in this recipe if Quark is not available. One is to use farmer’s cheese, another is to purée cottage cheese in a blender or food processor, and the third is to purée eight parts of ricotta cheese with 1 part of sour cream in a food processor.
(I’d probably go with the ricotta/sour cream solution.)
Has this been answered sufficiently for me to try a slight hijack?
About fifteen years ago, Olive Garden had a chocolate-ganache-covered cheesecake that was very dense, drier than you’d expect, and about half as sweet as a normal cheesecake (ignoring the chocolate shell). It was nothing like a custard – about the consistency of a firm bleu cheese, and was my favorite cheesecake for years until it vanished from the menu in favor of 5,690 different variations on the lighter, creamier cheesecakes. Any idea how one would go in that direction? I assume it’s ricotta based instead of cream cheese, but beyond that I haven’t had any luck.
