Partner’s birthday is coming up, so it’s time to make cheesecake!
Being neither a baker, nor a lover of sweet things, but keen to please my best girl, it seemed sensible to ask the culinary dopers for a tried-and-tested recipe for a basic baked cheesecake. I have a gas oven, a reasonable selection of tins, access to ingredients sold in UK supermarkets (i.e. no graham cracker crusts), and am a fairly accomplished (savoury) cook.
Pulykamell? Athena? Bamboo Boy? Anyone?
I don’t do cheesecake very often, but it’s not all that difficult. You don’t need a graham cracker crust–that’s pretty easy to make yourself. Just pound a bunch of graham crackers or ginger snaps or plain chocolate cookies or whatnot, mix in with enough melted butter so it sticks together, and line a pie pan with it.
As for the basic recipe, it depends on what you like in your cheesecake. Cheesecakes come in all sorts of styles and consistencies. I tend to like mine with sour cream and/or cream, baked like a custard, with a smooth, creamy consistency. This is the recipe I follow. I also add lemon zest to the filling. I don’t usually bother with raspberries on top, but I do like the sour cream layer. It’s most similar to the styles of cheesecake I grew up with. Sometimes, if I’m feeling decadent, I might add melted white chocolate to the batter and, in that case, I do use the raspberries.
Here’s an even more straightforward cheesecake. This one is a little denser, with no cream, soured or otherwise in it. Some people prefer this style.
Do you access to cream cheese where you’re at? I can’t remember whether cream cheese was popular in the UK or not. It’s pretty easy to find a suitable substitute, but Philadelphia cream cheese does have a particular flavor to it.
FYI graham crackers are called digestive biscuits in UK
They’re not exactly the same, but they’re pretty darned close and can be used for cookie crust recipes (and they do seem to be the biscuit of choice for these types of crusts in the UK.)
pulykamell, thanks for the recipes. I can get cream cheese, and will probably use a generic supermarket brand rather than Philadelphia, as I find it too gummy for most things.
To clarify for anyone else who jumps into the thread: when I said ‘no graham cracker crusts’, I meant ‘can you recommend a recipe which doesn’t use graham crackers’. It doesn’t mean ‘no crust’, it just means that not being a confident baker, I’d rather not start substituting ingredients if I’m not sure how the substitution will work in terms of taste/ texture.
Like I said, for the crust, all you need to do is pound some suitable cookie-type thing down (in this case, digestive biscuits) and add enough melted butter for it to come together and become spreadable. I generally hate baking pastry type things and avoid making anything involving dough as much as possible (with the exception of bread and pizza), but cookie crusts are easy-peasy and difficult to screw up. And you pretty much can use any kind of cookie, provided it’s dry and crumbly enough.
In other words, you are fine substituting digestive biscuits, Marie biscuits, etc., for graham crackers. There’s nothing particularly special about graham crackers other than they’re mildly sweet and easy to crumble.
FWIW, over and over I’ve read amazing bakers who emphasize in their cheesecake recipes that Philadelphia is the best brand for their cheesecake. This is the recipe I use, although without the ladyfingers. It comes out wonderfully. [edit: this pdf contains a bit more detail about the recipe. Rose Levy Beranbaum is an amazing baker.]
Do you have a springform pan? If not, it’s next to impossible to unmold a cheesecake. You’ll end up digging pieces out of a standard cake pan, not slicing a beautiful cheesecake.
Yeah, if I’m doing American-style cheesecake, it’s gotta be Philadelphia. But you can create nice cheesecakes using almost any kind of fresh cheese. When I lived somewhere where cream cheese was not available, I would use the local fresh curd cheese and blend the hell out of it with some cream. That would do the trick to get something smooth and American-cheesecake like (or you can pass the cheese through a sieve.) Local recipes for cheesecake would just use the curd as-is, so you’d have a more crumbly, granular style of cheesecake. Both were good, just different.
I never found it to be a big deal. When I didn’t have access to springform pans, I would just do it in a regular cake pan, usually rectangular, like 9ish x 13ish. I don’t see the big deal about digging it out of a pan. Served on a plate, it still looks and tastes the same.
I tend to get Nilla Wafers…put a bunch in a zip lock bag and go at it with a rolling pin.
Put remnants in bowl…stir in some melted butter until it starts to come together. Press into pan.
The exact technique would work with many, many other crackers/cookies.
New York Cheesecake
Ingredients
CRUST:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs, (about 7 cookie sheets)
3 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg white
Cooking spray
FILLING:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, (1 oz)
1/2 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese
3 (8-oz) blocks fat-free cream cheese, softened, divided
2 (8-oz) blocks 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3 large egg whites
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
To prepare crust, combine crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and 1 egg white in a bowl; toss with a fork until well blended. Lightly coat hands with cooking spray. Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350°F for 8 minutes; cool on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
To prepare filling, weigh or lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine cottage cheese and 8 ounces fat-free cream cheese in a food processor, and process until smooth. Add remaining 16 ounces fat-free cream cheese, 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, flour, and next 4 ingredients (through vanilla); process until smooth. Add 3 eggs and 3 egg whites; process until blended. Pour cheese mixture into prepared pan. Bake at 325°F for 65 minutes or until almost set (center will not be firm but will set as it chills). Turn oven off; cool cheesecake in closed oven 1 hour. Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill 8 hours.
Makes 16 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)
Notes
This cake has a dense texture and rich cream cheese flavor. For a denser, creamier texture, cool the cake in the oven one hour with the oven door ajar instead of closed. Make a day ahead since the cooled cake needs to chill overnight.
Yield: 16 wedges
Servings: 16
Cuisine: American
Categories: Cheese
I make a good Key Lime Cheesecake. Instead of using graham crackers for a crust I use cheap lemon sandwich cookies ground up in my food processor. I also don’t bake my cheesecakes, but cook them on my stove top in pressure cooker.
StG
pulykamell, thanks! I used this recipe, fiddled with the quantities a little, added lemon zest, and eschewed the sour cream topping. It was perfect apart from a soggy crust, where the tinfoil lining leaked. Much enjoyed by all, and definitely one to keep!
I used to cheap out and buy store brand cream cheese, but I’ve also found that they don’t seem to work as nicely in a cheesecake. So now I just wait for Philly to go on sale 
I am far from a brand whore but I have to admit this is one area where I have to stick for the name brand.