TOP 10 Ways to Make Cheesecake

Cheesecake is a cake that should definitely appear on the festive table - regardless of whether it is Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day or a holiday for cheesecake lovers. All you need is cheese, a little patience, and faith that a dropped cheesecake is just as delicious as one that's flat as a table.

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Cheesecake recipe is probably the most popular recipe before Christmas. The dough can be light as fluff, or heavy and generously filled with raisins (ideal when washed down with cognac, rum or mead). It can also be made with hand ground cottage cheese, bucket cheese, mascarpone and ricotta. Halvah, raspberries, chocolate, pumpkin puree, nuts, peanut butter - the cheese will take it all and reward you with its taste in an absolutely creamy version.

We can bake cheesecakes without a bottom - then pour the cheese mass into a mold covered with baking paper. We can bake cheesecakes on the classic shortbread dough. We can also take a shortcut and bake a cheesecake for cookies. In this article, you will find the answer to the question of how to make a cheesecake base, how to get a creamy or cloudy light cheesecake, what toppings cheesecake likes and if there is a way to prevent it from ruining.

How to make a cheesecake base using cookies?  

Crush 150 g of cookies (preferably thick, digestive or oreo cookies) and place in a blender bowl. Pour in 75 g of melted butter and mix until it resembles flour. Lay on the bottom of a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Press down to make the bottom uniform. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking, then sprinkle with cheese on top.

How to make a crispy cheesecake base? 

To prepare the base, we need 100 g of cold diced butter, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar, 1 cup flour, 1 egg yolk (leave the white, beat and add to the egg mixture). Knead all the ingredients quickly (or beat with a mixer until a homogeneous mass is obtained), roll into a ball and put in the refrigerator for half an hour. Cover a baking sheet measuring 20 cm x 30 cm or a detachable form with baking paper, and put shortbread dough on the bottom, on which then pour cheese. If we want to make a cheesecake with crumbs (for example, Krakow) or a cheesecake with crumbs (for example, with peaches or pears), then the ingredients of the recipe are doubled. Then use half of the mass to prepare the bottom, and decorate the top of the cake with the other half.

What is the best cheese to use for cheesecake? 

If you like heavy and traditional cheesecakes, it is best to grind your favorite fatty cottage cheese two to three times (1 kilogram per 1 standard-sized cheesecake). If you prefer creamy cheesecakes, you should use ready-made ground cheese in a bucket. Just pay attention to the contents of the package: it is better to buy cheese without flavors, potato flour and dyes; it's best to only include cheese, or perhaps cheese and cream. Instead of cottage cheese for cheesecake, you can use Italian ricotta. Ricotta is an extremely soft cheese, and combined with cream and whipped egg whites, it will give the cheesecake a lightness like a cloud. If you like syrniki, which some people call "automatic", i.e. slightly rubbery and light, you can add milk powder to the cheese mass (1 glass of non-granulated milk per 1 kg of cottage cheese).

What to add to cheesecake? 

Cheesecakes willingly accept different tastes: 1 g of halva, 150 tablet of melted white chocolate, 1 tablet of dark chocolate cut into pieces, orange zest, pieces of fruit (for example, canned peaches or pears) can be added to 1 kg of cottage cheese. ), salted caramel or fondant mass (1 cup of mass per 1 kg of cheese), powdered freeze-dried raspberries, giving the dough color and flavor (1 cup), peanut butter (also 1 cup) - cheesecake will take whatever we like. However, it is worth buying a good cheese and adding additives to enrich its flavor, rather than block it completely. For example, ricotta cheesecake tastes best with 1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest (preferably raw or thoroughly scalded and rinsed) and a dash of amaretto. If you want to give the cheesecake a New Year's touch, you can add 1 tablespoon of ginger seasoning to the cheese mass, and cook the bottom from gingerbread cookies or speculoos cookies.

What can I do to keep my cheesecake from falling apart?

A cheesecake that is flat as a table is the dream of most homemade pastry chefs. Some tips advise chilling the cheesecake in the oven. Others advise not to overdo the egg whites. Still others recommend always baking the dough in a water bath. The oldest and simplest advice is to put up with cracked dough. It's best not to worry about it at all - cheesecake is just an incredibly creamy cake that gives the eater a lot of fun, and that's the only thing to consider. Cracks or crevices can be seen as an invitation to decorate—just browse blogs and food portals to see how beautifully fruits, dried fruits, toppings, and bars mask the visual imperfections of a cheesecake. However, the method of slowly cooling the cheesecake does not work - after baking, do not remove the cheesecake from the oven, but lower its temperature by 50 degrees and leave for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, lower the temperature again by 50 degrees and leave the cheesecake for another 30 minutes. Then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in it. This is a very labor intensive job.

How to cook the most classic and traditional Krakow cheesecake?

A classic from a classic, a checkered plate cheesecake on a crispy bottom filled with orange zest and raisins. Thanks to technological advances, today it is usually baked using a bucket of ground cheesecake. However, Krakow's cheesecake is best of all, made from the best fat cottage cheese that can only be found twice ground.

To prepare the base, we need 200 g of cold diced butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, 2 cups flour, 2 yolks (leave the whites). Knead all the ingredients quickly (or beat with a mixer until a homogeneous mass is obtained), roll into a ball and put in the refrigerator for half an hour. Line the bottom of a 20 cm x 30 cm baking dish with half of the dough (it is worth lining the bottom with baking paper). Roll out the remaining dough into thin strips, which will form a grid. We prepare the cheese. Grind 1 kg of fatty cottage cheese twice in a meat grinder. Add 1 cube soft butter, 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, 1 vanilla pod grains, 2 tablespoons orange zest, and 1/2 cup raisins (raisins soaked in cognac, whiskey, or mead for 1 hour taste great and drain before adding to cakes). Add 5 yolks to the cheese mass and mix with a mixer. Beat 7 egg whites until foamy and combine with a spatula with the cheese mass. We spread on the cake, cover with strips of dough to make a lattice. Put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake for about 1 hour. It is best to chill the cheesecake in the oven.

How to make fruit cheesecake? 

Fruit cheesecakes are usually light and refreshing. They are most often cooked in the summer, but the memory of warmth will come in handy for some people in the winter.

The most common fruit in a cheesecake - peaches - in the classic version on a crispy base with delicate meringue and crumbs. Instead of peaches, canned pineapples, canned pears, or fresh raspberries are often added to cheesecake. Cheesecake with pears and a pinch of cinnamon is a great addition to the cheesecake repertoire.

To prepare the base, we need 200 g of cold diced butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, 2 cups flour, 2 yolks (leave the whites). Knead all the ingredients quickly (or beat with a mixer until a homogeneous mass is obtained), roll into a ball and put in the refrigerator for half an hour. Line the bottom of a 20 cm x 30 cm baking dish with half of the dough (it is worth lining the bottom with baking paper). Mix 1 kg of ground cottage cheese (preferably from a bucket, but no additives) with 1 cup of powdered sugar, 150 g of softened butter, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 3 egg yolks (excluding whites) and 2 tablespoons of vanilla pudding. We put it on the cake. Place the diced canned pear on top. Beat the remaining 3 egg whites to peaks with a pinch of salt. At the end of beating, add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Put the foam on the cake. Sprinkle with the rest of the grated shortcrust pastry. We put them in an oven preheated to 180 degrees and bake for about 1 hour. Cool the cheesecake in the oven.

How to make a light as a cloud cheesecake? 

The cheesecake is light as a cloud thanks to the proteins and their gentle mixing with the cheese mass. The cheesecake tends to crack in the middle, but don't worry about it beforehand. If this happens, it's hard. If we don't think about it, there's a chance the cheesecake will work. To prepare the base, we need 200 g of cold diced butter, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, 2 cups flour, 4 yolks (leave all the whites). Knead all the ingredients quickly (or beat with a mixer until a homogeneous mass is obtained), roll into a ball and put in the refrigerator for half an hour. Line the bottom of a 20 cm x 30 cm baking dish with half of the dough (it is worth lining the bottom with baking paper). Mix 1 kilogram of pureed cottage cheese (preferably from a bucket, but without additives) with 6 yolks (leave the proteins), 150 g of soft butter, 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar. In a separate bowl, mix 10 egg whites and a pinch of salt until frothy. At the end of beating, add 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar. Very gently mix the curd mass with protein foam and carefully place on the dough. Sprinkle with the rest of the grated shortcrust pastry. We put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius, put a pan filled with boiling water on the bottom. Bake for about 1 hour. Cool the cheesecake in the oven. Serve on cake.

How to make New York Cheesecake? 

New York cheesecake is very creamy, slightly salty and baked at the bottom of what is called a cookie. Graham crackers. Emphasizing the word "salty" - most Polish recipes say that the American cheesecake should be baked using ground cottage cheese. However, in the United States, such cottage cheese cannot be found in stores, and Philadelphia cream cheese (slightly less salty than in Poland) is used to make cheesecake. Salted cream cheese with powdered sugar has an effect similar to salted caramel - some can eat with spoons, others do not swallow. Therefore, for baking New York cheesecake, I recommend combining cream cheese with cottage cheese - the mass will be slightly less salty, but most guests should like it. If all you want is a creamy cheesecake texture, use a bucket of ground cottage cheese.

To prepare the New York cheesecake, we need a digestive base or thick cookies. Crush 150 g of cookies and put them in a blender bowl. Pour in 75 g of melted butter and mix until it resembles flour. We put it on the bottom of a baking sheet covered with baking paper (preferably a detachable form for cakes with a diameter of about 26 cm, which we cover with paper not only from below, but also on the sides so that the paper protrudes above the form). Press down to make the bottom uniform. Put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and prepare the cheese.

Mix 600 g of your favorite cheesecake cheese to combine the ingredients with 300 g of natural Philadelphia cheese, 100 ml of 36% cream, 4 eggs, 2 tablespoons of wheat flour, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of freshly grated zest lemon. Pour the cheese mixture into the bottom of the cookies. Place a heat-resistant dish with boiling water on the bottom of the oven. Put the cheesecake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees Celsius and bake for 10 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 110 degrees and bake for 45 minutes (the middle of the cheesecake should be slightly gelatinous at the end of baking). Cool the cheesecake in the oven with the door slightly ajar. Place the dough in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

How to make ricotta cheesecake 

We make ricotta cheesecake in the same way as New York cheesecake, only instead of cottage cheese we use a mixture of cottage cheese and ricotta. To make an Italian-style cheesecake, we need an amaretti biscuit base. Crush 150 g of cookies and put them in a blender bowl. Pour in 75 g of melted butter and mix until it resembles flour. We put it on the bottom of a baking sheet covered with baking paper (preferably a detachable form for cakes with a diameter of about 26 cm, which we cover with paper not only from below, but also on the sides so that the paper protrudes above the form). Press down to make the bottom uniform. Put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and prepare the cheese.

Mix 300 g of your favorite cheesecake cheese to combine the ingredients with 600 g of ricotta (drain excess water), 100 ml of 36% cream, 4 eggs, 2 tablespoons of wheat flour, 2 tablespoons of amaretto liqueur, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest. Pour the cheese mixture into the bottom of the cookies. Place a heat-resistant dish with boiling water on the bottom of the oven. Put the cheesecake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees Celsius and bake for 10 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 110 degrees and bake for 45 minutes (the middle of the cheesecake should be slightly gelatinous at the end of baking). Cool the cheesecake in the oven with the door slightly ajar. Place the dough in the refrigerator and serve chilled.

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