Cheesecake Folly

[midnightfae]

I tried to make cheesecake today, since my wonderful roommate's birthday is tomorrow. I used this recipe, which I followed exactly

Comments

[echelon]

My oven tends to run hot as well. What I do for "finicky" baked goods like cheesecake is:

1. Move the oven rack up to the highest thingy
2. Lower the oven temperature 25* F
3. Start watching it carefully about 10 minutes before the recipe says it'll be done.

I also bake cheesecake in a water bath, where I place my springform pan in a larger pan and pour a couple inches of hot water in the larger pan. This helps regulate the heat more evenly.

With the recipe you used, what I would have done was bake it at 325* and start watching it after 1 hour. When the edges are set and the center is slightly jiggly, I pull it from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Did you taste your cheesecake yet? I bet it tastes just fine. :) Put some fruit topping on it to hide the sunken-ness and act like nothing went wrong. :)

[midnightfae]

We haven't tasted it yet, since I was going to let it set and chill in the fridge overnight. Hopefully it's still tasty, cause there isn't time to make another one. :)

[dmk]

If you pull this cheesecake out of the oven before it's ready, it will fall. It needs to cool in the oven for an hour first. The only modifcation I ever made that did not taste good was to replace half the sugar with Splenda. Even then, it was good enough to eat over half of.

[ser_kai]

Add 1/4 of a teaspoon of Cream of Tartar(or tartaric acid) to your eggwhites.

[midnightfae]

What does the Cream of Tartar do?

[ser_kai]

Stabilises eggwhites.

http://www.akiskitchen.ca/techniques/eggs_how_to_whipup/whipping_egg_whites_1.html

[kint]

I never bake a cheesecake at 350. You certainly can get away with it, but as is true with anything custardy it's very dangerous--the more slowly you approach the 'finish' line the safer you'll be. Mine aren't too think and I do them at 250 for about 1 1/2-2 hours, turn the oven off and vent it briefly, then let it cool slowly in the oven (protects against cracking)

[midnightfae]

I think I'm going to give it another try next week, so I may try lowering the temperature as you suggest, coupled with the Cream of Tartar suggestion above.

[dmk]

Mom's been making this recipe for a good twenty years, in many different ovens, always at 350F. It has never failed for her.

[foomf]

Egg whites? In cheesecake? Hm. I've never, ever, ever done that.

[anahata56]

I was thinking the same thing.

If it's a NY style cheesecake, what you're looking for is something fairly dense, and eggwhites would defeat the purpose of that.

I'll bet the cake tastes fine, and probably does have that dense consistency that a NY cheesecake has. A lot of cheesecakes do sink a bit after taking them out of the oven, as it finishes baking and cools. And that's fine with me, because I know I do prefer a cheesecake not to be too fluffy, and more creamy.

To each his own, I suppose.

[dmk]

This cheesecake is pretty dense, but not the densest I've ever had. To me, it's prefect. But then, I'm biased :^)

guffaw

[breathbox]

lol at zhoul cookies.