Baking --Thoughts and question.

[mattl]

Doing some Easter baking yesterday found out something interesting and have a question for the bakers out there.

First, I was wandering around my local Meijer's a few weeks back and came across a Wilton rolling pin on clearance, if you are familiar with them they are big and yellow. Retail was $20 something clearanced for $1.98! Of course I bought it. All my life I've only used my grandmother's Rock Maple rolling pin as did my mother. What a difference. This one has a silicon cover on it that holds the flour, and the weight makes a big difference as does the larger size. Really surprised there was that much difference between rolling pins. It's nice that the handles are removable and the whole thing can go in the dishwasher.

Now the question... I made my favorite cheesecake I make every year, but this time it did not turn out right, I think due to my new oven. Trying to figure out how to correct the problem. It's a very rich cake, 5 8oz. packs of cream cheese, 5 whole eggs and 2 yolks plus 1/4 c. heavy cream, 1 3/4c. sugar,3 Tbs. flour along with orange and lemon zest.

Anyway you put it in the crumb crust and bake at 500 for 10 minutes then an hour more at 200. This time the crust was close to burned and the cake rose in the middle and as it cooled the middle shrank, leaving a ridge about 1" wide around the perimeter and the center dropped about 1/2 inch. I top it would fruit- apricots, blueberries, strawberries and green grapes with a glaze or all of it. Due to the way it settled it was hard to do a nice job with the fruit.

My thought is the new oven holds the heat much better than the older style and so the temp stayed at 500 too long. Any ideas how to remedy this? Lower initial temp? Open the door for a brief period to drop the temp quicker, what? I used to get a nice flat top with this cake, not this time...

 

[norgeway]

rolling pin

I use a Tupperware for small stuff, it is hollow and you fill it with ice water,I also have a great big heavy commercial one like they roll biscuits with at Bojangles.

 

[tomturbomatic]

You had the springform pan wrapped in foil to prevent leaks and in a water bath and the crust almost burned after 10 minutes at 500F? Something's is not adding up here.

 

[mattl]

No, no water bath. I've done other cheesecakes that way, this one I haven't.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'm really sorry all of your work and ingredients did not turn out right for you. If I were there, I would promise not to look at it while I helped you eat the evidence with a big spoon. I am just thinking how good the filling would be added to ice cream and when we got tired of that we could start flavoring it with delicious things like Chambourd. You could invite the whole cardiac care unit over while keeping a life support wagon idling in the driveway.

Do you have an oven thermometer? What kind of new oven is it? I don't think you sent out announcements.

 

[maytagbear]

Oh, sorry that you had a disaster.

That sounds like too much air in the mixture. Were ALL the ingredients at room temperature? One time, I was impatient, and did not let the cream cheese come up to temperature. I wound up overbeating the mixture, and I had a similar outcome to yours.

I so totally endorse Rose Levy Beranbaum's books, The Cake Bible, The Pie and Pastry Bible, and The Bread Bible. In my Amazon review of The Bread Bible, I said it was the "New Testament" of bread baking as compared to James Beard's Beard on Bread.

Rose Levy Beranbaum will work on one recipe for nearly a year to get it right the first time. I have never had a failure from her books, or from Beatrice Ojakangas's books (The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever or Whole Grain Breads by Machine or Hand,) or Jean Anderson's. (The American Century Cookbook, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking, or the newest edition of the best processor cookbook ever written, Process This!)

Yes, the thermostat could be off, but I think it might be too much air beaten into the mixture.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[spankomatic]

500 seems very hot... I cook mine at 350 for 30 min. I take it out and let cool for 10 min. Then I add the topping and bake for another 10 min.

 

[appnut]

That is absolutely beautiful Jim!!WOW!!!

 

[mixfinder]

Rise and Fall

The single most important step is the grease the side of the springform pan. It is better to err on the side of undermixing to prevent beating too much air into the batter. The protiens in the cheese and egg will cause a "skin" to form on the top of the cake and then steam will press against it as the middle of the cheesecake gets hot making the cake rise. Since there is very little structure to hold the cake airborn it will deflate as it cools. If the edge of the pan is well greased it allows the cake to slide back down evenly as well as preventing the top from cracking. I have made the recipe you refer to many times and the higher temp sets the crust and seals the top while the lower temperature is designed to eliminate the need for a bain marie or water bath. I avoid all baking pans that are not shiny aluminum because they make darker crusts which I'm not crazy about. A food processor is the perfect cheesecake machine mixing it in 30 seconds and never whipping in any air. Pie crust on the paddle and Salvador's Chocolate Cheesecake in process with the hand mixer.

 

[mattl]

The new oven?

It's an Electrolux I got at Thanksgiving, posted about it a few times. Love it. It has got to be the nicest oven I've ever seen. Love the full extension ball bearing racks that glide at the touch of a finger. I spent some time calibrating the temp too, used my candy thermometer as I know it's very accurate. The temp swing is 10 degrees either side of the set temp, from what others have posted that about as it should be. So at 350 the elements come on at 340 and at it's peak the temp reaches 360.

Lawrence, I think you hit the problem on the head. While my ingredients were all at room temp, and the directions say to beat the cream cheese until fluffy, I may have over done that part. I got busy with something and the mixer ran way too long.

Now I'll have to make another one and not over beat it. I just don't need the calories!

While not my best effort here it is:

 

[mattl]

Kelly thanks for the tip, I'll make a note on a sticky an attach it to the recipe. I've never greased the pan for cheesecakes. I always thought that all the butter in the crust was enough, you learn something here everyday!

 

[spiceman1957]

I have made cheesecakes in the past,

and I make a graham cracker crust and baked it in a spring form pan at 350 degree for about 15 minutes to set. As everyone here agrees, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature, especially the cream cheese and eggs. Yes, it does make a big difference to place the wrapped cake pan (foil) in a large pan of water. Its makes the cheesecake creamy and it is less likely to crack. These pictures of cheesecakes you all have posted here are beautiful and makes my mouth water.
John

 

[favorit]

A neapolitan easter cheesecake : the pastiera

yummmmmy .... after looking at these gorgeous cakes, can't help giving you a recipe of this cheesecake. Pizza is the worldwide known neapolitan dish ... but the pastiera is far better. Maybe it's just because you can find nice pizzerias also elsewhere while it's hard to find a nice pastiera elsewhere than Naples ..... unless your colleague's wife is a neapolitan and she's a nice chef

The story behind this recipe :

http://www.italiansrus.com/articles/ourpaesani/pastiera.htm

The recipe :

Pastiera - Recipes - Italiansrus.com

A great recipe for pastiera.

www.italiansrus.com

 

[bajaespuma]

Cheesecakes are custards, not cakes. In fact the word "custard" is a descendant of the Latin "crostata" which is still made to this day and is in fact a cheesecake. Custards are notoriously hard to bake successfully and require long low gentle heat. Your recipe is asking you to start the cheesecake at 500 degrees to give the thing a head start and to do a little browning of the crust. I'd start by eliminating that step. If your oven has convection fanning, turn that off if you can. Try baking the thing at 225 degrees for as long as it takes for the cake to puff up slightly and to be set everywhere but in the very center where it should be slightly soft but not jiggly.

Tom's suggestion of wrapping the spring form pan in foil and placing it in a water bath is a good one. That is by far the most foolproof way of baking a cheesecake.

 

[rayjay]

Electrolux Oven

Hey Matt.... I have the same range/oven. It really bakes right on target. I think 500 is a little too high in that indeed the oven is very accurate in holding heat. I also like to range top too.

How do you like cooking on the range top?

So...did you make any Polish traditions this Easter???

Ray

 

[mattl]

Ray, I just have the oven 30" wall mount not the range top, for that I have a Siemans/Bosh 30" gas cooktop, love them both. As I posted a while back I did calibrate my oven, down about 13 degrees based on my most accurate thermometer, have you checked yours?

Only semi Polish treat I make is Poppyseed roll. Would not be a holiday without Poppyseed roll. My cousin makes a White Borscht, a family tradition for them, but I've never had it. We've never had a big Easter celebration unlike Christmas....