4 Levels of Cheesecake: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

Hi, I'm Shane and I'm a level one chef. I'm Beth and I'm a level 2 chef. I'm Rory from the Institute cutting education and I'm a level 3 chef. This is a nice, easy New York style.

cheesecake

that comes from my wife's family cookbook it is easy to make and I love making it this recipe is a ricotta

cheesecake

it is my husband's absolute favorite cake absolutely delicious I like to say it is light and not so dense so today I will be making a European style cheesecake that stinks City and without a baking recipe, okay, we will start by making the crust, the first thing we have to do is prepare this mold so that the cheesecake goes in and comes out easily once we unmold it.

Instead of a traditional crust, I'm going to make an oatmeal cookie to top my cheesecake. There is a little more tasty. You have the graham cracker crust crushed and ready to go. The graham cracker coating allows me to open and release it easily. the springform pan cake so first step we're going to add the softened butter and sugar we're going to take some room temperature butter and I want to put the butter all over the pan now for the graham cracker crumbs pouring in the butter and cinnamon . I'm going to mix all of that together, what I'm looking for is a nice, uniform consistency, you don't want too many lumps, so we're going to mix this in until it's light and white, so next we're going to mix in the flour and a little bit of flour. oats and a

food

processor add a little bit of black pepper and salt and then I'll add my dry ingredients to the mixer until they're incorporated and we'll just blend them together because we don't know how to do too much gluten.

Pour the mixture on top, just run the crumbs around the sides and bottom of the pan until you get a really nice coating. This looks good. We'll cool it for 30 minutes, so next step I'll gently transfer it to a bowl. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes after cool. I'll roll it out flat about a quarter inch thick. We're going to bake it at 350 degrees for about 810 minutes and here's your nice sprinkled graham cracker and once it's baked, I hit it. Take out the cookies and now we have our baking black pepper cookie to use as a base.

Now let's start working on the dough. The first step is to separate the eggs and this is important. We're going to beat the whites if you get any of the yolk in the white you're not going to get the same aeration something to be your life I break it up a little bit and then I let the white fall into that first bowl and then I move it back and forth and then I put the yolk in the other bowl and unfortunately some of the yolk got in with the white, so we had to throw this away and start again.

I'm using my hands to catch the yolk. The shell of the egg may be sharp and may pierce the yolk. Okay, let's try this again. I did it again. I'm going to have to start over. Very easy. Take three much more carefully. More gently than what he was doing before. It's a little bit in there. If you have some yolk, take it. Lift the shell and then take it out, okay, my rights and my eggs are separated and now I'm going to beat the whites. I'm going to beat the egg whites so that it becomes a very stiff piece, so that's what you're looking for. making sure it's ready is that when you take out this hand mixer it's going to hold this shape, so we're going to add this to the egg with a whisk, this is going to add some richness to the cake and also make it lighter, a little bit cautious. it will change color we will go to a deep yellow now it is very pale almost white beautiful put them on the plate when you pick up a nice small portion it stays on the spatula it doesn't leak again so now my whites are ready and I'm going to move on to the old mixture of cream cheese, we're actually using two different types of cheeses, three nice big blocks of cream cheese and this is a nice Severn cheese, it's a triple cream ReCell cheese in France.

I'm going to bring it up, this cheesecake is for my husband and he loves to try cheesecake. I like to use the report alone because this is what helps make the cheesecake much lighter than a New York style cheesecake. I'm going to start beating the ricotta. While I add the other ingredients and you add the egg yolks one at a time, flour, flour is a stabilizer, now we'll add a little heavy cream for the good stuff, sugar, a pinch of salt, always a pinch of salt, a little almond extract, just a little bit. and always vanilla, what makes this cheesecake different, I think it's that I take the zest of a whole orange and a whole lemon.

The good thing about these remains, if you make it so that it looks like it's upside down, you don't have to get it. When it boils, just it stays in the rest little by little so that it doesn't spread all over the kitchen and now we take our hand mixer, we put it on maximum and here we go, hmm, we are. I'll mix this until smooth for about two to three minutes. The key to keeping everything on the ball is to start with a setting lower than high and then work your way up until it looks nice and smooth.

Everything's ready to Come on, what we're going to do is incorporate our egg whites into our dough, so look for Jellico to be a hazelnut, the cure really brings out the flavor of the cheese. Let's boil this Jellico friend up here, I've got my egg whites. They are ready to go in and the important thing here is to fold them, don't mix them too gently, be very gentle, don't even talk loudly when you do it, all the air we will get from the whites. You don't want to deflate it, turn it upside down and on top of it is a sheet of gelatin that will soften in cold water and as soon as you add a little bit of heat, it will melt and dissolve all this gelatin.

You can see that this gelatin is now soft. To remove excess spoilage from the Frangelico, this gelatin will really help the cheesecake set once it is fully dissolved, you will add it back into this egg mixture. Now I'm going to add my cheese mixture from earlier to the egg mixture. Let's mix this up. until fully combined, okay, my dough is ready. I'm going to take my crust cold. You can see that not all the white is gone. I don't want to mix this any more than I already have my crust ready. the dough is ready let's put it all together this is ready now have these four ring molds that I'm going to put my mixture in we're going to put it in a piping bag to put it in the molds pour it right in and move it around I'm just tapping this to level it out so when we put the frosting it's nice and flat, so what you want to do is pour this evenly into the springform pan on top of the base.

I'm not worrying too much. It's lumpy because there's another layer on top. It is ready to go in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes before adding the final layer of sour cream. I'm going to cook this in a water bath once I get the pan. in the oven I'm going to pour boiling water around the side of the pan until it reaches the middle of the water bag hook the cheesecake evenly again this is a no bake cheesecake so no need to put them in the oven now I'm going to put them in the refrigerator for hours to set while the cake bakes.

I'm going to make the final layer, which is a mixture of sour cream and sugar. This will give the cake a sweet flavor and almost act like a prosthesis, so I'm going to make a strawberry glaze, we're going to soak the gelatin in ice water while it's soaking, we're going to heat up some fresh strawberry puree. Strawberries go great with this cheesecake recipe because honestly, that's a tastier recipe. the strawberries really highlight that today I have raspberries. I like to use a little orange liqueur, this just gives it a touch of alcohol and a little powdered sugar because powdered sugar dissolves easier than granulated sugar.

Okay, it's almost baked, but first. When it's done, we're going to add that layer of sour cream, these cracks on the surface are totally fine because we're going to add this sour cream mixture right on top and now we're going to spread it with the back of our spoon, this is going to go back into the oven. for five more minutes to finish baking and then once it's done I'm going to put it in the refrigerator to chill overnight so this gelatin is now soft so I'm going to add it to the hot jewelry puree and mix it until let it melt.

What I'm doing is macerating these raspberries with the orange liqueur and the sugar so this is ready now we're going to let it cool to room temperature and then we're going to glaze the cheesecakes okay the cake is ready it's cold overnight at your service. The first thing I do is run my knife along the edge, undo this latch here and lift it up and away. Here you have this beautiful cheesecake. I always dust the tops with so much cheese that I chill it for four hours and now I'm I'm going to put the glaze on them to even them out.

I'll put them in the refrigerator for about an hour. The glaze hardens to finish. Just put some blueberries on top. A little of our raspberries macerated right on top of the glaze. It's placed on our cheesecakes, so I brought one to finish. I'm going to take one of our oak Packers as a base. Place cheesecake directly on top. I'm going to finish with some fresh strawberries, the last thing we're going to do. I'm going to add to this cheesecake some freshly ground pepper and this is my cheesecake. Here's my respect to cheesecake and here's my cheesecake.

It's time to try it. It's great, it's light. It's delicious. The strawberries and black pepper really give it a kick. The cookie gives. a really nice texture like strawberries and cheesecake can't go wrong with this. What I love about this cheesecake is that you have the crunch of the blueberry, the softness of everything else and then you have that nice, nice crunch of the graham cracker you can taste the citrus definitely try a little alcohol with the macerated fruit this is a tried and true recipe I wouldn't have changed a thing, let's hear how our three chefs prepared each of their cheesecakes classic cheesecake is a type of baked custard usually made with soft, unfermented cheese when a cheesecake is not baked in Instead of being custard-like, it's more like a dense, delicious mousse for its crust.

Shane used traditional crushed graham crackers and added cinnamon as a warm, complementing flavor. graham crackers are perfect, their crust is also quite thick, provides support for your cheesecake and is handy for cutting and serving. You want to make sure that none of that mixture leaks out and touches the bottom of the mold being used. graham crackers too, but not as a base, essentially use them instead of flour so the cake doesn't stick to the pan. Rory used an oatmeal cookie that was added just before assembly, it provides a crunchy texture, hearty flavor and something visual. appeal for her batter Shane used a chiffon style mixing method where she beat the egg whites separately and gently folded them into the cream cheese and egg yolks, this created a light, porous texture for her final cheesecake.

You usually don't want a lot of small holes. in your dough they will expand and rise when heated, then contract when cooled and that's how cracks form like the one in Shane's cake during the last 5 minutes of baking. Shane also added sweet and sour cream which stays slightly viscous and is also filling. Crack Shane lightly baked his cheesecake, which removed moisture and increased the firmness of it. Beth used the same chiffon-style mixing method as Shane, but she added additional flavorings like vanilla extract, almond extract, and citrus zest to give her cheesecake a tangy quality. She also used ricotta cheese instead.

Ricotta cream cheese is not actually a true cheese, as it is actually made from whey, which are the water-soluble byproducts that are produced when making cheese curds. Beth baked her pie in a hot water bath, which allowed for even heating and promoted gentle whipping of the cheese. and the egg batter is like a soft blanket around the cheesecake, even if the oven is at 375 degrees, the water will not exceed 212 degrees without turning into steam, which takes a while as it requires a lot of energy. Ricotta has a higher water content. that the cream cheese and the gentle coagulation of her dough resulted in a softer cake than Shane's for Rory.

The gelation of her cheesecake does not come from baking but from the gelatin she used. Soluble gelatin is derived from collagen, an insoluble connective protein found in meat. She also used a Severn cream cheese embryo blend, which is a soft, strong cow's milk cheese that is fermented for two weeks or less. The key to this cheesecake was refrigeration instead of baking, where the gelatin went from a soft, viscous liquid to a firm gel. Chilled, the texture of this cake remained very soft, almost like ice cream. Shayne's simple addition of sweet cranberries pairs well with the cinnamon in the crust and the tangy, tangy cream cheese has a much more complex flavor profile, its raspberries macerated in orange liqueur.

They complement the citrus zest she added to her cake batter. I know that's why my husband loves this cheesecake. They were poured over the mass ofcheesecake after cutting each piece and then sprinkled with powdered sugar, which counteracts any alcohol taste that may be in the orange liqueur roll or use gelatin in your topping, which solidified the sweet strawberry frosting that made, its final pinch of black pepper added a slight spicy note that counteracts the sweetness of the strawberry flavors, whether you're making something traditional or a little more complex. There are many ways you can make your cheesecakes stand out from the crowd Hello everyone, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to this episode.

I just got a new job, so I had to take some time off, but know that I saved you about three minutes. Because all I was going to do was cut a piece of pancake and put it in my cheesecake batter, I will return to four

levels

once again and reign as a level one.