Variations on a Cheesecake

As I’ve been doing some variations on the traditional cheesecake recipe, with more or less success, this post will help remind me of some of the successful variations.

One of the reason for all of these testings, apart from a taste in exciting new culinary experiments, is that the typical ingredients to make those yummy New-York style cheesecakes are not that easily found in France.

The Crust Experiments

To do a tasty crust, many recipes use cookies crumbs, convenient ones are “biscuits sablés” (like the Roudor® brand).
» 150 g. (~12 cookies) can be used to make a fine powder.

Mix it with 50 g. of butter — you should get something with the texture of wet sand, quite flaky. The delicate thing with the crust is that too much butter will leave a puddle of butter when cooked, and may ruin the whole thing.
Press into a pan, and bake it 10 to 15 minutes at 180°C, let it cool thoroughly before putting the batter inside.

All in all, in the recent version I’ve made, I’ve dropped the crust altogether, because it tends to make the whole thing a bit heavy on the stomach…

The Batter Experiments

To replace the cheese, I’ve tried some things that can do:

1 kg “faisselle” (cheese-strainer) — tends to make a cheesecake that doesn’t stand very well…
condensed milk and yogurts
250g of mascarpone cheese and 500 g of “faisselle” — seems like the ideal dosage, my favourite…

plus:

3 eggs
150 g sugar + vanilla extract
zest of a lemon

Bake around 20 to 40 minutes at 180°C ; it all depends on the size of the pan (thickness of the cheesecake) and the desired consistancy (creamy to more solid).

Of course let it cool before serving, preferably with some red fruits coulis…