The Ultimate Cheesecake Cookbook (Paperback)

Chapter One

The Cheesecake Gospel

READ BEFORE BAKING!

Cheesecake is the easiest dessert to make!

    How did it get such an awesome reputation? Bakers lie. When you findout how easy it is to make cheesecake, you'll stop paying $25 for theirs andstart baking your own.

    Bakers pass on anxiety-producing instructions that tell you to let yourcheesecake sit in the oven after it's baked for 78 minutes with the door ajar.Utter nonsense! If the cake is done, it can go right into the fridge. If it isn't, itshould be baked longer.

    Even worse are those recipes that tell you to put your cheesecake pan ina pan filled with boiling water—a baking principle we think was devised bythe marketing director of some pharmaceutical company who hoped to doublethe sales of adhesive bandages and first-aid sprays. We've never removedone of those from the oven without acquiring several blisters when hot watersloshed out of the pot and onto our delicate arms.

    Cheesecakes should be custardlike in the middle and creamy around theedges. Why do people overbake them? Mostly because they're afraid they'llfall apart when they're shifted from the metal bottom of the springform panonto a serving plate. On the other hand, if you're taking a cheesecake to aparty or picnic, transporting and serving it on the original metal springformbottom usually rewards you with yet another tambourine ring when the bottomdisappears. Solution: Before you start to bake, put the metal bottom platethat comes with the springform pan away in your closet. Buy a cardboardround from a baking-supply or paper goods store that's the same size as themetal bottom, and wrap the cardboard round in a sheet of heavy-duty aluminumfoil. Use the foil-wrapped cardboard round to replace the metal bottom,and bake on this instead. You can even cut out a round from acorrugated box that's lying around your house. And if the foil-wrapped roundisn't a perfect fit, trim the excess cardboard with a scissors or knife.

    You can protect your oven from butter leaks simply by wrapping a secondsheet of heavy-duty foil around the outside bottom rim of the springform panand baking away. It's a good idea to do this even if you bake in a springformwith the original metal bottom. Butter tends to leak out of these pans unlessthey are brand-new.

    When the cheesecake is ready to serve, remove the cake ON ITS FOIL-LINEDROUND, put a paper doily under it, and place it on a tray or carry it toyour destination. Baking cheesecakes on foil-wrapped rounds helps to cementfriendships because your original metal bottoms don't get lost in theback of someone's cupboard, and if they do, you know how to replace themand keep your pans viable.

    The subtleties of flavorings always make these cheesecakes exceptional.Many of these baked cheesecakes have been featured in restaurants and havewon prizes through the years. Now we're passing all our secrets on to you inthis book. Every one of these cheesecakes can be stored—uncut and boxed—inthe refrigerator for seven days, and they can all be frozen for severalmonths. We suggest that you freeze leftovers after you've served the cake at adinner party. Left too long in the refrigerator, the sour-cream glaze on bakedcheesecakes deteriorates first. It develops an unappetizing yellow tinge anddries out around the edges, so that you don't want to eat it, although youreally could. If you freeze the leftovers, the glaze stays creamy. It's very littletrouble to cut when it's frozen. Just use a sharp knife that you've run some hotwater over and wiped dry.

    Finally, we want to answer the question that people always ask us: Whichcheesecake is our favorite? Our reply has always been the same: whicheverone we happen to be feasting on.

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Excerpted from THE ULTIMATE CHEESE CAKE by Joey Reynolds with Myra Chanin. Copyright © 2001 by Joey Reynolds with Myra Chanin. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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