Cheesecake is a cheese dessert (literally from English: cheese - cheese, cake - pie, cupcake), baked without dough or chilled at a low temperature and consisting of a fluffy filling. Cheesecake is a dish of predominantly American and European cuisines. It was from there that he came to us.
At home, cheese dessert is prepared exclusively from selected varieties of cream cheese, but some countries often partially or completely replace cheese with soft, fatty cottage cheese. As a result, the dessert is similar in appearance to the original and turns out no worse than a cheesecake prepared according to a traditional recipe, although the taste of such a product will be slightly different.
The base of a cottage cheesecake is usually cottage cheese, butter and crumbled biscuits. Oil and crumbs in a 1:2 ratio are mixed into a homogeneous mass, which is used to line the entire internal surface of the removable mold, including the sides. The result is a kind of “container” where we will put the cottage cheese filling.
In addition to cottage cheese, sugar, cream (sour cream), fruits, berries, raisins, vanillin, cinnamon, lemon zest, nuts, chocolate and other ingredients are added to the cheesecake filling. Then the mixture of ingredients is thoroughly beaten (to make the filling tender and fluffy), placed in a mold and baked at 160-180 C or kept in the cold. After which the delicacy is served on the table and consumed as dessert.
Curd cheesecake - food preparation
To prepare curd cheesecake, we will use any crumbly cookies, which must be crushed into fine crumbs, butter previously softened at room temperature, sugar (it is better to take fine sugar) and cottage cheese. Note that cottage cheese should not have a low fat content, otherwise the quality of the finished cheesecake will be sharply reduced. In addition, the cottage cheese should be passed through a sieve (sieve or blender) to crush all the grains.
Curd cheesecake - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Curd cheesecake from Yubileinoye cookies
Curd cheesecake based on Yubileiny cookies is deservedly considered one of the best desserts. Firstly, it is very healthy, thanks to the cottage cheese and grains contained in the cookies. Secondly, dessert is made in a matter of minutes. And the lemon zest included in the dish, combined with cottage cheese, will give it an unusually rich taste and a bright “sunny” shade.
Ingredients:
— 600 gr. fat cottage cheese
— 250 gr. Yubileiny cookies
- 100 gr. softened butter
- three eggs
- 100 gr. sour cream
— 150-170 gr. Sahara
- vanillin to taste
- one lemon (zest)
Cooking method:
1. Grind the cookies into crumbs (this can be done using a blender). Add oil and mix into a homogeneous mass. Place it in a greased pan with high sides.
2. Smooth the dough over the inner surface, also make sides of the dough about 3 cm high. Place in the refrigerator for half an hour for good fixation.
3. While the “dough” is cooling, let’s make the filling. We carefully rub the cottage cheese through a sieve, crushing all the lumps. Now beat the eggs, vanilla and sugar separately. Mix with cottage cheese. We'll also add sour cream and the zest of one lemon (you can take a tangerine or orange). Beat the mixture again for about one minute.
4. Take out the chilled “dough” and put the resulting curd filling inside. Carefully level to the very top of the dough sides. Place the dessert in an oven preheated to 170 C for 50 minutes. Cool the finished cheesecake. Remove from the mold, cool (preferably, but not necessarily) and serve.
Recipe 2: Cherry curd and chocolate cheesecake
The combination of natural cherries, chocolate cookies, cocoa and cottage cheese makes the cheesecake amazingly delicious! By the way, you can use not only fresh cherries, but also fresh frozen ones. A few berries should be left to decorate the surface of the sweet curd cheesecake. You can buy absolutely any cookies to suit your taste.
Ingredients:
- one and a half glasses of finely ground cookies (any chocolate)
- one fourth cup sugar (bottom layer)
- one table. spoon of melted l. oils
- one egg white
- two glasses of whole cherries (cherries)
- one fourth cup sugar (top layer)
- one tbsp. spoon of lemon juice
- two teaspoons of starch
For filling:
— 500 gr. cottage cheese
- one glass of sour cream
- half a glass of thick condensed milk
- a glass (or a little more) of sugar
- three tbsp. spoons cocoa (powder)
- two teaspoons of vanillin
- two eggs
- 100 gr. dark chocolate
Cooking method:
1. Separate the cherries from the pits and grind the pulp in a blender. Leave a few berries for the top layer. Place cherry puree, starch, sugar and lemon juice into a container. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring, for two to three minutes. Remove from heat, cool.
2. In a deep bowl, mix cookies (crumbs), sugar, butter and egg white. Place the mixture in a greased mold with sides, lifting the sides of the dough by 3-4 centimeters. Place the mold in an oven preheated to 150 C for 10 minutes. Then let the crust cool.
3. While the base is cooling, make the filling. We wipe the cottage cheese, beat it with condensed milk, sour cream, cocoa, vanilla, eggs, chocolate melted in a water bath and sugar. Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Place the cheesecake in the oven (temperature - 150 C) and bake for about forty minutes.
4. Grease the finished pie with a thick cherry sling, and place whole berries on top. Refrigerate the curd cheesecake for at least four hours. And then we eat.
Recipe 3: No-Bake Curd Cheesecake
An undeniable advantage of cheesecake is that it does not require baking, which allows you to retain absolutely all the beneficial substances in the dish. It takes no more than half an hour to prepare and about four hours to cool. The dessert turns out simply great in taste, satisfying, juicy, bright and, most importantly, healthy. The best solution for any sweet tooth!
Ingredients:
- “Coconut” cookies (or any other)
- 200 gr. butter
— 500 gr. medium fat cottage cheese
- 200 gr. heavy cream
- half a glass of sugar
- any fruits or berries for the top layer, about 300 g.
- three tbsp. spoons of agar-agar (powder)
- 50 gr. water
- syrup from the fruit (berry) that you choose as the first layer
- agar-agar - two tbsp. spoons (for jelly)
Cooking method:
1. Grind the cookies into crumbs. Mix it with softened butter. Line the inner surface of a deep container with cling film. Spread the mixture out, forming small sides of dough. Place the base in the refrigerator to cool.
2. Prepare the filling. Finely chop the fruits (berries). Grind the cottage cheese, mix it with sugar and fruit.
3. Pour cream into a saucepan, add agar-agar, mix and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. Turn off the stove. Cool the cream and mix with the curd and fruit mixture. The filling is ready.
4. Take the “dough” out of the refrigerator and put the filling on it. Carefully level it out. Let's prepare the jelly. To do this, chop the fruits, mix with sugar, water, and add agar-agar. Bring the mixture to a boil, cook for about one to two minutes. Let cool.
5. Pour the resulting syrup over the curd cheesecake. Decorate the pie with fruit on top and refrigerate it for 4 hours (or overnight). Cheesecake is ready! We remove it from the container by pulling the cling film and enjoy it.
During the baking process of curd cheesecake, you may encounter a very unpleasant problem - unsightly cracks may appear on its surface. To avoid this, bake the cheesecake at a temperature no higher than 180 degrees, and then slowly cool directly in the oven, but the door must be opened slightly. Only after this the cheesecake is taken out and, using a knife, carefully separated from the walls of the mold.
If for some reason you can’t make a classic cheesecake, try making it without baking - with gelatin. A delicate delicacy with a silky and smooth texture, a pleasant creamy taste, and a light aroma of vanilla and lemon will be appreciated by all guests at the table. Serve this cheesecake with fresh (frozen) berries, pieces of fruit, berry sauces, or just with a cup of coffee or tea.
A few words about the main products that make up the cheesecake. For the base you will need only two ingredients: any shortbread cookies (optional, a sweet cracker) and butter. Forget about margarine and spread! The base filling for any cheesecake is cream cheese. In the original it is Philadelphia, but recently it has simply disappeared from the shelves of Belarusian stores. That is why I use a locally produced product called Cream Cheese - it is in no way inferior to foreign analogues, and the price is quite reasonable.
How to make a cheesecake without baking, you need to stabilize the cheese mass with something - in this recipe we will do this with the help of gelatin. I should note that the exact amount of this gelatin can only be selected experimentally and may differ from that indicated - this factor depends on the brand and characteristics of the product. I really hope that my humble tips, as well as the no-bake cheesecake recipe itself, will be useful to you and you will definitely prepare this wonderful dessert.
Ingredients:
(500 grams) (200 milliliters) (100 grams) (100 grams) (50 grams) (10 grams) (1 tablespoon ) (1 teaspoon)
Cooking the dish step by step with photos:
To make a no-bake cheesecake, we need the following ingredients: cream cheese, cream (I used only 10% fat), powdered sugar and vanilla sugar, shortbread, butter, lemon zest and gelatin. Please note (okay, I'll remind you again later) that the cream cheese must be at room temperature, so take it out of the refrigerator in advance and leave it on the kitchen counter.
First of all, let's work on the basis for the future cheesecake: we turn 100 grams of any shortbread cookies into large crumbs in a convenient way for you. Most often I use a blender for this purpose, but here I really wanted to chop the cookies with a knife. If you wish, you can diversify the taste and texture of the future base - chocolate or nut cookies are suitable, and you can also replace some of the cookies with toasted chopped nuts.
Any round mold with a diameter of 16-20 centimeters is suitable for molding a cheesecake. In my case, this is an extendable pastry ring, which I made with a diameter of 18 centimeters and placed directly on a flat dish. Pour the sand crumbs directly into the mold - this amount of cookies with butter is designed only to cover the bottom. If you want to make sides, double the ingredients for the sand base.
Gently smooth out the sand crumbs with your fingers. Alternatively, after this you can further compact and level the base with the bottom of a regular glass, but this can be done very quickly and easily with your hands. By the way, it’s not visible in the photo, but in this recipe I used border tape - it’s transparent, so it’s not visible. Place the dough in the refrigerator so that the butter hardens and the cake becomes dense.
Meanwhile, let's make the cheese filling for the cheesecake. Since the dessert will be without baking, we will take gelatin - 10 grams. I use instant, that is, one that does not need to be pre-soaked in liquid. If you have gelatin that needs to be soaked in cold liquid, fill it with cold cream in advance and leave for 30 minutes. When the gelatin swells, heat it until completely dissolved, without bringing it to a boil, and then strain.
We work with instant gelatin: in a separate bowl, heat the cream to 80-85 degrees (if you want, you can take it thicker, but 10% is enough for us), pour in a tablespoon of vanilla sugar, gelatin and stir until dissolved. It is clear that not all grains can be completely dispersed in the cream, so then do not forget to strain the mixture through a sieve. Leave the cream to cool until slightly warm.
In another bowl, combine 500 grams of cream cheese (don't forget, at room temperature!), a teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest and 100 grams of powdered sugar. As you can imagine, lemon zest (like vanilla sugar) are flavorings that can be added as desired.
As a result, you should get a completely homogeneous, smooth and very tender cheese mass. The consistency is similar to sour cream with 20% fat content.
I cook this recipe perfectly simple cheesecake for the thousandth time already. This is the most delicious and fastest recipe, it has never let me down. And if you still doubt your abilities, then at least read the recipe below. In my opinion, the only thing simpler than cheesecake is scrambled eggs :) By the way, if you don’t know what cream cheese is, which is included in cheesecake, pay attention to the article “”.
Classic cheesecake and its history
Classic cheesecake is a favorite dessert of people all over the world. Many people assume that cheesecake originated in New York, but this is not true. It arose much earlier. Let's go back more than 4,000 years to ancient Greece! The first cheesecake was allegedly baked on the Greek island of Samos. Anthropologists have found cheese molds dating back to around 2000 BC. Plus, the simple cheesecake has always been considered a good source of energy, and there is evidence that cheesecake was served to athletes during the first Olympic Games in 776 BC. In addition, thanks to its simple composition and uncomplicated cooking method, the Greeks often chose cheesecake as a wedding cake. This is how cheesecake appeared in culinary history.
Ingredients for the recipe: Simple Cheesecake
- 170 g cookies
- 75 gr butter
- 370 g cream cheese
- 100 g sugar
If for any reason you are cooking baked goods without sugar, a simple diet cheesecake will suit you - put 15 sweetener tablets instead of sugar.
- 3 eggs
- vanillin on the tip of a knife
- 100 ml cream 33% or sour cream of any fat content
Method of preparation for the recipe: Simple Cheesecake
Note: If you don't want to make a cookie base, but want to make your own cheesecake base, then look here: shortcrust pastry
So why does everyone associate classic cheesecake with New York City? Here's the thing. In 1929, Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary Turf restaurant in New York City, announced that his family had invented the world's first cream cheese pie recipe (at a time when other bakeries were making similar cottage cheese-based pies). According to legend, Arnold was served such a pie at a reception in a private house, and he fell in love with the dessert from the first bite :) Later he tried to reproduce the recipe in his kitchen, and he succeeded. Soon, Reuben began serving pie with cream cheese in his restaurant, thanks to which cheesecake quickly gained popularity among Americans. This is how the classic New York cheesecake was born.
What could be tastier than the most delicate dessert prepared by yourself? We have collected for you seven simple recipes for everyone's favorite cheesecakes. Choose any one and make your family happy! 🙂
Ingredients:
- 300 g sugar cookies (for example, Yubileiny)
- 100–150 g butter
- 500 g mascarpone, Philadelphia cheese or low-fat cottage cheese
- 200 ml cream 33–35% fat
- 150 g sugar
- 20 g gelatin
Preparation:
- Pour gelatin into 100 ml of cold boiled water and leave for 1 hour.
- Grind the cookies in a blender and mix with melted butter until smooth. Place the mixture in a mold with a diameter of 24–26 cm, compact it well, and put it in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
- Bring gelatin to a boil, but do not boil. Cool.
- Beat cream with sugar. Add mascarpone, mix well. Add gelatin and mix again.
- Spread the resulting mixture onto the cookie base, smooth it out and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.
Ingredients:
- 150 g sugar cookies
- 50 g butter
- 100 g sugar
- 120 ml whipping cream
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 2 tbsp. l. cocoa powder
- 200 g cream cheese
Preparation:
- Melt the chocolate in a water bath and then cool.
- Grind the cookies into crumbs and mix with melted butter and 1 tbsp. l. Sahara. Press the resulting cheesecake base into a mold and put it in the refrigerator.
- Whip the cream, add the cooled melted chocolate and then cocoa powder diluted with a small amount of hot water. Mix everything carefully.
- Beat cream cheese with sugar. Combine with chocolate mixture and stir. Place on cooled base in pan.
- Place everything in the freezer for 1 hour, then transfer it to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Ingredients:
- 500 g cottage cheese
- 500 g sour cream
- 1 cup of sugar
- 200 g nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts)
- 100 g blueberries or blueberry jam
- 150 g butter
- 200 g gelatin
- 150 g dates or dried apricots
Preparation:
- Grind nuts and dried fruits in a blender and mix with melted butter. From the resulting mass form a base with sides.
- Dissolve gelatin. Beat cottage cheese, sugar and sour cream until smooth. Add gelatin and mix well again.
- Add blueberries or blueberry jam and mix well again.
- Pour the resulting mixture onto the crust and place in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
- When the cheese base has completely hardened, decorate the cheesecake with fresh berries or jam and serve.
Ingredients:
- 350 g sugar cookies
- 150 g butter
- 3 bananas
- 2 tbsp. l. lemon juice
- 450 g cottage cheese
- 200 ml cream
- 2 tbsp. l. powdered sugar
- 1.5 tbsp. l. gelatin
Preparation:
- Grind the cookies in a blender and then mix with melted butter. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the cheesecake pan.
- Pour gelatin with 6-7 tablespoons of hot water and stir until completely dissolved.
- Grind two bananas in a blender with lemon juice. Add cottage cheese, cream and powdered sugar. Beat everything until creamy, and then, while stirring, slowly pour in the gelatin.
- Pour the resulting mass onto the cookie crust and set in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. Remove the finished cheesecake from the mold and decorate with bananas.
By the way, don’t miss the recipe for a delicious diet raspberry cheesecake - delicious and without harm to your figure! See detailed recipe with photos!
Ingredients:
- 300 g cottage cheese
- 300 g condensed milk
- 250 g shortbread cookies
- 200 g butter
- 1.5 tbsp. l. gelatin
- 100 ml cream
Preparation:
- Soak gelatin in hot water.
- Crush the cookies and mix with melted butter. Transfer the resulting dough into a baking dish and make sides.
- Mix condensed milk, cottage cheese and cream in a blender. Add gelatin and mix well again.
- Pour the filling onto the cookie crust. Leave the dessert in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours. If desired, the cheesecake can be decorated with berries.
Ingredients:
- 9 pcs. cookies (any)
- 150 g frozen raspberries
- 2 tbsp. l. corn starch
- 30 g sugar
- 300 g Philadelphia or Almette curd cheese
- 100 g cream 30% fat
- 250 ml cold water
Preparation:
- Grind the cookies.
- Lightly heat frozen berries in a saucepan over low heat. Strain the released juice, add half the water, then starch and mix everything thoroughly.
- Add the remaining water to the berries, add sugar and put on the fire again. When the mixture is well heated, pour the juice and starch into it in a thin stream, stirring continuously. Cool the finished jelly.
- Beat the curd cheese, adding a little cream to form a curd cream.
- Place crushed cookies, curd cream and raspberry jelly in layers on the bottom of the glasses. Repeat again layer by layer: cookies, curd cream and jelly. Garnish with mint leaves, berries and cream.
Cheesecake is a sweet cheese pie served for dessert. It is prepared in many cafes and restaurants. At the same time, there is no single recipe for traditional American cheesecake, because each pastry chef prepares it in his own way: some use sour cream to prepare the glaze, others use cream, and some prefer to add condensed milk. Some people prefer Mascarpone cheesecake, others prefer Philadelphia or Ricotta. Therefore, everyone who decides to cook a classic cheesecake has their own recipe. But whatever the recipe, the dessert turns out not only beautiful, as in the photo, but also delicious.
Cheesecake is a pie whose main ingredient is soft cheese or just cottage cheese.
Many housewives are sure that it is almost impossible to prepare this dessert at home, because the cheesecake recipe is complicated. It would be a misconception to think that only professional pastry chefs can prepare this pie. In fact, if you follow the recipe exactly, you will end up with a wonderful classic cheesecake. It is also called "New York".
“Cheesecake” literally translates as “cheese pie.” The name itself suggests that the pie contains cheese. But not every cheese is suitable for cooking. What cheese is used to make New York or classic cheesecake?
To prepare New York cheesecake, like any other dessert, we need soft cream cheese; it has a creamy consistency and a very delicate taste. But you should not use processed cheeses. They are completely out of place here.
Yes, cream cheese is very similar in texture to cottage cheese. But you can’t replace it with regular cottage cheese. After all, any curd product will give the dish a sour taste. Still, some housewives replace expensive cheeses with cottage cheese when preparing this pie.
Philadelphia cheese is best for cheesecake. It is made from sour cream and cream. This cheese is very tender and pleasant to the taste.
You can replace Philadelphia with Mascarpone cheese if the recipe allows it. Mascarpone has a consistency similar to heavy cream. You can find its photo and description of its composition on the Internet. Using this neutral-tasting cheese, you will be able to prepare a very delicate classic cheesecake. In addition to cheesecake, Mascarpone is used to make tiramisu, a famous Italian dessert.
It is better to buy cheese for cheesecake in briquettes.
It is better to purchase cheese packaged in a briquette. Those cheeses that are sold in tubes have already been whipped. And during the cooking process you will have to beat the cheese again, which will lead to excessive airiness.
This is extremely undesirable for our dessert.
Making a traditional pie
This dessert is popular all over the world. It is not surprising that housewives want to cook it at home. So, in order to prepare 8-10 servings of real New York cheesecake, you will need the following ingredients:
- For the base:
- cookies or crackers (for example, “Yubileinoe”) – 300 g;
- sugar – 4 tbsp. l.;
butter – 150 g.
- For filling:
- Philadelphia cheese – 450 g;
- egg – 5 pcs.;
- flour – 3.5 tbsp. l.;
- sugar – 1.5 cups;
- zest of half a lemon;
- vanilla sugar – 1 tbsp. l.
- sour cream – 2 tbsp;
- sugar – 0.5 tbsp;
vanilla – 0.5 tsp.
The recipe is as follows: first, grind the cookies using a meat grinder, blender, or simply with your hands, mix them with sugar and butter until a homogeneous mass is formed. We compact the resulting mass tightly into a springform pan. This will be the base for the cheesecake. The base must be baked in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 10 minutes, and then cooled. There is no need to remove the base from the mold.
The base for the treat is ready for baking
Mix Philadelphia cheese at room temperature with sugar, lemon zest and juice, salt and vanilla. Beat the resulting mass with a mixer at low speed. Without stopping whisking, add flour, then eggs.
The resulting homogeneous mass must be poured into a mold with a base, having previously greased the edges of the mold with oil. Place the mold in the oven for one hour. Then cool for 10-15 minutes.
While the dessert is cooling, prepare the glaze. To do this, mix sour cream, vanilla and sugar in a blender. Spread the glaze over the surface of the New York cheesecake and bake for another 7-10 minutes.
After baking, carefully remove the cake from the pan. Before serving, pour syrup over and decorate with berries. In order to decorate the dessert in an original way, you can view some photos with examples. New York cheesecake is ready!
Baking a New York dessert, or any other, at first glance is very simple, because when studying the recipe, you do not notice any difficulties. But there are a number of nuances that must be taken into account in order for the cheese dessert to turn out not only amazing in taste, but also beautiful, as in the photos with which the Internet is replete.
Firstly, the cake should never rise during the baking process. To do this, it is better to beat all the ingredients with a fork or whisk by hand. If you still decide to use a mixer, then beat the mixture at the lowest speed. This way less air will get into it.
Surprise your friends and family - bake a cheesecake!
The cheese should only be beaten once. When adding ingredients later, it is best to simply stir until smooth. This way you will avoid excess air getting into the cheese mass.
To make the dessert beautiful and not crack on top when cooling, you need to bake it at a low temperature. It is best to place the cheesecake pan in the oven in a container of water. By creating a water bath of sorts, you can prevent the bottom and edges of your cheesecake from burning.
Water should be poured into this container to fill exactly half the mold. Under no circumstances should it get into the pie, otherwise the dessert will be ruined. It’s good if the shape with water is larger in diameter than the shape with cheesecake. The distance between the walls of these two forms should be at least 3 - 5 cm.
Cracks can also appear due to too much baking time. The cake is considered ready when its edges have hardened sufficiently and the center trembles a little when shaken. It is at this stage that the oven should be turned off and the cake itself should be left in it for another hour.
After this, the center of the cheesecake will no longer look damp, but cracks will not appear on the surface.
