Cheesecake Questions and Answers

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I know that sometimes the thought of thinking outside the box and trying something new is a little bit overwhelming. For someone who has never tried a certain recipe or a type of cooking, this could be the case.

Because I myself was once at the point where I never thought I could make a cheesecake, I understand that there are probably a lot of questions out there. I would love to hear from anyone that has something they would like to know about, no matter what it is. If it is something I don't know about, I will try my best to find the answer.

Do you have a question about cheesecakes?

If you have any questions about cheesecakes, don't be afraid to ask!

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Do you have a recipe for a cheesecake crust that would consist of chocolate cookie crumbs and nuts?

Diane:

Thank you for your question. You can check out the recipe for a cookie nut crust to see if this is what you are looking for. I'm hoping to have more crust recipes in the future, so I hope you keep checking back.

I am a New Jersey guy transplanted to California. There anumber of foods I still miss and can't find like pizza and cheesecake New York style.

I am puzzled over the definition of New York Cheesecake. To my mind the cheesecake I like is the lofty (thick, 3"), light and creamy but slightly crumbly and slightly spongy with a sprinkling of nutmeg on top.

Other cheesecakes I do not care for are heavy and thin. Eating them is almost like eating Philadelphia Cream cheese right out of the wrapper.

I can't tell from the pictures and recipes which is which can you help?

Robert:

There are many variations on New York Style cheesecake as you can see from all the recipes. From the way you describe it, I think you may find that the New York Style Cheesecake II is very close to what you're looking for. You can add nutmeg to it if you prefer it that way. I hope you try the recipe and let me know how you like it.

Please would you give me some advice, as the second time Itried to make a cheesecake the base was very hard to cut and eat but I don't know why.

Thanks.

Carla:

Thanks for your question. What type of base are you making and what ingredients are you using?

If you're making a baked crust, you may have to decrease the time or temperature a little bit. If it's a no bake crust, maybe you should use a little less, in other words, press the crust down so it's just a thin layer.

Another thing is that you are probably not able to find graham crackers and are therefore probably substituting another ingredient which may make a tougher crust.

There may be no way around that other than either cutting down on the baking time or using less and making it thinner.

Good luck with your next attempt. I'd love to hear back from you to find out if it turned out alright. Thanks for submitting a question to Cheesecake Questions and Answers.

Good day,

Well I live in a small town and shopping is limited and if the shops here runs out of something it takes about a week to get stock again, and this is exactly what happened. I am getting friends for dinner tomorrow night and was looking for cream cheese or cottage cheese and could not find any and for me to drive to the next town an hour away is also ridiculous. The friends have asked for my lovely cheesecake and I promised them I will make it for dinner. is there maybe an alternative that I could use instead of cream cheese. I have also looked at your site for a recipe that do not have cream cheese in butsomething else, but no luck. please help....

Hendrik:

A couple of the recipes on my site use ricotta cheese instead of cream cheese. Maybe you could find that to use instead and try one of the recipes for either the Ricotta Cheesecake or the Italian Cheesecake. I hope you're able to find ricotta cheese and can make one of the recipes. Please let me know how everything turns out!

Room temperature cream cheese and blended well as recipe states AND little white lumps throughout...should I have used a special cream cheese? The recipe states blend so I did not beat it well....I wonder about a better quality cream cheese or the soft spreadable one?

Peggy:

I would use a good quality or name brand cream cheese. I usually use Philadelphia Brand cream cheese. You should blend it well on medium speed so you don't introduce a lot of air. This should help to cut down on the lumps.

Good luck with your next cheesecake.

I was just looking at the recipe that you said was one of your favorites that you had misplaced... with the caramel topping. How is the caramel topping not made with any caramel? I just want to make sure an ingredient wasn't missing.

Jenna:

Thank you for your question. The recipe as it's written is for homemade caramel sauce so the ingredients are correct...sugar, butter and heavy whipping cream.

I'm sure you could melt pre-made caramels and thin with milk like you would do for caramel apples if you would prefer that or you could even use pre-made caramel sauce if you prefer. I just made mine with the homemade sauce since the recipe called for it.

I hope if you make the Decadent Caramel Topped Cheesecake, which I think is one of the best cheesecake recipes, you'll let me know how it turns out!

Hi, I have been on your site and find it very helpful. I want to try and make my first cheesecake for my sister's birthday in two weeks. How long does a non-bake cheesecake take to set and what type of cream cheese is the best to work with?

Many thanks

Dani

Dani:

Thanks for contacting me on cheesecake questions and answers.

The cheesecake should be ready to serve after about three or four hours. You also may want to make the day before and refrigerate overnight.

As for the cream cheese, I would use regular cream cheese and make it the best quality or name brand that you can find. I usually use Philadelphia brand but I don't know if that's available where you are.

Good luck with the recipe. I hope you contact me again to let me know how it turns out!

I have a silicone cheese cake pan that I bought recently,canyou tell me, because this is not spring form will I have issues??? Also, my first cheese cake

Thank You

Joyce

Joyce:

Is the pan just a regular cake pan? If it is, I've never used one for a cheesecake but I don't see why you couldn't. You probably just won't be able to get it out of the pan as easily as a pan where you can remove the sides.

Also, I'm not sure if you would have to adjust the amount of filling you put in or not. You'll probably have to =reduce the amount of filling unless the pan has higher sides.

Good luck with your first attempt. I'd be curious to hear how it turns out so I hope you'll let me know!

Thanks for your submission to cheesecake questions and answers.

I have made cheesecakes by placing the pan and cooking but theedges seem to get overdone and dry. I then tried to use the water bath method and line the bottom of the cake pan with foil. The cheesecakes come out more evenly cooked but when I remove the pan from the water there seems to be water between the foil and the cake pan and some water gets into the cake. I do not notice any holes in the foil. Is it possible that after I turn the heat off and let the cake sit in the oven that condensation will build up inside the foil.

George:

If you bake the cake without the water bath and it gets overdone and dry, the oven may be a little too hot or maybe it was left in too long. You might want to experiment with the temperature and check to see if your oven is baking a bit on the high side.I would follow the directions for time suggested for each recipe. The cake will still look a little undercooked when it is really at the point where it can be taken from the oven.

With the water bath, there really shouldn't be water inside after baking. I usually wrap min with at least three layers of heavy duty foil. The water in the outer pan doesn't have to be too deep...maybe 1/2 inch or so.

Good luck with your next attempt at a cheesecake and thanks for your submission to cheesecake questions and answers.

I'm not a sweet food lover, but I'm a big fan of cheesecake. I tried to make the plain sour cream version at home 5 times so far and only succeeded in the first time and I don't know why. The times that went wrong the cheesecake was doing well till the last ten minutes when it started to shrink down.

Thanks,

Daniel

Daniel:

Thank you for your submission to cheesecake questions and answers. The cheesecake normally does shrink a bit when it's at the cooling stage after being removed from the oven. Maybe your oven runs a little bit on the hot side and you may want to experiment with decreasing the temperature a little bit or else not baking the cheesecake quite as long. Some oven temperatures vary and that may be what the problem is.

Even though the cheesecake did some shrinking, I was wondering whether the final product tasted good? If it did, I wouldn't worry too much about how it looks because you can always disguise and flaws by topping it with fruit, whipped topping, chocolate or something like that.

In spite of following tips to cool cheesecakes slowly in theoven, with door ajar for so long etc.. my cheesecakes still have a tendency to split in or near the middle. It certainly doesn't look as nice since some of my family prefers plain cheesecake with no fruit topping, making it difficult to disguise!

Lisa:

I completely understand your frustration because the same thing frequently happens to me. I've read a lot of comments from other people who also say the same thing and that's why it's nice to be able to disguise the cracks.

As you state, your family prefers plain with no toppings. I had a lot of success with the New York Style cheesecake II. There were no cracks and it was delicious. Another cheesecake that I haven't had many cracks with for some reason is the Supreme Chocolate Chip cheesecake which I make fairly often since it's a family favorite. I usually disguise my cracks with whipped topping or fruit if the crack is too bad.

Good luck with your next attempt and I hope you let me know how it turns out. Thanks for submitting your comment to the cheesecake questions and answers page.

I love cheesecakes but have only had success at baking them ahandful of times. The batter will be very smooth going into the spring form pan, but then when it comes time to eat my cheesecake the batter you can feel and see lumps. Why is this?

Molly:

The only thing I can think of is that the batter is not beaten well enough. Do you beat the batter at intervals as new ingredients are added and make sure it's smooth before going to the next ingredient? If you add all the ingredients at one time, that may be causing the lumps if they aren't blended in completely.

Another reason may be if the ingredients are too cold before they are beaten and that may not alow for complete blending also.

The next time you make a cheesecake, make sure the ingredients have been at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before beating them and then make sure to add the ingredients gradually and blend well after each addition.

Good luck and I'm sure you'll have success if you follow the above suggestions. Thanks for submitting to my cheesecake questions and answers page.

I've never made a cheesecake before, so I must admit that I am a little nervous about trying it. There are so many great sounding recipes on this site. What do you think would be a good one for a beginner like me to try?

P.S. Any insider pointers would be great too! Thanks.

Joe:

Thanks for contacting me. I know I was nervous when I made my first cheesecake but after you've made the first one, you'll see how easy they are to make. Sometimes I feel like they're easier to make than a lot of other desserts and the reactions you receive make it worth your while.

There are so may good choices for a first cheesecake. You didn't specify if you wanted a baked or non-baked one so I'll assume you would like to bake one. A good one that I make frequently is the supreme chocolate chipe cheesecake. It's very easy to make and very delicious. Another one that's easy and very good is a New York style cheesecake which can be made various ways.

Some of the recipes in the easy cheesecake recipes section might also be good choices for your first attempt. You can use already prepared graham cracker crusts which cuts down on some of the time involved. Some examples of this would be the easy chocolate cheesecake, easy praline cheesecake, or the easy pumpkin cheesecake.

These are just a few suggestions but no matter which cheesecake recipe you decide to use, I really don't think you'll have any problems as long as you follow the directions. You can also check out the section on how to make cheesecakes or the cheesecake tips section for more help and information.

Thank you for submitting to the cheesecake questions and answers section of my web site. I hope you are successful with you first attempt at making a cheesecake. Please let me know how it turns out.

Why is cheesecake called cheesecake? It really doesn't have cheese in it (I mean real cheese) and it certainly isn't a cake, in the true meaning of the word, and yet the name...cheesecake. Let's assume you count cream cheese as a cheese, why why not call it cheesepie, cheesecrust, or cheesepudding. I don't think of it as a cake at all! Do you? By the way, your recipes are great but you really should think about changing the name of yoursite to: Amazing Cheesepie Recipes, because as we both know, cheesecake is not a cake. You could start a trend and be the only one to have a Cheesepie site.

Just something to think about!

Bethorie

Keep up the good work!

Bethorie:

I love your sense of humor. I'll have to consider your suggestion to change my name to cheesepie. I actually might start a trend. (You'd have to help me spread the word)

Seriously though, it's thought that the development of cheesecakes started as early as 2000 BC. Actual documentation of the name can be traced back as far as 200 BC so it has an established history of being called cheesecake. I don't know how quickly I could get the name cheesepie to catch on.

I'm glad you like the recipes on my site and I hope you sign up to receive my newsletter, Cheesecake Chatter. I hope to hear from you again. Thanks for your submission to cheesecake questions and answers.

I have been using the same cheesecake recipe for manyyears...sometimes the center doesn't set...why???? And, I need to make a quick cheesecake for tomorrow and don't have the full 48 hours for my recipe to set, if I divide the ingredients into two smaller spring form pans, how shall I decrease the cooking time? My recipe usually cooks for one hour.

Roseanne:

Thanks for submitting to cheesecake questions and answers. I usually check the cheesecake after the stated time and if it's a little too liquid, I add a couple of minutes of time in the oven until it's a little more set. You could also let it cool in the oven for awhile with the oven turned off.

For the two smaller pans with the same amount of batter, it would probably be close to the same amount of cooking time.

Thanks for your submission on my Cheesecake Questions and Answers Page and good luck with your cheesecakes.

Hi-attempting my first cheesecake ...do you have to use a spring form pan or can you put the filling in a pie pan and just mold the graham cracker crust around it?

Mari:

A lot of the no bake cheesecakes are made in pie pans and some of the baked cheesecake recipes as well. You can also make a baked in a high cake pan if you want but they are a little bit more difficult to get out.

You could experiment but pretty much anything goes when making cheesecake. If it doesn't turn out the way you want it the first time, try something different the next time. Good luck with your first cheesecake and please let me know how it turns out. Thank you for submitting your question to cheesecake questions and answers.

Hi,

I have a great cheese cake recipe. I was wondering if I added 4 mashed bananas to recipe would i have to change the amount of sour cream or the cream?

Thank you,

Jan

Jan

Thanks for your submission to cheesecake questions and answers.I think you could probably use the recipe as is. I have two recipes with bananas on my web site. One is a Banana Nut Cheesecake recipe and that one doesn't have any sour cream or cream in it at all. The other one is for a Banana Cheesecake and that one does have heavy whipping cream in it. Thank you for submitting to my Cheesecake Questions and Answers page.

I too was once very afraid to make a Cheesecake. My Mom was the greatest "baker" I knew and she made making anything look so easy!! It took 15 years of cooking and baking before I attempted to make a cheesecake. It really was as easy as following the directions. I made many cheesecakes as requests with little or no problems and they were all great. Until Christmas of last year. I used a tried and true recipe and for some reason there was about a 2 inch circle in the middle of the cheesecake that was not cooked. Oh yuck!! I quickly put the cheesecake away and hid it from my daughter's guests. Since then, I have proceeded with extreme caution and fear to make sure the cake was done. Over baking at times, just to have a cracked top. Oh well, just another "good cook" story to pass along. Now for my question - why do many cheesecake recipes call for lemon juice or extract? I do not care for the citrus taste in my plain cheesecakes, and have never used it. The website is great and I will be submitting recipes soon as I have just discovered the site.

Carrie:

A: Thank you for sharing your story and submitting it to Cheesecake Questions and Answers. I think we all have had something similar happen to us at one time or another. I just had a "cheesecake mishap" a couple of months ago.

As for your your question, I don't think I have ever thought about why lemon juice is added to recipes and I usually don't taste it unless it is an actual lemon cheesecake. I had to do some research and ask some people that I thought might have a better idea than I did.

What I found out was that most of the lemon juice taste bakes off and it is mainly used to thicken the batter and boost the flavor. In other words it helps to counteract the sweetness of the sugar. I was told that basically, "It helps to make a plain cheesecake taste more like a plain cheesecake which is a good thing."

I'm looking forward to having you submit a recipe on the site and I hope to hear from you again soon. Thanks again for your submission to cheesecake questions and answers

Q: Why do some cheesecakes use sour cream and some do not? Are they both equally GOOD?

A: Cheesecakes that are made with sour cream have more of the typical cheesecake appearance and texture and is slightly more crumbly. Both types are equally delicious and it just depends on the texture you are going for. Sometimes toppings for cheesecakes are also made with sour cream and usually have sugar and a flavoring such as vanilla added in for a special flavor. Thank you for your submission to Cheesecake Questions and Answers and I hope to hear from you again.