How to Stop Cheesecake from Falling?

In looking at your recipe I think the amounts have to be off. Typically I use 32 ounces of cream cheese to 4 eggs. Your recipe has way too much liquid and not enough stabilizer to keep the cheese cake up. 

I agree Nicko, 

 

 

@ HH:

The recipe you posted from the Sheraton World Cookbook, is that the exact recipe ? Your recipe is MISSING a good portion of the cream cheese, I see you need a little more sugar, some flour.

As far as the 2 cups of cream go ? Maybe make a Bavarian with it ?

 

Have your tried the Dunn's cheesecake recipe ? It's on the net, very close to the one I make.

I don't think that recipe should have all the liquid. Puzzling ?

 

Petals.

Too little cheesecake won't cause the custard to rise too much. The reverse, more likely. Since there's no leavening in the cake and it's rising for SOME reason, it seems pretty clear you're over-beating. I'm not sure how you think cornstarch or flour will help control the rise. I'm similarly mystified as to why people think more cream cheese will make a difference in that respect.

Try beating at your beater's lowest speed and only until the mixture is fully combined. Then pass the raw, mixed batter through a sieve a couple of times before filling the pan and baking. That will go some way towards knocking down whatever bubbles are in it and should hold the rise down.

Cheesecake is essentially a custard pie with more or less cream cheese. The less cheese the more custard like; the more cheese, the denser and richer. That's about it. The tricks to keeping the cake from getting too active during the bake are keeping the bubbles out of the batter (so they don't expand when they heat), and baking at a reasonably low temperature. There's nothing wrong with 325F, if you don't mind a bit of browning on the top.

Don't worry about the rise and fall, as long as you don't get too much cracking during the subsequent cool-down; and don't forget to cool in the oven with the door open and the rack out (vestibule cooling), then cool on the counter, before fully ripening the cheesecake in the fridge.

Out of curiosity, what sort of crust are you doing?

BDL

Hhinman,

 

I make my crust with 1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs, 1/3 cup of powdered sugar, 1/3 melted butter.

Mix the graham with sugar till its well combined then I add the melted butter, not like a paste but rather like a crumble.

Gently line the pan with the crumb till it covers the bottom and up the side a little.

 

I have never buttered a pan. There is enough fat in the ingredients. Once it ripens in the fridge , I pass a sharp knife along the edge, you probably do this as well.

 

Because of this thread ,last night I made a cheesecake and this is how it turned out. If you are looking for height (3 1/4 inches - ) , this is it. Same size pan you use. I will make your recipe  and re-post. 

 

Petals.

 

That's up to you. However, it's the nature of most cream-cheese cheesecakes to be very dense and not hold much rise.

I didn't really understand what you were going for, and apologize for that. A 4" cheesecake is quite an achievement. If all you want is more height, use more batter. By controlling the amount of oven rise, you should be able to get a fair amount of cheesecake batter in the pan without having it overflow during baking.

If you're looking for a high, light and still NY style baked cheesecake it makes sense to start "cheating" by using more batter, adding things lighter cheeses (hoop cheese for instance), and over-beating. I don't know if you'd go so far to call a cake like that is a horse of a different color than the typical baked cheesecake, but it approaches.

Another way of proceeding would be to add some -- and I mean more than a tablespoon or two -- of flour in an attempt to get the glutens to give the batter enough structure to hold on to some air. It's not something I do, so can't give you much advice.

I have a recipe posted on CT for a "crostata ricotta" which may be more along the lines of what you're looking for in terms of height and lightness than the recipe you're using now. Still decadent though, no worries on that score.

BDL

I would say change the " beat well " to " incorporate gently by hand ". In my experience, I can beat the hell out the mixture until I start to add eggs. Once I start to do that; the easier I am, the less the fall.

The recipe that really works for me is the Juniors Cheesecake (NYC) one.  It never falls and it is dense.  I do not like airy cheesecake UNLESS I want the Japanese Cheesecake w/c is like spongecake but Cheesecake..  This is the Juniors Cheesecake I made last time.. To me water bath WITH water helps in preventing from falling and never cracks too....and I also use  thin layer and dense of white cake as crust..

 

No,  Juniors Cheesecake is the only one I have been making...  But I will try this.  thank you

Looks terrifc Hhinman,

 

 

The height is good and the texture looks like its spot on. Thanks for posting the picture.

Petals.

I noticed that. I will be trying your recipe hopefully tonight. For the reason you said it is  4-5 high , I will line the cake pan.

 

The cheesecake you just made has about  the same amount  (eggs and cheese ) I use.

 

I am always looking for the perfect cheesecake recipe, I am glad you started this thread, it gives us the chance to troubleshoot this recipe.

 

Petals.

Experiment : Sheraton

 

I followed your recipe to a "T". The other thing I did not do was over beat the mixture. So based on that, here are the results.

 

 This is how it looked after it cooked (per recipe) It had some height, so I let it cool down in the oven.

 

And then it happened........LOL.

 

The consistancy was like wet custard.

Conclusion : The Sheraton recipe does not work. I tried it , glad I did. So it is not your oven. I would suggest that you stay with the winning cake you made and as far as this one goes, you may want to put this recipe in  the " X Files".

 

Petals.

Just by looking at that recipe (Sheraton),  the proportions are way off.  5 eggs and 1 cup cream w/ 12 oz. of cream cheese ?  I don't think so.  And no need to be a NASA engineer to figure that one out    Maybe that is a typo.

Yes, Prettycake, if your read the entire post you would have seen that was figured out way back up to post # 3 of this thread . She asked you if you would try it, and you said you would. Therein lies the difference.   We already concluded that it was the correct recipe, so that is what we based this whole experiment on.

 

You said maybe it was a typo ? You better re-read the thread again. Hhinman came here to seek help, not to get sarcasm.

Professionalism when addressing people counts alot with me and this site, you may consider showing it. After all , it was Hhinman's first post.

 

Your very welcome. The reason why I tried it was because you had some success with it in the past. This site is all about learning and I am glad to have helped in anyway.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Petals.

Oh yes,  I READ the WHOLE thing..  earlier.... BTW my comment was NOT addressed to you..  Have a great day.

I guess the problem with the Sheraton recipe as related here is that the cream holds too much air, expands still farther when baked, but lacks the structure to hold the air when cool. It's on the way to being a baked cream, as much as a baked custard. I can think of techniques which would control that -- for instance, tempering the eggs into heated cream, heating that still farther to create a custard, then folding it and lightly whipped cream cheese together. While that would avoid most of the pitfalls petals suffered, it still wouldn't get the sort of "NY Style" baked cheesecake which seems as though its the goal here.

BDL

Hi All, I'm Sonny from Sonny's Creamy Cheesecake which is in Italy..

Well I'm almost 56 years old, I decided to give a few of pro-tricks with cheesecakes that normal home making give problems.

Ok 1st of all forget the water bath's, 2nd you put in 5 full eggs + 1 yolk that is enough for Two  9"x 3" Cheesecakes, don't pour batter to top leave 1/2 down the side,  3rd don't worry about putting to much sugar important is that you dont put less in, the sugar not only cost cheap but it gives you longer conservation time, 4th you must put in 4 Full Table Spoons of Flour "00" or Full Fat Powdered Milk This is what will not let "Crack" your cake forget the water baths, 5th and less the OVEN ok bring your oven to MAX  then put your cheesecake at the center of oven (elettric oven)  for no more 8-9 min then bring the oven down to 90°Celsius make the transformation in Farenheit, leave there for 1 hour This way the cake will cook perfectly and not rise, you'll get the best Creamy Cheesecake around.... Sorry my family secrets are in the Crumb can't reveale anything about the crumb mixture, my is totally natural with 14 ingredients.

Happy Cheesecaking To All

Sonnyp.s. I suggest to STOP using spring form pans, just spend 1 time and purchase acouple of " Loose Bottom Cheesecake Pans" you can find them on internet I suggest the Big Daddieo's pans this is the site but hastle around like at "cookware" site the prices are good and also the pans, You'll get professional cheesecake the springform pans are just a pain in the neck.  http://www.fatdaddios.com/catalog/removable-bottom-1     Eating a slice a day will put you Smiling all day long !
 

Hi, sorry forgot one thin, You can't use half&half also whipping cream all that stuff for the batter the base is the cream cheese put more cream cheese and use sour cream, or just 1 of the others, Sonny

Thank you Sonny for posting that.  The recipe I have used for yrs calls for both heavy cream and sour cream. I as well have the issue of a beautiful cake while in the oven and once it is set up in the refer, it falls like a rock.

 

Reading this post , brings some thing to mind, Chef Thomas Hazelbaker taught me long ago...

A cook does what they do because they have to for a wage, a Chef on the other hand shares their passion with all who are willing to learn.

Thank all of ya'll for sharing your passions with the rest of us.     

looks great,is it better to make it that day or the day before you need it