Altering cheesecake recipe

[Oceansaway]

Hi all,

I have a cheesecake recipe that I have been asked to alter a few times, for different flavors. In particular, I have been having issues when adding lemon juice and pumpkin. Both made the cake not set properly in the middle, despite added cooking time and only a little jiggle to the center, like it normally looks. I do use a water bath and I rarely have any issues with cracking. I could continue to add more time, but the rest of the cake is completely cooked, and I feel like it will be overcooked elsewhere. Should I alter my recipe to account for the additional moisture, or is something else going on? I do experiment between leaving the cake in the oven to cool with the door closed versus cracking it open. Thanks so much!

 

[chassis]

Too much moisture. Both lemon juice and pumpkin have a good bit of moisture.

Reduce other liquid in the recipe, or lower the baking temperature slightly and extend baking time considerably. Water bath is a good choice. You need to get heat energy into the center of the batter. Time+temp are you only variables, if liquid in the recipe is held constant.

 

[Oceansaway]

Too much moisture. Both lemon juice and pumpkin have a good bit of moisture.

Reduce other liquid in the recipe, or lower the baking temperature slightly and extend baking time considerably. Water bath is a good choice. You need to get heat energy into the center of the batter. Time+temp are you only variables, if liquid in the recipe is held constant.

Thank you so much! I am not sure what is considered a "liquid." My recipe has sour cream and ricotta, in addition to cream cheese, and of course eggs and some other ingredients.

It's already cooking at 325 degrees, so how low would you recommend and for how much longer? The odd thing with this, is that the middle is not jiggling, like it normally would when undercooked, so I'm having trouble determining how much time I would need to add. It appears totally done. Would a thermometer help? Do I need to add more binding ingredients? It's also causing the crust to become soggy, which has never happened before. I precook all of my crusts, and it's just not working out.

 

[chassis]

You said the cake is not set properly in the middle in your first post.

You said the cake is not jiggly in the second post.

What are the objectionable characteristics you want to address?

 

[Oceansaway]

Right. I am saying both. There was little to no jiggle when I tested it out using that method, so I thought it was done. However, when it was cut into, it hadn't properly set in the middle and was too mushy. The jiggle test was deceptive in this case.

Objectively, I am trying to figure out a way to ensure this doesn't happen again. I don't understand why or how it had little jiggle, yet at the same time also didn't set enough in the middle. I am guessing it has to do with the addition of the added moisture, but I don't know what I need to change so it cooks properly in the center.

 

[Oceansaway]

Adding that the jiggle test has always been my go-to method before, and the cake appeared done by those standards. That's why I thought maybe a thermometer would help get a true reading of the center. I am guessing the top layer must be cooking well enough not to jiggle, but underneath it's still undercooked to some degree. I did put it on the bottom rack.

 

[Ricksza]

.... Would a thermometer help? ...

I use a instant read digital thermometer to check my cheesecakes. They're done at 150°F.

 

[chassis]

Too much moisture. Lemon juice = water. Pumpkin is 50% water.

Too much batter in the pan.

Too high temperature and/or not long enough baking time.

Didn't use a bain marie.