Four 45 Inch Cheesecakes With Nine Stir In Variations Recipes

BASIC CHEESECAKE WITH FLAVOR VARIATIONS.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 for standard baking, or 375 for a convection oven.
• Melt butter, and mix crust ingredients, press into the bottom, and up the sides of a springform pan. You can use whatever size you have from 8 to 12 inches, the smaller the pan, the higher the cake, but I like a wide, low one, too. Chill the crust while you make the filling.
• Cream together cream cheese and sugar.
• Add eggs one at a time.
• Add extracts and zest, mix well, be careful not to incorporate too much air, so you don't get cracks on the top of the custard.
• Pour filling into crust. For better texture, you may choose to first wrap the pan in foil, and place into a large baking dish of hot water. The recipe works both ways, but I like the results from a waterbath.
• Bake the cheesecake for an hour, then turn off the oven, and don't open it for 30 minutes.
• If using sour cream topping, spread it on top of the cheesecake ten minutes before the hour bake time is up.
• Cool cheesecake completely, and refrigerate for a few hours before slicing. Fishing line makes a great slicer, since the cheesecake will be very sticky to your knives.
• Variations: This is the fun part. As long as you stick to the basic proportions, you can do lots of flavors. I'm up to 17 personally.
• Use chocolate cookie crumbs for the crust, leave out the lemon, and add 1/4 cup pf cocoa to the filling for chocolate cheesecake.
• Add a teaspoon of lime zest to the crust, leave out the cinnamon, and sub 1/4 cup key lime juice for vanilla and lemon in the filling for key lime cheesecake.
• Sub one of the packages of cream cheese for a can of pumpkin, add cinnamon, ginger, and clove to the filling, use gingersnap crumbs for the crust. This one is especially good if you add a lot of cinnamon to the sour cream topping, and drizzle the slices with some caramel sauce and more gingersnap pieces.
• Leave out the lemon, and sub one of the packages of cream cheese for a cup of peanut butter, use a chocolate cookie crust, and top it with chopped up peanut butter cups.
• Use a chocolate crust, leave out the lemon, and use mint extract and green food color in the filling for grasshopper cheesecake. Add chocolate chips if you like.
• Sub the sugar in the filling for 1 cup brown sugar caramelized with 1/2 a stick of butter for a caramel cheesecake.
• Sub half the sugar in the crust for sweetened flaked coconut, leave out the cinnamon, sub vanilla and lemon for rum extract and lime, make sour cream topping with half sour cream, half Thai Kitchen coconut milk (it's the only one I've found thick enough) add the juice of the lime instead of lemon and more flaked coconut to topping. this is the one my brother always wants instead of a birthday cake.
• If you try your own variant, I'd love to know what it was, and how it turned out. Have fun!

4 CHEESE CHEESECAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Thoroughly butter the bottom and sides of a 9x3-inch (12 cup) springform pan.
• Dust pan well with fine Zwieback crumbs, pressing any remaining crumbs into the bottom of the pan and about 1/2 to 1 inch up the sides; set aside.
• Sift flour and corn starch together into a small bowl or cup, and set aside.
• In a small bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until thick and sugar is dissolved, set side.
• Mix together ricotta and baker's cheese, place into a fine sieve and using a wooden spoon, force the cheeses through the sieve into a large bowl.
• With mixer on medium speed, beat cheeses for about 2 minutes or until creamy.
• Add cream cheese, and beat on low speed for about 1 minute, or until well blended.
• Add mascarpone, and beat by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula until well blended.
• Add melted butter, mixing by hand until well blended.
• Add egg/sugar mixture, mixing by hand until well blended.
• Add flour/corn starch mixture, stirring until thoroughly incorporated.
• Add lemon juice and vanilla, stir until well blended.
• Fold sour cream into cheesecake batter.
• Tap bowl of batter on counter several times to get any bubbles in the batter to the top.
• If necessary, run the spatula through the batter to break up any air bubbles.
• Slowly pour the batter into prepared pan, lightly tap pan on counter to remove any remaining bubbles.
• Place cheesecake on middle rack in oven and bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes.
• Turn off oven, and let cheesecake sit undisturbed (do not open oven door), 60 minutes longer.
• Remove from oven and continue to cool on wire rack.
• When completely cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
• When ready to serve, run a thin bladed knife or icing spatula between the cake and sides of pan to loosen cake from the sides.
• Remove the side of the springform pan, leaving the cake on the pan base/bottom to serve.
• (Optional) Cake may be topped with fresh fruit, pie filling or your favorite fruit glaze.