What is the cheesecake? Under a beautiful name hides a normal fashion dish pie based on cottage cheese or soft cheese. Cheesecakes are baked or "cold" - the latter being a kind of cottage cheese souffle. There are many recipes for cheesecake, and for the most part, they are simple to prepare.

American dessert with Slavic roots

Cheesecake ("cheese cake" in the literal translation from English) - classic American cuisine. But, like many other New World cuisine recipes, cheesecake came to America from Europe, and from Europe's East. A variety of casseroles, puddings and cheesecakes Cheesecakes: an ideal dish for lunch or dinner   cottage cheese prepared from time immemorial in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. Spread out in the Slavic countries of fat cottage cheese with a slightly sour taste ideal for cooking desserts and pastries.

At the same time there is reason to believe that the pastries, more than half consists of cheese, was taken at the time Slavic cooks in other national cuisines. Prototypes of Modern cheesecake existed in ancient Greece, although they are likely to differ considerably from the modern taste of dessert. The structure of the ancient Greek dessert consisted of cheese, honey The benefits of honey: tasty recovery   and wheat flour. The ingredients were mixed together and whipped, and then cooled to form a dessert.

Yet to say that the American cheesecake - it's the same thing as banal cottage cheese casserole Casseroles. The variety and economy Not quite true. In the Americas, for desserts instead of using fat white cheese cream cheese with a slightly salty taste and delicate texture. Of course, Philadelphia cheese curd can be replaced, but it's still a cheesecake is slightly different from the original. Therefore, if the task is to prepare a real cheesecake, we must first take care of the purchase of authentic ingredients.

Ingredients

The main component of the cheese cake, affecting its taste - it is, of course, cheese. And, ideally, it should be a Philadelphia cheese - with all the other varieties of pie will not quite the same as it is necessary, though perhaps still very tasty. Philadelphia cream cheese belongs to the group of soft cheeses. It is made from pasteurized homogenized milk fat with the addition of yeast, salt and stabilizers. The result is a product with a very delicate texture. Cheese is well tolerated heat treatment. Despite the fact that it tastes salty, cheese is perfect for desserts, including cheesecake for.

Can I replace something this cheese? The easiest option - to use pureed through a sieve fat cottage cheese. Suitable as low-fat cottage cheese with the addition of melted butter. You can use other soft cheeses, most importantly, that they are without additives (obviously cheese with garlic or herbs - not the best choice for dessert). Importantly, the cheese must be natural (plant without additives) and cheese, and not processed - the last few like Philadelphia both in taste and consistency.

The basis of the classic cheese cake is made up of cookie crumbs, mixed in a plastic mass with butter. Not very dietichno, but delicious. Of course, the delicious cookies, the better the finished cheesecake. Some even prefer to bake cookies on their own, while others use high-quality finished. In any case, it should be crushed into crumbs and add a little oil, to distribute the weight comfortably on the bottom and walls of the mold. Sometimes cookie crumbs added spices, cocoa, coffee or nut for flavor concentration. The mold is then to be put into the freezer to the foundation frozen cheesecake.

To prepare the cream cheese filling is mixed with powdered sugar (sugar use is undesirable, it may not be able to dissolve during the beating) and eggs. The mixture was quickly whipped into foam, flavored and translates to the base of the pastry.

Sometimes curd add a little starch or flour. This allows a more compact structure of the pie, but at the same time several coarsens taste. If the flour is added, consistency of cheesecake turns silky and tender, but it needs to be baked in a special way - in a water bath.

Baking and serving

To make the cheesecake cool enough to whip all the ingredients and cool treat. Baked cheesecake is more difficult to prepare.

To prepare the cheesecake desirable to use a split mold of which treats can be removed without damage to its appearance. You can also try the oven cheesecake in silicone molds. But the one-piece metal or glass form hardly suitable, as they get out unscathed cheesecake can be very, very difficult.

Some types of cheesecake baked in the oven on the grill, while others are prepared in a water bath. For this deep pan filled halfway with water and put in the center of the shape of the future pie. It is important that during the boiling water will not flow into the mold, and bubbling around it. So cheesecake cooked evenly.

The medium-sized cake is baked for 40-50 minutes. The most common mistake beginners confectioners - too long preparation. Ready cheesecake in the middle should be a loose, slightly quivering like jelly. If it is too long to bake a cake, its structure becomes coarse, grainy.

Turn off the oven, it should carry out a sharp knife along the walls of the mold, separating from her pie. Then slowly cooled cheesecake in the oven. But the time to submit it to the table has not yet come: the cheesecake should "mature" to stand in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours. Only then did he acquire the desired taste and consistency right. When a cake is often poured sweet sauces and syrups, decorated with fresh and canned fruit.

Maria Bykov

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