[crackling]
[upbeat music]
- Hi, I'm Shane.
And I'm a level one chef.
- I'm Beth and I'm a level two chef.
- I'm Rory from the Institute
of Culinary Education
and I'm a level three chef.
[upbeat music]
- This is a nice, simple
New York style cheesecake
that comes from my
wife's family's cookbook.
It's easy to make and I love preparing it.
- This recipe is a ricotta cheesecake.
It is my husband's absolute
favorite, favorite cake.
It's absolutely delicious.
- I like cheesecakes
light and not so dense,
so today, I'm going to be making
a European style cheesecake
which is actually a no bake recipe.
[bright music]
- Okay, we're going to
start with making the crust.
- First thing we have to
do is get this pan ready
for the cheesecake to go into,
so that it will easily
come out once we unmold it.
- Instead of traditional
crusts, I'm going to make
and oat biscuit to place my cheesecake on.
It's a little more savory.
- You have the graham
cracker crust all crushed up
and ready to go.
- The graham cracker layer
allows for me to easily open
and release the cake
from the spring form pan.
- So, the first step, we're gonna add
the soft butter and the sugar.
- Take some room temperature butter
and I want to get the
butter all around the pan.
Now for the graham cracker crumbs.
- Pouring in the butter and my cinnamon.
I'm gonna mix that all up.
What I'm looking for is
a nice even consistency.
You don't want too much lumpiness.
- So, we're gonna cream
this together until
it's light and white.
So, next we're gonna blend
the flour and some rolled oats
in the food processor.
Add some black pepper and salt.
And then, I'm gonna add my dry ingredients
into the mixer until they're incorporated.
And we're just gonna mix
it until it's just combined
because we don't want
to make too much gluten.
- Pour the mixture over it.
- Just run the crumbs along
the sides and the bottom
of the pan until you get
a really nice coating.
- This looks good.
We're gonna chill this for 30 minutes.
- So, the next step, I'm
gonna gently bring it
into a ball.
Wrap it in plastic wrap
and chill for 15 minutes.
After it's chilled, I'm
gonna roll it out flat
roughly a quarter inch thick.
We're gonna bake this at 350 degrees
around eight to 10 minutes.
- And here's your nice
dusted graham cracker pan.
- And once it's baked, I
punch out the biscuits.
And now we have our oat
and black pepper biscuit
to use as our crust.
- Now, let's start working on the batter.
- The first step is to separate your eggs
and this is important.
- We're gonna whip our egg whites.
If you get any of the
yolk into the whites ...
- You're not gonna get the same aeration.
It's not gonna be as light.
- I crack it a little bit.
And then, I let the egg white
fall into that first bowl
And then, I move it back and forth.
And then, I deposit the
yolk into the other bowl.
And unfortunately, I did get a little yolk
in with my whites,
so we gotta throw this out
and start all over again.
- Using my hand to catch the yolk,
the eggshell itself can be sharp
and it can puncture the yolk.
- Okay, let's try this again.
Oop, did it again.
I'm gonna have to start
over all over again.
- Real easy.
- Take three.
Very gently, more gently
then I was doing before.
There's a little bit in there.
- If you get a little bit in there,
take a little bit of the shell
and then scoop it out.
- All right, my whites and
my yolks are separated.
And now, I'm gonna beat my whites.
- I'm gonna whip my egg whites,
so that we have very stiff peaks.
- So what you're looking
for to make sure it's done,
is that when I pull out this hand mixer,
it's gonna hold its shape.
- So, we're gonna add
this to the Kitchen Aid
with a whisk.
This is gonna add some
richness to the cake.
It's also gonna make it
lighter and a bit more airy.
It will change color.
It will go from a very deep yellow.
Now, it's very pale almost white.
- Beautiful.
Put them on to the dish.
- When you pick up a nice little dollop,
it stays on the spatula,
it doesn't leak back in.
So, now my whites are done
and I'm gonna move on to the
yolk, cream cheese mixture.
- We're actually using two
different types of cheeses.
- Three big nice bricks of ...
- [Both] Cream cheese.
- And this is a Brillat-Savarin cheese.
It's a triple cream brie
style cheese from France.
So, we're just gonna scoop that out.
- This cheesecake is for my husband
and he loves ricotta cheesecake.
I like using the ricotta alone
because this is what
helps make the cheesecake
so much lighter than a
New York style cheesecake.
I'm gonna start whipping the ricotta
while I add the other ingredients.
- And in you add the ...
- [Both] Egg yolks.
- One at a time.
Flour.
Flour's a stabilizer.
- We're gonna add some heavy cream.
- Now for the good stuff.
- [Both] Sugar.
- Pinch of salt.
Always a pinch of salt.
Some almond extract.
Just a little bit.
And always ...
- [Both] Vanilla.
- What makes this cheesecake
different, I think,
is that I take the zest of a whole orange
and a whole lemon.
The neat thing about these rasps,
if you do it so that it
looks like it's upside down,
you don't have to get it onto the board.
It just stays right in the rasp.
A little at a time,
so it doesn't spray all over the kitchen.
- And now, we take our hand mixer.
Crank it all the way up to maximum
and here we go.
Oops.
- We're gonna mix this
until there's no lumps.
For about two or three minutes.
- The key to keeping
everything in the bowl
as it turns out is to
start at a lower setting
than high and then working your way up.
- So it's looking nice and smooth,
so this is all ready to go.
- Now, what we're going to do is fold
our egg whites into our batter.
- So, Frangelico is a hazelnut liqueur.
It really brings out the
flavor of the cheese.
We're going to boil this Frangelico up.
- Here, I've got my egg whites.
They're ready to go in
and the important thing
here is to fold them in.
Don't mix them in.
Very gently.
Be very gentle.
Don't even speak loudly
when you're doing it.
- All of the air that we
will get from the whites,
you don't want to deflate that.
Turn it around, down and over.
- This is sheet gelatin.
This will soften in cold water.
As soon as you add some heat to it,
it will melt and dissolve.
Pull this gelatin out.
You can see that this gelatin's now soft.
Squeeze out the excess.
So the Frangelico has boiled.
This gelatin's really gonna
help the cheesecake set.
And once it's totally dissolved,
you're going to add it
back into this egg mixture.
Now, I'm adding my cheese
mixture from before
into the egg mixture.
And we're gonna mix this
until it's totally combined.
- All right, my batter's done.
I'm gonna go grab my chilled crust.
- You can see that all of the
white is not completely gone.
I don't want to mix this
anymore than I already have.
- My crust is set.
My batter's ready.
Let's put it all together.
- This is all ready to go now.
I have these four ring molds
which I'll be placing my mixture into.
We're gonna place into a piping bag
to pipe into the molds.
- Pour it straight in.
Smooth it around.
- So, I'm just tapping
this out to level it off,
so that when we put the
glaze on it is nice and flat.
- So what you want to do
is ladle this in evenly
in the spring form pan
on top of the crust.
I'm not worrying too much
about how lumpy it is
because there's another
layer going on top.
This is ready to go in the oven
for about 30-40 minutes before I put on
my sour cream final layer.
[clanking]
- I'm gonna cook this in a water bath.
Once I have the pan in the oven,
I'm gonna pour boiling water
around the side of the pan
until it goes halfway up.
The water bath cooks
the cheesecake evenly.
- Again, this is a no bake cheesecake,
so these do not need to go into the oven.
Now, I'm going to put these
in the fridge for four hours,
to let them set.
- While my cake is baking,
I'm gonna make the final layer
which is a mixture of
sour cream and sugar.
This is gonna give the cake a sweet tang
and it's gonna almost act like a frosting.
- Next, I'm gonna make a strawberry glaze.
We're gonna soak the gelatin in ice water.
While that's soaking,
we're gonna heat up some
fresh strawberry puree.
Strawberries go really well
with this cheesecake recipe
because it's actually
a more savory recipe.
The tartness of the strawberries
really cut through that.
- Today, I have raspberries.
I like to use a little
bit of an orange liqueur.
This gives it a little boozy hit.
And some powdered sugar
because powdered sugar
more easily dissolves
than granulated sugar.
- All right, it's almost done baking,
but before it finishes,
we're gonna add that sour cream layer.
These cracks on the
surface are totally okay
because we're gonna add
this sour cream mixture
right on top.
And now we spread it with
the back of our spoon.
This is gonna go back in the
oven for five more minutes
to finish baking
and then, once it's done,
I'm gonna put it in the
fridge to chill overnight.
- So this gelatin is now soft.
I'm gonna add it to the
hot strawberry puree.
Mix it until it's melted.
- What I'm doing is
macerating these raspberries
with the orange liqueur and the sugar.
- So this glaze is ready now.
We're gonna let this
cool to room temperature
and then we're gonna
glaze the cheesecakes.
- Okay.
The cake is done.
It's chilled overnight.
Time to serve it up.
- First thing I do is run
my knife along the edge.
- Undo this latch over
here and lift up and away.
Here, you have this beautiful cheesecake.
- I always powder the top.
- So, my cheesecakes have
chilled for four hours
and now, I'm going to
pour the glaze on them.
To level them off.
I'm gonna put these in the
fridge for about an hour
so the glaze sets.
- To finish it off, just put a
few blueberries right on top.
- Little bit of macerated
raspberries right on top.
- The glaze is set on our cheesecakes.
So, I brought one out to finish off.
I'm going to take one of
our oat crackers as a base.
And place the cheesecake directly on top.
And I'm gonna finish off
with some fresh strawberries.
The very last thing
that we're going to add
to this cheesecake is some
freshly cracked black pepper.
- And this is my cheesecake.
[camera shutter clicking]
- Here is my ricotta cheesecake.
[camera shutter clicking]
- And here is my cheesecake
[camera shutter clicking]
[light music]
- Time to taste.
- That's great.
- It's light.
- This is really delicious.
- The strawberries and black
pepper really give it a kick.
The cracker is, gives it
a really nice texture.
If you like strawberries and cheesecake,
you can't go wrong with this.
- What I love about this cheesecake
is you've got the crisp of the blueberry,
the smoothness of everything in between
and then, you've got that
nice, nice, nice crunchiness
of the graham cracker.
- You can taste the citrus.
Definitely taste a little bit of the booze
with the macerated fruit.
This is a tried and true recipe.
I wouldn't have changed anything.
[tense music]
- Let's slice in to how our three chefs
made each of their cheesecakes.
Classic cheesecake is
a type of baked custard
usually made with smooth,
unfermented cheese.
When a cheesecake isn't baked,
instead of being like a custard,
it's more like a dense, delicious mousse.
[tense music]
For his crust,
Shane used traditional
crushed graham crackers.
He added cinnamon as a warming flavor
which compliments the
graham crackers perfectly.
His crust is also fairly thick
providing support for his cheesecake
and coming in handy in
slicing and serving.
- You want to make sure
that you don't actually
have any of that mixture seeping in
and touching the bottom of the pan.
- Beth used graham crackers as well,
but not as a base.
In essence, she used
them instead of flour,
so the cake wouldn't stick to the pan.
Rory used an oatmeal cookie
which was added just
prior to his assembly.
It provides a crisp texture,
a hearty flavor and some visual appeal.
[tense music]
For his batter, Shane used a
chiffon style mixing method
where he whipped egg whites separately
and folded them gently into
the cream cheese and egg yolks.
This created a light and porous texture
to his final cheesecake.
Normally, you don't want a lot
of tiny holes in your batter.
They will expand and rise when heated,
then contract when cooled and
that's how cracks are formed
like the one that was in Shane's cake.
During the last five minutes of cooking,
Shane also added sweetened sour cream
which stays slightly viscous
and also filled in the crack.
Shane slightly over baked his cheesecake
which removed moisture and
increased its firmness.
Beth used the same chiffon
style mixing method as Shane,
but added additional flavorings
like vanilla extract,
almond extract and citrus zest
to give her cheesecake a pungent quality.
She also used ricotta cheese
instead of cream cheese.
Ricotta's not really a true cheese
since it's actually made from whey
which is the water soluble byproduct
that occurs when making cheese curds.
Beth baked her cake in a hot water bath
which allowed for even heating
and promoted gentle coagulation
of the cheese and egg batter.
- Kinda like a soft blanket
all around the cheesecake.
- Even though the oven
is set at 375 degrees,
the water will not exceed 212 degrees
without turning to steam
which takes a while
since that requires a lot of energy.
Ricotta has a higher water
content than cream cheese
and the gentle coagulation of her batter
resulted in a softer cake than Shane's.
For Rory, the coagulation
of his cheesecake
doesn't come from baking,
but from the gelatin that he used.
Soluble gelatin is derived from collagen,
a connective insoluble
protein found in meat.
He also used a combination of cream cheese
and Brillat-Savarin which is a
soft, sharp cow's milk cheese
that's fermented for two weeks or less.
The key to this cheesecake
was refrigeration
instead of baking where
the gelatin changed
from a soft, viscous liquid
into a firm gel as it chilled.
The texture of this cake
remained very smooth
almost like an ice cream.
[tense music]
Shane's simple addition
of sweet blueberries
pairs well with the cinnamon in the crust
and the tangy, piquant cream cheese.
Beth's has a far more
complex flavor profile.
Her raspberries that were
macerated in orange liqueur
compliment the citrus zest
that was added to her cake batter.
- I know this is why my
husband loves this cheesecake.
- They were poured over
her cheesecake batter
after each piece was cut
and then dusted with powdered sugar
which counteracts any alcohol
taste that might be there
from the orange liqueur.
Rory used gelatin in his topping
which solidified the sweet
strawberry glaze that he made.
His final sprinkle of black
pepper added a slight spicy note
that counters the sweetness
of the strawberry flavors.
Whether you're making
something traditional
or a little more complex,
there are plenty of ways
you can make your cheesecake
stand out from the crowd.
[bright music]
- Hey everyone.
Sorry I couldn't make it to this episode.
Just got a new job, so I
had to take some time off.
But just know I saved
you about three minutes
because all I was gonna do
was cut up a piece of pancake
and put it in my cheesecake batter.
I will be back for four levels once again
and I will reign supreme
as a level one chef.
[laughter]
