Kizano Cheesecake Recipe
I'm blogging about this recipe because it's the closest I could find to the perfect cheesecake recipe based on a summation of many recipes out there.
I'll advance notice you: Ingredients are one thing. The important piece to a perfect cheesecake is the execution! You must be exact with your measurements, order of operations and temperatures!!! I CANNOT stress this enough! Temperature is critical! Take all ingredients out of the frig at least one hour before starting.
This is the base recipe. Once you get this down, you can add whatever you like for toppings or flavors.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 - 8oz package of graham crackers- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 8oz unsalted butter
Cheesecake
- 2 - 8oz pouches of Philadelphia Cream Cheese [2]- 3 Tbsp sour cream
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 Tsp corn starch
- 2 to 3 Tbsp juice from a lemon (about half the juice from a lemon)
- 6 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
[1]: can use pecans or walnuts. I mix the two into the blend with my pestel and mortar and it tastes scrumptious!
[2]: I've tried other brands of cream cheese and they all have this "guar gum" in it, which gives it a really gummy, taffy kind of texture which is absolutely NOT appealing. I am brand-loyal when it comes to cream cheese! (Hey, @PhillyCreamChs, how about a sponsorship? :D )
Execution
- Make sure ALL of your ingredients are at room temperature (70-74F)! This is critical! If your ingredients are cold, you run the risk of everything lumping up. Cheesecake should be smooth, decadent, and rich. If you have lumps of cream cheese in your cheesecake, it won't be any of that.Crust
- Crush the graham crackers until they look like granulated sugar or garlic. A few tiny "rocks" of graham crackers is OK. Just don't want any huge clumps of graham crackers in the mix.- Fork-mix the brown sugar into the crackers.
- I will put a stick of butter in a pan on low and let it melt whilst I make the crust. Add the butter on top and incorporate into the mix.
- Once fully mixed, add the crust mix to your springform pan (I usually line it with parchment paper, albeit it's a pain to get it lined just right sometimes). Use a flat surface like the bottom of a cup to get an even base.
- Place in the freezer for ~20mins whilst you make the rest.
Cheesecake
- Preheat oven to 350F.- Soften the cream cheese on low with a hand mixer. (5-7mins)
- Once the cream cheese is softened, mix in the sugar until that's consistent in the mix.
- Gradually add the sour cream and whipping cream, continuing to mix on low.
- Spoon in the flour next to the hand mixer and ensure that's incorporated into the mix evenly.
- Add the vanilla and the lemon juice.
- Slowly incorporate the condensed milk until everything mixes evenly.
- Add the eggs one at a time. I will stop the mixer, crack them to the side of the bowl (in case any shells happen to fall out, I can use the shell to pull them out). Then, I will slowly mix the yolks into the batter. After that, I will whip the whites just before they give stiff peaks and fold those in. I've discovered this gives the cheesecake a very light and airy texture!
- Mix on medium for another ~10mins or so. You want everything to be well-incorporated. From time to time, I will stop the mixer and use a cake spatula to get the stuff stuck to the edges back into the mix.
- Once fully mixed pull the crust out of the freezer and pour the mix on top.
- Bake exactly 60 minutes. Watch it carefully in it's final 15 minutes. If you see it get down to the last 3 inches uncooked in a 9-inch springform pan, turn off the heat, wait 5 minutes, then remove from the oven. The cheesecake will continue to finalize the cook after you take it out of the oven!
- Let stand for 1 hour. Then place in the frig for at least 6.
- Top with your favorite toppings and enjoy!
You can do the same thing in the Instant Pot as well! Instead of baking in the oven:
- place ~ 1 cup of water in the bottom of the InstaPot.
- Place a riser to keep the springform pan from soaking in the water.
- If you don't have a trivet, use aluminum foil to create a sling to wrap the springform pan so you can remove it when it's done.
- Place the cheesecake in the InstaPot.
- If your InstaPot has the option: Set it to "sealing".
- Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes. Let it natural release for 10.
- Remove from the InstaPot and let it rest 1 hour. In the frig for at least 6.
Here's what you can expect it to look like!
Update: 2022-06-18
Blueberry Topping
Now to really dress things up, I created this blueberry sauce to add some color and flavor to the cheesecake. You can do this with pretty much any berry that goes well with cheesecake, like cherries or strawberries. Let's get into it!
- 6-8oz / 180-200g blueberries
- 3 tbps / 30g white sugar
- 1 tbsp / 25ml honey
- 0.25 oz / 5-7ml lemon juice
- 2oz / 60ml water
- 2 tsp / 8-10g corn starch
You may have to add a touch of water if you use strawberries to get the right consistency. I haven't done this for myself yet to know. Comment below if you have and know. Will edit if I tried myself.
I start by making a small pan hot on the stove on med-hi.
As the pan is heating up, I'll add the sugar. When it seems the pan is close to temperature, I'll add the honey. This will start to turn the sugar into a nice slurry.
While the sugar cooks for a few more seconds, I'll mix together the water, lemon juice and corn starch in a separate bowl. This makes it much easier to spread the corn starch
around without it creating little bubbles of just starchiness in the mix.
Now that you have a nice sugar slurry going, it's time to add the blueberries! I'll cover them up after adding to the heat and let them get to the point of bursting before mashing a few of them into the sugar slurry. I'll finish them off with a few fresh berries to add a few whole ones to the mix to enjoy as well.
Finally, we drizzle this over the cheesecake evenly until you get something that looks like this:
This is a Kizano Original Recipe™.
Cheers!
-Kizano
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