The Swing of Things

It is Wednesday evening. I wanted to head into The Haven Cafe to start stocking up the dessert case for the weekend. When I arrived I found that only two or three pieces of my original 2 cheesecakes were left! It was a good thing that I came to make cheesecake otherwise they wouldn't have much for Thursday!

Once we get into the swing of things, we plan on having 3 cheesecake flavors at all times. One of those will always be the vanilla bean, and the other two will be whatever I feel like making for that week. Hopefully I can settle into a groove, bust out all my cheesecakes over the weekend and then not have to come in during the week. We'll see how that goes, but in the meantime, as I figure out all of the intricacies of this kitchen, it looks like I'm coming in whenever I get time to bake, and/or if they are running low on stock.

The Display is full-o-chocolate truffle!

It was time to add the third flavor for this week, chocolate truffle. My eight inch spring form pans arrived and though they were a bit taller than I was expecting, I was able to figure out a shelf configuration in the oven that would fit 4 cheesecakes and a water bath. I cranked up the heat and got to work.

One of the issues I have in this experience is adapting my recipes to the smaller pans that I am using, but also adjusting for quantity as well. I typically make a single nine inch cheesecake, and now I am making four eight inch cheesecakes! The engineer in me wants to apply a simple ratio to determine exact amounts of each ingredient... but it isn't quite that simple. 4 x (8/9) x the quantity of ingredient. This would be the formula I would use if I were taking that route. Four is the total number of cheesecakes, and 8/9 is the ratio of pan sizes. This formula tells me that when I typically use 24 oz. of cream cheese, I now need to use 85.3 oz. of cream cheese. But it also tells me that when I use 3 eggs, I now have to use 10.67 eggs. I personally don't want to mess with fractions of eggs and for that reason this method is out. I had to keep it simple,and since eggs are the one thing I can't easily divide into fractions, that would be my defining quantity for the ratio needed.. Since I typically used three eggs for one cheesecake, and I had to decrease the volume, I would now use two eggs for one, meaning eight eggs for all four cheesecakes in each batch. The new formula is 4 x (2/3) x the quanitity of ingredient. This gives me the amount of cream cheese to use, as well as all of the other ingredients which are easily scalable.

With the batter mixed and poured, I slid all of the cheesecakes into the oven. Four cheesecakes crammed into this small oven was tight. I was going to have to rotate these part way through baking. Ovens are hotter at their walls than in the cavity, particularly if you are opening and closing the door. If you can't place your baked good in the center of the cavity, but don't rotate it part way through the baking process, then the parts closest to the walls of the oven will cook faster. To avoid this you have to rotate the items part way through the baking time. Baking time is another thing that has to scale based on variables when baking a cheesecake. I bakes a typical nine inch at 300 degrees for about an hour. I was baking four eight inch cheesecakes at 250 degrees, so I figured that it would be roughly the same time frame, but I like to be cautious so I set a timer for 20 minutes to rotate them. At that time they seemed like they were setting well. After rotating I left them in for another 15 minutes and they were set very well, probably a little overdone actually.

As I was rotating I noticed that two of the cheesecakes had water on top of them. To get everything to fit I had to put the water bath on the top rack above the cheesecakes. In addition to that the oven itself isn't level. So the two cheesecakes on the downhill side got some liquid on top of them when the oven shook... which was every time that the oven door opened. Fortunately when set, cheesecake can handle some water and it evaporated before causing any problems.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

I learned a lot of lessons during this baking session. First, level the oven. Second, it will take some time, but eventually I will figure out an optimum timing and temperature for baking in this environment. Third, I have to get an early start. This leads me to my tip for this article:

Though the mixing and baking of a cheesecake and crust takes a fair amount of time, probably 1.5-2 hours, it is nothing compared to the time that it has to sit and cool prior to being able to do anything with it. If you remove a cheesecake from a hot oven to cool, the drastic temperature fluctuation will cause it to crack and dry out. For this reason it is best to slightly undercook it, then turn the oven off, crack the door, and let the cavity of the oven come down to room temperature. Then remove the cheesecake and allow it to cool completely before covering and placing in a fridge to chill. This will take another 3-4 hours depending on the size of cheesecake. I would apply this technique with any custard. I took a couple of liberties with time on Wednesday night, particularly that the cheesecakes were still not completely room temperature when I covered them and put them in the fridge. Even with those liberties, I didn't get home until nearly 1 AM. To prep the cheesecakes for the display case I had to go back Thursday morning before I went to work. In all I was "baking" for approximately 6 hours. I know that as I become more adept and get systems down for everything that this I can reduce this time substantially.

Getting There

We had the cafe. I could make the cheesecakes. Now what did we have to do to bring those together. Originally The Haven had an oven, but they found that due to its size it had to be vented in order to pass inspection The building we are in is 100 years old, mostly brick, 2 story and the kitchen area was somewhere in the middle of it. Therefore it would cost great gobs of cash in order to vent the large oven, so it had to go.

This left us with a problem. How do we make cheesecakes on-site? The answer was easy enough, get a small countertop convection oven. We found the largest size that we could have without having to vent and we bought it. But this presented another problem. I use nine inch spring form pans that are approximately three inches tall. The inner cavity of the oven had 3 racks (spaced somewhere between two and three inches), and was barely eighteen inches wide. I could fit two nine inch pans on one rack, but they would be touching each other and the sides of the oven which any baker knows is a big no-no. Plus, with three inch tall pans, I could only use two racks, one of which was needed for the water bath.

We checked out eight inch cake pans that were two inches tall, and I could fit four of them in the oven with a water bath, so that would be fine. The problem is that eight inch spring form pans apparently have to be ordered, and they come mostly in the three inch height. However we found some that are the right height and they have been ordered.

Another necessary item in making cheesecakes is a stand mixer. No problem, I have one of those... but wait, all kitchen equipment must be rated for commercial use! There are only a small handful of tabletop stand mixers that are commercial rated, and they are much, much cheaper when purchased through the internet. So the mixer is ordered.

We took ownership of The Haven on Saturday night. The Haven is closed on Sunday and we were to re-open Monday morning as The Haven Cafe with at least some of the changes in-place. One of those changes was the inclusion of cheesecake on the menu. Our shopping was done. We had the oven and the ingredients, but no pans and no mixer. Fortunately I had eight inch cake pans that I could use, and we were able to borrow a mixer to use until we could get our new one.

I had a lot of obstacles to overcome. Every baker can tell you that any change to any part of a recipe, even down to the equipment used in the process can create problems. I am used to baking cheesecake in my home oven, with nine inch spring form pans, and using my own mixer. Now I was baking in a new kitchen, with a small convection oven, cake pans, and a mixer I wasn't used to.

For my inaugural batch of cheesecake I chose to make Key Lime. Oh key lime. My wife Jan requested that I make key lime cheesecake one time for her friend's baby shower. No problem until she also requested that I make them green! I learned from Alton Brown that key lime is NOT green, and anything key lime that is green has had food coloring added, and there's just no reason for that. Though I was pretty adamant, in the end Jan won because the cheesecakes had to "match" the shower. Those cheesecakes came out the strangest shade of green that I had ever seen! This time there was NO food coloring involved.

My cheesecakes were in the oven. The water bath was bubbling away and everything was going well. I cleaned up and went out into the dining area to help out for a while as the cheesecakes baked. After maybe 20 minutes I went back in the kitchen and found that the cheesecakes had risen quite a bit! This is a problem, as it means that the oven is too hot and the liquid in the cheesecake is turning to steam. Steam around a cheesecake is good. Steam IN a cheesecake is bad! I turned the temperature down and let the cheesecakes finish cooking. Since these were in cake pans rather than spring form pans I had made a parchment paper "caddy" to lift them out when they had cooled. It worked fairly well, but the paper had folded over into the top of the cheesecakes, and this caused the tops and sides to be pretty uneven. Additionally one of the cheesecakes cracked! I wasn't very happy with my inaugural batch of cheesecake, but I had expected going into this that I would have problems. One of the cheesecakes was good enough to sell, and the one that cracked... well it could be used as samples!

I only had two eight inch cake pans, so I had to bring in a nine inch spring form pan in order to get one more cheesecake out before Monday morning. This was to be my signature flavor, vanilla bean. I stumbled on the idea for this recipe in an attempt to make a "Boston Cream" cheesecake and have loved it ever since. I now knew that the oven cooked hotter than my oven at home, due to the smaller cavity size and method of heating. Convection ovens use a fan to move the hot air around the oven rather than a regular oven that uses a flame or electric coil that radiates heat from the top or bottom of the oven. With the oven temperature set lower my vanilla bean cheesecake came out perfectly. The top was smooth and of a uniform color, and as far as I could tell the consistency was spot-on.

That is it for this entry. I go back into the kitchen tonight to add a new flavor to the menu and stock up the dessert case for the weekend.

I'll leave you with a tip. In this entry I mentioned the water bath. When making any type of custard, to help it cook evenly you have to use a water bath. Temperatures in an oven vary greatly, and since water never gets above the boiling point, whatever is in the water cooks more evenly. With my cheesecakes I struggled for many years and no matter what I did, from wrapping the base of the pan in foil to buying special "no leak" pans, I couldn't keep the water from seeping into the crust of the cheesecake! Finally I tried something new. Rather than put the cheesecake in the water bath, I put the pan of water on the rack under the cheesecake! This still filled the oven cavity with steam which helps not only in keeping the temperature even, but in keeping the top of the cheesecake moist. It probably isn't quite as good for the consistency of the cheesecake as a true water bath, but at least I don't have soggy crusts anymore!

In my next post I introduce a new flavor to the mix... and maybe add a photo or two!

The Beginning

I was maybe 12 years old. It was a warm summer night and I attended a family function for a friend of mine. His uncle made cheesecakes for the event. I remember helping to bring them in from the fridge in the garage, right next to the partially covered 1965 Ford Mustang that was in some state of restoration. As my favorite car of all time, it got a lot of my attention, and is probably why I can remember the event so well. Up to this time I had only ever had "restaurant" cheesecake which most of us know is typically made in a factory somewhere, frozen, and then shipped around the world until it ends up in the freezer at whatever restaurant wants it. These "factory" cheesecakes are typically dry and dense with the cream cheese flavor masked by whatever toppings and fillings they cover them in. This was different. This was soft, creamy and sweet, and it practically melted in my mouth. The tangy bite of cream cheese was there in force, and it accented the flavors that were added. This was what cheesecake was supposed to be, and this was the moment that I realized that I could make it myself.

I went home and immediately started looking through the family cookbooks to find a cheesecake recipe. I don't actually remember my first cheesecake, but I do remember one that was pretty much a disaster. This was my first attempt at a New York style cheesecake. These are thick, and typically use much more cream cheese and eggs than a regular cheesecake. I mixed it, baked it, let it cool, then after taking the side of the spring form pan off I spent a lot of time covering the sides in a layer of semi-sweet chocolate mini-chips. That night we had my cheesecake for dessert, and as I pulled the first slice of it out, the middle of the whole cheesecake oozed out onto the plate! I had undercooked it! My mom dutifully ate the outer edge that was cooked, but I had failed, and I wouldn't try even a bite. To this day I don't think I have attempted another "New York" style cheesecake.

Those first few years had cheesecakes that turned brown, cracked, and were dry and chalky, but each mistake led to the honing of my knowledge and techniques until I could produce a perfectly cooked cheesecake every time. No cracks, no browning, and above all the perfect internal consistency. I also tried many recipes, eventually settling on 2 "base" recipes that I have used exclusively for many years now. I can modify these recipes in an infinite number of ways to create any flavor of cheesecake that your taste buds desire.

Cheesecakes became my "thing." I often gave them as presents for Christmas, birthdays, etc... I would often get calls from friends and relatives; "could you make a cheesecake for the 4th of July BBQ?" Everyone seemed to like my cheesecakes, even my dad. And my dad doesn't like cheesecake! He's not the only one either. I've had several people tell me that they don't like cheesecake, but they like mine!

It is fall of 2009. My wife is a part-time event planner, and has been drafted by a family friend to plan the grand opening gala of The Haven, a new coffee shop that was to open nearby. They had the meal all planned out, and for the dessert they wanted my cheesecake, perhaps due to prodding from my wife. There were to be 70+ people. I had never made that many cheesecakes in such a short period of time. Over the period of a week I pushed out 1 or 2 vanilla bean custard cheesecakes a day until I hit my goal of 7 total. The gala went well and everyone seemed to enjoy the dessert. No more than a bite or 2 was left on any plate. The Haven even got a couple of people asking to buy my cheesecakes.

In the spring of 2010 we had the opportunity to buy into The Haven as part owners, and we took it!

August 21, 2010. The papers were signed, and our new partnership now owned The Haven. We will re-brand it The Haven Cafe, and we will get the word out that there are new owners, new management, fast and friendly service, and a new menu item... cheesecake.

This blog will document my experiences in crafting cheesecake for The Haven Cafe. I will share the ups and downs, politics, laws, and so many other things that have to happen just to be able to sell a slice of cheesecake. I will share tips and tricks for creating your own cheesecakes (sorry, no recipes.)

I hope you enjoy the blog, and please post comments positive or negative and let me know what you like, don't like, want to see, and so on.

I'll leave you with a simple cheesecake tip. If you use a hand mixer, look for one with plastic or plastic coated beaters. These will minimize air that is brought into the batter and help fight cracking. (when I was using a hand mixer I couldn't find any, but that was many years ago. I know that Target specifically has a model that comes with plastic beaters.)