Cream cheese in France.

[Patf]

I've never been able to work out which type of french cream cheese is suitable for various foods.

Last week I tried to make a cheesecake. There's a cheese stall in the market which sells some sort of cream cheese loose from a bucket. One is white, one is yellow. I think the white one was creme fraiche. I bought 800g of the yellow one, made the cheesecake, but it was a disaster.  After adding the eggs cornflower, lemon it suddenly became completely liquid, almost like milk.

I went ahead and tried to fill the tin I had prepared, with spongecake base, then it started to pour out of the bottom of the tin[:'(]

Transferred all quickly to another tin. Then the spongecake floated to the top.

Anyway I baked it but it was horrible - too greasy and sponge burnt; Gave it to the hens - what a waste.

My question is, what kind of french cream cheese is best for cheesecake?

ps I think what I bought was probably full fat creme fraiche.

[Chancer]

Brand name St Moret or the Lidl equivalent.

[idun]

I would say St Moret too, shall ask my son what he uses, as he makes cheese cakes in France................... I hate the stuff..........

[Chancer]

Its what I use to make cheesecakes, its what I was told when I asked and in use and taste to me it is identical to Philadelphia cream cheese.

 

My problem was always with getting an equivalent to double cream for whipping and then folding into the mixture, solved that by using Lidl Mascarapone mixed with crème fraiche.

[pomme]

Heston Blumenthal's cheesecake recipe works with the 375g cottage cheese, 375g cream cheese and 210g soured cream replaced by 1000g fromage blanc (not the 0% fat version).

[Patf]

So - fromage blanc (not the 0% fat) or St.Moret. Thanks to all.

But after this last experience it's nearly put me off cheesecake altogether.

[pomme]

Heston's recipe includes a small amount of cornflour to help stabilize/thicken the mix. Here, there has been no need to add more. Just don't over beat the fromage blanc or add too much lemon - but we prefer a dash of vanilla essence and Ts of Grand Marnier/Limoncello. I assume you are separating the eggs? Adding the yolks to the cheese and most of the sugar but whipping the whites/sugar to soft peak and then folding them in to the cheese mix? Whipping whole eggs into the mix will produce a very liquid mix.

[Patf]

No, I didn't separate the eggs - that must be the reason it went liquid. Didn't know that.

What do you use as a base, pomme?

[idun]

There are thousands of recipes on the web for cheesecake and many do not separate the eggs. Of the  few I looked at, many said was to continue beating the mix when the cream is added.

Ofcourse they have not taken into account french cream, and as Chancer said, maybe mascapone would be a solution....... although when I make tiramisu, I find that the mix of cream and mascapone tend to become a little 'slack' I believe would be the word,and not thicken as I always hope it would.

Personally I would not use creme fraiche, I do not like the acidity of it. I always used elle et vire full cream in a box that I had well refridgerated.

My son uses some gelatine in his cheesecake.

[pomme]

[quote user="Patf"]No, I didn't separate the eggs - that must be the reason it went liquid. Didn't know that.

What do you use as a base, pomme?

[/quote]

As I said, we've used the Heston recipe successfully many times. In the UK digestive biscuits and here usually langues de chat - both crushed and merged with butter.

[Chancer]

I dont use any thickeners, a real bodge and cop out IMHO, I seperate the whites and whip them just short of merangue consistency, stiff peaks, then the cream must be whipped to the same consitency which is where all French creams fail, not a high enough fat content.

 

The egg yolks are mixed with the cream cheese, castor sugar and any other ingrédients  plus gelatine, so I do use a thickener [:P] and the egg whites carefully folded in then the whipped double cream is folded in, if I were to use fromage blanc it would become a runny mess plus in my recipé at least you need the rich taste of the cream which fromage blanc does not have.

 

I am a fan of fromage blanc though, I make my own and get through 3 kg a week!!!!

 

Maybe I will try it in a cheesecake one day, trouble is its my best creation but I no longer eat any sugars so I only make it for others.

[pomme]

Do I get the feeling some don't seem to know the difference between a "New York-style" baked cheesecake (which the OP talked about) and a no-bake cheesecake?

[Chancer]

You are correct, and I still wont know the difference if you dont explain!

[Patf]

Yes, I was trying to make New York style. I know about no-bake cheesecakes - we used to live in a Jewish community and it's traditional there to have cheesecake at this time of the year. Many people had given up trying to make the baked type and made non-baked.

There was one lady who did catering, and I ended up buying one from her. She made a light sponge base, and the topping was more like a baked custard with a lemon-cheesey flavour.

[idun]

Re thickening a non baked one with gelatine. My son is a chef, in fact he was actually a Chef in a good restaurant in a major european city, and not a cuistot or a sous chef etc etc although initially he was a sous chef.  His cheesecake looked like it should and I was assured that it was absolutely delicious..... but not for me, at all. So not a cop out etc.

OK I'll bite, why langue de chat, which are nothing like digestives at all in either taste or texture????

And yes, I missed the baked bit. Here is Heston's recipe, it should be a live link.  He thickens his with cornflour. In fact looking at these recipes for a baked one, they do thicken in some way or another.

http://www.insearchofheston.com/2013/11/how-to-make-hestons-baked-vanilla-cheesecake-recipe-from-family-food/

Good luck Patf. Look on the BBC Food web site too.

[pomme]

idun: That link is the same as the one I gave earlier (the bold text was a live link). It comes from the book Family Food: A New Approach to Cooking by Heston Blumenthal.

Langues de chat are easily available in France and as far as we're concerned make a good substitute when crushed (other biscuits are available). The base doesn't really matter too much as the mix soaks into it to a certain extent and changes the texture. So a sponge base would be OK. American recipes often suggest using Graham crackers but you will also find references to pastry bases.

Don't over-beat the fromage blanc mix and just fold in the egg whites to keep it light. Don't be tempted to over-bake because it doesn't look done - it will tend to dry too much and to develop fissures. And leave it in the oven for several hours to cool down slowly (best done in evening for an overnight cooling).

Chancer: a baked cheesecake in basically a baked custard. An unbaked cheesecake in basically a mousse .

[bachelet]

Hi Patf,

I guess a good foundation is must for making cheese cakes.And I prefer biscuit base as the foundation. hope this will help.