Cheese for Cheesecakes | Ask Nigella.com (2024)

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Cheese for Cheesecakes | Ask Nigella.com? ›

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Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese (typically cottage cheese, cream cheese, quark or ricotta), eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies (or digestive biscuits), graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake.

You can use either mascarpone, or Philadelphia cream cheese (or the supermarket version), but it MUST BE full fat cream cheese. I'm based in the UK, so we have double cream. It has a rough fat content of around 45% and this is what helps it set. If you don't have access to it, use the nearest you can find.

If your soft cheese is the same then it will taste fine but won't be as rich as if full fat cream cheese were used so the texture will be slightly lighter. Don't worry: a home made cheesecake is always a treat! Stick to Philadelphia.

Yes, it is the same. Philadelphia is just a brand of cream cheese. A company that makes cheese with fresh milk and real cream since 1872.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese: Philadelphia cream cheese is a popular choice for cheesecake recipes [1].

Since it's probably the most popular and beloved kind of cheesecake (at least by name), let's start with New York cheesecake. In general, New York cheesecake is ultra-dense and rich, firm yet creamy, and relies on lots of cream cheese for tang and texture, bolstered by heavy cream, eggs, and sugar.

Upgrade Your Cheesecake With Mascarpone Cheese

Because mascarpone is made from heavy cream, it has a higher fat content than cream cheese which is made from whole milk.

Neufchâtel cheese may be substituted for cream cheese in equal amounts. It can be used one-for-one in uncooked recipes, and will slightly reduce the fat content in these dishes (such as chilled dips and spreads).

Where can I buy full fat soft cheese for cheesecake? ›

Tesco Soft Cheese Plain Full Fat 200G - Tesco Groceries.

In the UK the fat content of cream cheese can theoretically be as high as 55% which may be why the UK tends to opt for the term "soft white cheese", but most people still think of this as cream cheese and the higher fat content cream cheese tends to be flavoured with garlic and herbs.

It shouldn't cause a problem. I have a very basic cheesecake recipe I make often and I have used both regular and reduced fat cream cheese to make it. They bake the same and look the same, but there is a difference in texture.

This recipe makes a classic New York-style cheesecake with a buttery graham cracker crust and rich, dense filling made from cream cheese, eggs, sugar, sour cream, vanilla, a hint of lemon, and a few tablespoons of flour. Cream cheese is the key ingredient, so I recommend using a good brand, like Philadelphia.

Extra cream cheese isn't the only thing that makes New York cheesecake so special. It also includes extra eggs and egg yolks to provide and smooth consistency.

Soft cheeses like goat, Brie and gorgonzola may be able to contribute to baked goods' overall consistency if incorporated early in the baking process.

Cream cheese is a type of spreadable cheese used to make cheesecake. Cheesecake is a creamy dessert with a biscuit crust, creamy filling made with cream cheese and other ingredients and topped with your favourite topping like compote, nutella or caramel.