Friday, December 15, 2006

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake



Ingredients:

Biscuit Base: Mix together and press into a 9" sq. loose bottom tray

280 gm. Digestive Biscuits - blend finely
2 1/2 Tbsp. Sugar
80 gm. melted butter (if you find that it's too dry, add a little more till it can be pressed into the tin)

Filling:

600 gm. Philidelphia Cream Cheese
125 gm. fine sugar
3 Tbsp. Plain flour
1 tsp. Vanilla Essence
150 gm. Sour Cream
2 nos. eggs

1/3 cup of Strawberry Jam

Method:

(1) For biscuit base, blend the biscuits finely, add in melted butter and sugar and mix thoroughly. Press firmly into a 9" square loose bottom tray and bake for about 10 mins. at 175C. Leave to cool slightly.
(2) Beat cream cheese and sugar till creamy.
(3) Add in vanilla essence, plain flour and sour cream and mix till combined.
(4) Add in eggs one at a time at low speed until just until blended.
(5) Pour on top of the baked biscuit base.
(6) Put strawberry jam into a piping bag, pipe over the cheese filling and then use a skewer to swirl the jam to make a marble effect look.
(7) Bake at 160C for about 45 mins. or till the filling is set.
(Test by touching the center of the cheese and if it's firm, then it's cooked)

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi yochana,

Do u have any idea how to prevent baked cheesecake from cracking??

I've tried water bath, wrapping the dark springform tin with aluminium foil but to no avail :(

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi cherie,

I baked this strawberry swirl cheesecake without a water bath and no sign of cracks though.

You must not use too high temperature to bake though. 160c will be a good temperature for cheesecake. When you see that your cheesecake is about to crack, open your oven down to cool down a little and the crack will subside. Try cooling down cheesecake in oven and if there's crack, use a knife to loosen the edge so that it will close back the cracks on the cheesecake. Try and see whether it works..

rgds

Anonymous said...

thx for typing and sharing this recipe with us =)

Baking Fiend said...

Lucy, thanks for the recipe! :)

Anonymous said...

Aunty yochana,
Thanks for sharing this recipe with us. Will try it!

Anonymous said...

Hi Cherie,

make sure the cheese is at room temperature, it will help. :)

Cheers,
Alice

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi alice,

Thanks..that's a good piece of advice.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Thanks yochana and alice for your advise ;)

Will try baking another cheesecake next week. Hope it wont crack.

Anonymous said...

Hi yochana,

I try cooking your hainanese kaya twice but it failed because it turns out lumpy and have a rough texture. Can u highlight y this happens. Thk u.

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yochana,
Thanks for the recipe. Will try it one of these day. The difficult part for a novice baker like me is to pipe and swirl the jam.It sounds horrifying haha...
Merry Xmas to u in advance.
Rgds,
AnC.

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi ANC,

don't worry about the swirling part. It's fairly easy. Just use a satay stick, move it upwards and downwards and you will get a feather design.

rgds

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi anonymous,

did you keep stirring your kaya? If you don't then it'll turn lumpy. No reason why it should turn lumpy if your're stirring continously.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Thanks Yochana for sharing this recipe!

I will try it out!
Just a question...do we need to line the pan?

thanks
Sue

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi sue,

I used a loose bottom pan so I don't need to line it.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Yochanna

Thanks for this rich and yummy recipe. Tried it last night. Forgot to buy the baking jam so have to search the cupboard for alternative. Ended up with Smuckers Blueberry jam. Although didn't manage to get the beautiful swirl, the cake still passed with flying colours...at least to me lah. LOL.

Sandra

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yo!

Love the feather effects!

I've got a silly question here...

Prior to sticking in my stick in & out of cake, how do I pipe the strawberry jam on top of the cheese filling? Zig Zag? Straight line one round? or... Geez... I sound dumb yeah? hehehehe

Also, instead of strawberry jam, I've got blueberry fillings from phoon huat... can I use that instead?

To side track, how do I 'sweetened' (just by a bit) the blueberry fillings? It somehow taste a bit sourish in my sponge cakes filling (centre of cake with whipped cream)...

Thanks lots for answering these "starter" questions! :)

Laterz,
Jacqueline

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Jacqueline,

You can either pipe round rings with your jam or straight lines on the cake. No need to zig -zag. After that, take a skewer to move up down motion and you'll get the feather effect. You can use any jam of your choice even...blueberry.

Blueberry pie filling is normally sweet but if you find it not sweet enough, you can stir in some icing sugar or warm up the pie filling and stir in castor sugar and stir till sugar dissolves.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the prompt reply! :)

I doubt I can do it... it's suppose to be 'flat' piping (like spreading glue onto paper) OR 'pop-up' kind (squeezing toothpaste onto toothbrush)? :) ...

so around the cake, near the edges, i'll draw ovals all around and then using stick/skewer, i'll push in and out of the cheese filling to drag the jam to get the feather effect?

Still *blur*... hahahah... sorry... for starters like me... must have 'annoyed' you with 'long-winded, simple' questions. :p

Laterz,
Jacqueline

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunt YO!

I've done it! hehehehe... thanks for your recipe and help... it taste heavenly and the feather design, i draw straight lines from centre outwards, then i use satay stick to 'drag' in out of cake... I've substitute your sour cream in recipe for yoghurt... it still taste okay (in fact, wonderful) to me n boy... :)

thanks lots!!! :)

Laterz,
Jacqueline

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Jacqueline,

Thumbs Up!!!

Rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi aunty,
Most of the cheesecake are steam-bake. I've been worried of steam bake with the my electric oven(not sure if it can handle). Since this is non steam-bake version, I would like to try. Is steam-bake cheesecake softer and bake cheesecake more rough? Or what is the diff in their texture? Thanks.

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi leen,

I like your question.

Steam bake is just putting a tray of water in the oven while baking the cheesecake. This is prevent the cheesecake from cracking and become dry. This steam bake method definitely makes your cheesecake smooth and moist.

Don't worry...give yourself some confidence. You'll definitely make it.

rgds

Queenie Winnie said...

Hi aunty yochana,
I came across ur site and now i am addicted! :p I tried this recipe, don't know where to find the jam so i used smuckers blackberry jam instead but cannot get the very pretty swirls u have think due to the diff jam i use..bit disappointed...but nevertheless, both of my children loves it so much, felt so happy and accomplished. Big thank you!
best rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yochana,

I baked this Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake today for my sister's birthday tomorrow as she's a cheesecake fanatics like me. I followed ur recipe exactly except changing the sour cream to yogurt. The cake turned out to be a flop that is kueh like. The side also shrink by about 1cm. Can you pls advise where went wrong? Sorry to bother you.

Aunty Yochana said...

HI Yin yin,

I guess probabaly yoghurt is too watery and your temperature is not right. You must also steam bake the cheesecake.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yochana,
I tried again this morning using sour cream and steam bake it. May I know after I remove from oven, do I remove cheesecake from steam bath or leave it inside to cool?

Aunty Yochana said...

Hi Yinyin,

leave it to cool in the oven first.

rgds

Anonymous said...

Hi Aunty Yochana,
u advise to cool in oven 1st, is meaning cake in steam bath in oven with oven switch off and door open? Then after cool remove from oven and steam bath then chill in fridge? Will follow ur advise when I bake this cheesecake again.

Btw aunty, my jam like "sink" into the cheese filling and not visible and beautiful like urs. How do I make the jam not "sink" into the filling though its still partially visible.

Oh yeah my sis loved the cheesecake even though its still not as nice as urs. She quite supporting hor.

Thanks for this great recipe.

From what I understand, cheesecake got different texture, is there any way from the recipe, I am able to know the cheesecake is heavy and dense type or soft cotton type?

Sorry to ask so detail bcos even though I love to bake and eat especially cheesecake but still quite a newbie at baking so need ask very detail of steps.

Regards.