Jump to content

Do you like Cheesecake?


Kirby
Go to solution Solved by Airehead,

Recommended Posts

We were having a discussion at work, and I was surprised at the vehemence with which some people hated cheesecake for dessert (the dessert kind of cheesecake and not the old fashioned sexy sort of cheesecake).  And most people who didn't like it especially didn't like any sort of fruit toppings on it.

It's not always my favorite dessert, but I find it rather tasty  especially on a summer day. And I like it with some fresh berries as well, but not overloaded with a processed , too sweet sauce.

So how about you?  Do you like it, find it meh or hate it with the power of a 1,000 suns?

  • Heart 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Kirby said:

I was surprised at the vehemence with which some people hated cheesecake for dessert.  And most people who didn't like it, especially didn't like any sort of fruit toppings on it.

These people are seriously flawed.  They may even be slightly deranged.  You should avoid them as much as possible.

  • Heart 3
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They sell, or used to sell, an incredibly creamy and delicious 12" diameter "NY cheesecake" at Costco that I won't buy for myself or I'll eat it all in a few days.

When I or someone else brings one to a party, it's always a big hit.

I like cheesecake without toppings if it's good and creamy, but strawberries work for me, too, as does the swirled, chocolate cheesecake.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

26 minutes ago, Wilbur said:

If there are choices, cheesecake is almost always last on my list.  Still ahead of chocolate though.  I really dislike chocolate desserts.

This is pretty much me, cheesecake is on the 'meh' side.  Berries enhance it, because cheesecake needs whatever help it can get.  I never get chocolate desserts if I can help it, but do like chocolate chip cookies if they aren't too chocolately.  When I make them for RO, I use at least half milk chocolate chips so they don't taste too overchocolated.

  • Heart 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Solution

There are things  I like better but my dad loves a ricotta cheesecake.

I am, however, a fan, once a year, of the pumpkin cheesecake.  I make it with gingersnaps instead of graham crackers in the crust.

ngredients

CRUST
  • 3/4 cup cinnamon-flavored graham cracker crumbs
  • 3/4 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • Vegetable cooking spray
FILLING
  • 4 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature
  • 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
TOPPING
  • 1 (16-oz.) container sour cream
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • Pinch of pumpkin pie spice

Directions

Instructions Checklist
  • Step 1

    Prepare Crust: Preheat oven to 325°. Stir together first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl until well blended. Press mixture onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of a lightly greased (with cooking spray) 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 minutes. Let stand at room temperature until ready to use.

  • Step 2

    Prepare Crust: Preheat oven to 325°. Stir together first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl until well blended. Press mixture onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of a lightly greased (with cooking spray) 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 minutes. Let stand at room temperature until ready to use.

  • Step 3

    Process pumpkin in a food processor 1 to 2 minutes or until very smooth. Stir together lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree; reserve remaining pumpkin puree. Add pumpkin-lemon juice mixture to cream cheese mixture, and beat at low speed just until blended; pour into prepared crust.

  • Step 4

    Bake at 325° for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until center of cheesecake jiggles. (Prepare Topping during last 10 minutes of bake time.)

  • Step 5

    Prepare Topping: Stir together sour cream and 3 Tbsp. granulated sugar; reserve 1/3 cup sour cream-sugar mixture. Stir together remaining sour cream mixture, pinch of pumpkin pie spice, and reserved pumpkin puree.

  • Step 6

    Remove cheesecake from oven. Gently spread sour cream-pumpkin mixture over cheesecake. Dollop with reserved 1/3 cup sour cream-sugar mixture; gently swirl with a knife.

  • Step 7

    Remove cheesecake from oven. Gently spread sour cream-pumpkin mixture over cheesecake. Dollop with reserved 1/3 cup sour cream-sugar mixture; gently swirl with a knife.

  • Step 8

    How to Make a Leaf Garnish: Cut refrigerated piecrusts into decorative shapes using seasonal cookie cutters. Arrange cutouts in a single layer on a baking sheet; score dough with the tip of a paring knife to create designs, if desired. Bake dough according to package directions until golden and done. Remove cutouts to a wire rack; cool and decorate as desired.

  • Heart 1
  • Hugs 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Road Runner said:

He has very strong opinions on food and people who eat food.  :D

People who don't Ike cheesecake are demented,  tortured souls. Cheesecake is the pie of the cake world.  Cherry cheesecake,  strawberry cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, lemon chiffon.......

Time to revisit the cheesecake of the month clubs. You know, a man starting something as simple as a cheesecake of the week could be on easy street. :nodhead:

  • Heart 1
  • Awesome 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

Blackberry cheesecake is the official cheesecake of King bikeman564 Cycling.  

 

9 minutes ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

Raspberry cheesecake is the official backup cheesecake of King bikeman564 Cycling.  

Can they be co-official cheesecakes?  I'd be hard pressed to pick which deserves primary position more. Both seem worthy.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

No. 

This was King bikeman564 's decree and his decision only. I am unsure where he placed lemon chiffon but believe it's just after banana pudding.   (Non-cheesecake)

SNAP!!! Definitely don't want to run afoul of the monarchy, so I support the decision!

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Kirby said:

We were having a discussion at work, and I was surprised at the vehemence with which some people hated cheesecake for dessert (the dessert kind of cheesecake and not the old fashioned sexy sort of cheesecake).  And most people who didn't like it especially didn't like any sort of fruit toppings on it.

It's not always my favorite dessert, but I find it rather tasty  especially on a summer day. And I like it with some fresh berries as well, but not overloaded with a processed , too sweet sauce.

So how about you?  Do you like it, find it meh or hate it with the power of a 1,000 suns?

Your coworkers are nutjobs.  

Cheese

  • Heart 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Road Runner said:

He has very strong opinions on food and people who eat food.  :D

He is not "Airwick with Cheesecake", so he has no jurisdiction on this topic.

1 hour ago, 12string said:

Is cheesecake actually even "cake"?

No.  I don't know that I would call it pie, either, although that is much closer to reality than cake.  

This is a tricky thing when you get down to it.

  • Heart 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Interview: How Junior's Cheesecake Is Handling The Great Cream Cheese Crisis Of 2021

32 MINS AGO 
 
  
A photo of cheesecakes at Junior's Cheesecake in Brooklyn in 2020
 
Junior's Cheesecake
MARK LENNIHAN/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
 

It sounded like a schmear campaign at first, but the crisis is real: a major cream cheese shortage has hit New York City bagel stores. Some of our finest bagel purveyors—Absolute Bagels, Tompkins Square Bagels, Pick-a-Bagel, Bagelsmith, Zabar's and more—all attested to the fact that they were "frazzled, frustrated and rushing to find cream cheese" after supply chain issues—caused by work shortages, port congestion and increased demand—had ensnared the industry.

But it's not just your local bagel shop: Junior's Restaurants announced that they had to shut down multiple times over the last week because they didn't have enough of the ingredient, which is the key to making their beloved cheesecakes.

Gothamist spoke to Alan Rosen, the third-generation owner of Junior's, on Thursday evening to find out how the cream cheese shortage is affecting their business, and whether or not New Yorkers jonesin' for some holiday cheesecake should be freaking out right now.

Junior's Cheesecake.
 
Junior's Cheesecake.
JEN CARLSON PERSONAL COLLECTION

New Yorkers are obviously very concerned about any cream cheese shortages. How has it been affecting Junior's so far? Last week we couldn't bake on Friday. We had to close down Friday afternoon. Couldn't bake Saturday. And we started up again last Sunday because we sent one of our trucks to go get a load of cream cheese at five in the morning.

Where does one send a truck to get cream cheese? It was a warehouse in Pennsylvania somewhere. So think of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, coming from Pennsylvania.

And then this week... This week, we had to shut down today and we're going to resume tomorrow and Sunday because we ran out of cream cheese [on Wednesday]. We use four million pounds of cream cheese a year. We are one of the larger users.

Wow. That's something I wanted to ask about: how much cream cheese do you typically get in a shipment? So one shipment is exactly 40,000 pounds.

Do you know approximately how many cakes you make per shipment? Here, let me just grab a calculator. It depends on the size obviously, but I can give you a ballpark. Let's see...we get about 24,000 cakes out of that. So from one trailer, that lasts us a day and a half, two days.

And how often do you get those shipments? A lot, three times a week this time of the year. Maybe four.

Right, so if you miss one—One, yeah, it's a big deal. It's a lot of cake. We can make 10 to 15,000 cakes in the day. So far, we haven't run out of cake, but where the rubber's going to meet the road is for those last minute shipping orders for Christmas. So far, we haven't shorted any of our retail customers. We're in about 8,000 supermarkets besides our restaurants. So our restaurants are fully supplied. Our retailers are fully supplied. Our last minute mail orders may get affected, but that's why I always tell people, get your orders in early.

A photo of Junior's Cheesecake in Manhattan
ERIC LAUDONIEN/SHUTTERSTOCK

How much of each cheesecake is made up of cream cheese? It's actually close to 85% cream cheese. That's why it's so good. Cream cheese, fresh eggs, sugar, heavy cream, vanilla.

It's not like you could substitute it. There's no alternative. Listen, there's no alternative. That's why I got upset when I saw these articles about bagels, worrying about their schmear. They can still make a bagel. We cannot make a cheesecake.

Have you ever experienced anything like this shortage before? Never. Never. I was discussing it with someone at Kraft the other day. Never. We've been around for 71 years. This has never happened.

So is this a commercial cream cheese issue as well? Because I've heard people say, well, I see Philly cream cheese—They see Philly cream cheese on the shelves, yeah, but listen, but there's not as much of it. I went through supermarket a few weeks ago, there are shortages across the board. It's not just one product, but yes, we do buy it more commercially. But it's a 30 or 50 pound box. So you'd have to ask them if the little packets are fine, I don't know. But I'm not opening up packets for 40,000 pounds a week.

So when you get these shipments of cream cheese, you're going through them incredibly quickly. Out is out. We shut down today. We shut down our baking operations today. We could not bake cheesecake. So we packed other things, we did other frosting and finishing what we could do, but we could not bake cheesecakes today. We had to send our people home. We actually told them not to come in and they're going to work Sunday. We just got a load a few hours ago, so we're going to bake tomorrow and we're going to bake Sunday. And then we're only as good as the next load of cream cheese.

Do you feel like you're like hanging on by a thread? We are. Listen, we've shut down twice in the last two weeks, two and a half days we missed.

So this could happen again next week. You don't know. Absolutely.

A photo of Alan Rosen and US Senator Charles Schumer at the reopening of Junior's in Times Square in May 2021
 
Owner Alan Rosen and U. S. Senator Charles Schumer at the re-opening of Junior's Cheesecake in Times Square in May 2021
LEV RADIN/PACIFIC PRESS/SHUTTERSTOCK

This is clearly a supply chain problem. We've seen this in a lot of different industries. Has it affected you before this cream cheese shortage? Yes, it's a supply issue. Earlier in the year we couldn't get plastic domes for cakes, because we have some retails that like cakes in those domes. Now there are other companies we heard were short of corrugated [fiberboard]. We were fortunate that didn't happen to us. But the supply chain is definitely being squeezed right now and demand from what I understand...I mean our business I know is up probably over 40% this year. So you got to remember, all our restaurants are back online. All the restaurants across the country are back online. People have adopted comfort food during COVID in a big way. So our supermarket business is up a lot and so our demand is up over 43% this year.

And I'm assuming that this time of year is probably a very busy time of year in general for you? Yes, our restaurants probably go up about 25-30% and our mail order business, we do half our volume for the year in November and December.

So what can be done? I mean, you're just at the mercy of these suppliers right now. Someone said to me, what's your plan B? I said, don't have one. Punt. We just got to keep getting by.

Is there a point where it would be a crisis in terms of being able to produce? If we don't have cream cheese, we will eventually run out of cheesecake if it's for an extended period of time. Once a week we can handle for now and get by. If its more extended than that, it's going to be a problem. But listen, as soon as we get it, we mix it and blend it and then we bake it.

Is there anything else you want customers to know? Listen, get your orders in. If you want to send a Junior's Cheesecake to someone across the country, now's the time to do it. And we wish everyone a happy holiday and we hope we don't run out of cream cheese.

We do have inventory right now. So we believe, based on last year's numbers, we can satisfy everybody. But hopefully there's more demand than that, but I would hate to say no to anybody. So we're working overtime.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Monkee's singer and guitarist Michael Nesmith, a pop visionary who penned many of the group’s most enduring songs before laying the groundwork for country-rock with the First National Band in the early Seventies, died Friday from natural causes. He was 78.

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/monkees-michael-nesmith-dead-1270079/

  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Parr8hed said:

I like it with the power of about 500 suns.  1000 may be a little strong.

Bah.  I like sour cream cheesecake with fruity sugary topping, and it had better damn well have an overthick graham cracker crust.  Otherwise, I just don't get the attraction to mucousy deserts like creme brulee, tiramisu cheesecake, and the like.  Cake has texture, pie has texture, the others desperately need some texture other than just heavy dairy spit.

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

Bah.  I like sour cream cheesecake with fruity sugary topping, and it had better damn well have an overthick graham cracker crust.  Otherwise, I just don't get the attraction to mucousy deserts like creme brulee, tiramisu cheesecake, and the like.  Cake has texture, pie has texture, the others desperately need some texture other than just heavy dairy spit.

You cannot compare the smoothness of a perfect cheesecake to a crème brulee with the consistency of a lung cookie that someone just hacked up after walking a mile in the cold.   

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...