To bake or not to bake: Cheesecake dilemma

I love love love love cheesecake.. But when I'm thinking of making one, the first thing that comes to mind is, "Should I bake or should I not?". Before I talk about my dilemma, I shall explain to you that there are two different types of cheesecake: baked and no-bake/ chilled. Within baked cheesecake, there are two different versions, one is the Asian version which involves incorporating whipped egg white into the batter and the other is the American version that you most probably are more familiar with.

So why the dilemma? They're all cheesecake! No no no... Ok, they are all made from cream cheese and have a graham cracker crust, but those are the only things that they have in common. Baked and no-bake cheesecakes have completely different texture. Baked cheesecake is dense and velvety, while no-bake cheesecake is light and airy. Their characteristics are the results of the different techniques used. In baked cheesecake, you mix the cream cheese, egg, sugar, and other ingredients together and usually minimal air incorporation is strongly recommended. In no-bake cheesecake, on the other hand, you mix the cream cheese with other ingredients and then fold in whipped cream at the end. You need the air incorporation in the whipped cream to give no-bake cheesecake its airy texture. In short, baked cheesecake is more like a dense custard, while no-bake cheesecake is more like a mousse.

For me, I prefer baked over no-bake cheesecake, but it doesn't mean that no-bake cheesecake is no good. It's great! You can layer no-bake cheesecake batter with mousse, ganache, jelly, and what not to create a layered dessert, like this

(No-bake cheesecake + vanilla sponge cake + mango jelly + fresh mango and strawberry cubes)

Or divide the batter and color them separately to make this

(Made this for Halloween 2 years ago)

No-bake cheesecake is great for layering and easy to conform to various shapes of mold. On the contrary, it is difficult to bake cheesecake in weird-shaped molds, because the batter can get stuck. It is usually delicious by itself or topped with toppings, such as fruits, like this

Or it can be divided, flavored separately, baked, and covered with buttercream to create a combination cheesecake like this

If you want to play with texture, you can layer baked cheesecake with chocolate cake and ganache to make a chocolate-cake-cheesecake, like this

You've seen the pictures, so are you ready for the recipe? I post one recipe for baked and another one for no-bake cheesecake from Allrecipes.com with slight modification. Now, it's time to think, "To bake or not to bake?"

Baked Cheesecake (original recipe from here)

Yield 1 - 9 inch springform pan

Ingredients for crust:

15 graham crackers, crushed (you can buy crushed graham crackers, use about 1 1/2 cups if you use this)

3 table spoons butter, melted

Ingredients for filling:

4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup milk

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Take out the cream cheese from fridge and let sit at room temperature until soft.

2. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 inch springform pan.

3. In a bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan and refrigerate while you're making the filling.

4. Starts heating a pot of water (fill the pot about 1/3 full) over medium heat.

5. In a large (preferably metal) bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, put the bowl on top of the heating pot of water, and whisk the mixture gently until you can see no lumps

6. Turn off the heat, remove bowl from the pot, and let the mixture cool for 15 minutes. 

7. Add eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in sour cream and vanilla.

8. In a small bowl, scoop a little bit of the batter and mix in the flour until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the batter and mix well but gently.

9. Pour filling into prepared crust and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or less (depends on your oven). Test of doneness: the cheesecake should jiggle slightly in the middle when moved. Turn off the oven and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 1 to 2 hours to prevent cracking. Chill overnight to let the flavors meld together.

Tips:

*The double-boiler (putting your bowl on a heating pot of water) method helps with removing lumps and ensures a smooth velvety cheesecake. If you are mixing your batter in a food processor, you can eliminate this step.

*Gentle mixing is advised to minimize incorporation of air which will result in Grand-Canyon-like crack upon baking.

*Cooling the cake in the oven for several hours also prevent cracking.

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No-Bake Cheesecake (original recipe from here)

Yield 1 - 9 inch springform pan

Ingredients for crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Ingredients for filling:

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

2/3 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons lemon juice (or more if you like stronger lemon flavor)

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

Directions:

1. Take out the cream cheese from the fridge and let sit at room temperature until soft.

2. In a bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press on the bottom of springform pan and refrigerate while you're making the filling.

3. Beat cream cheese, sugar, and lemon juice until smooth (no lumps)

4. Whip heavy cream until stiff peak and fold into cream cheese mixture.

5. Pour mixture on top of the prepared crust. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill overnight.

Tips:

*Gentle mixing is not required in making no-bake cheesecake, because you want to incorporate air into the batter to create a light and airy texture

*If you have to take this cake out to a hot environment, add 1 packet of powdered gelatin dissolved in 2 Tbsp of water to the batter (add 2 Tbsp water in a bowl, sprinkle gelatin on top, let sit for 3-4 minutes, microwave for about 10 seconds until all granules are dissolved, let cool, and incorporate into batter).