Cheesecake

METHOD

• 1
  Ingredients for the filling should be at room temperature. Take the eggs and cheese out of the fridge in time, about 1 hour beforehand.
• 2
  Grease a 24 cm springform pan very well with melted butter so that you can easily remove the finished cheesecake. You can also line the bottom of the pan with a circle cut from baking paper. For a solid pan, paper is essential if you want to remove the finished cheesecake in one piece. Since you will be baking the cheesecake in a water bath, you must also seal the springform pan. Place two forty-centimeter pieces of aluminum foil over each other in a cross shape and place the greased pan in the center. Tightly wrap the pan from the outside with aluminum foil.
• 3
  Start preheating the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, leave the fan oven off.
• 4
  Pour the biscuits into a plastic bag, crush them with a rolling pin, and mix with melted butter. Convenient homemakers can crush the biscuits with a few quick pulses in a food processor with a double blade attached, then add butter straight from the fridge. After another sequence of quick pulses, the biscuit mixture will form clumps and is thus in ideal condition for transfer to the pan.
• 5
  Pour the biscuit mixture into the pan, spread it into an even layer across the entire bottom, and carefully press down with a flat-bottomed glass. Place the pan in the fridge until you prepare the filling in the next step.
• 6
  Smooth out the cream cheese or its alternative; again, this is best done in a food processor with a double blade, but this time at the lowest possible speed. Stop the processor several times and scrape the cheese from the sides with a rubber spatula. As little air as possible must get into the filling, so mix for the shortest possible time. Once the cheese is smooth, add the sugar and repeat the process; again, you must achieve a smooth filling. Then repeat the same with the eggs, mixing them in one by one, and finally the egg yolks themselves. The closer you get to the end, the less you should mix.
• 7
  Pour the filling onto the chilled biscuit base and let it rest for 5 minutes so that any air bubbles can escape the confined space.
• 8
  While the filling rests and releases bubbles, bring 1.5 to 2 liters of water to a boil. Place an empty roasting pan in the oven, large enough to hold your prepared cake pan. Transfer the cake pan into it and pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to reach about halfway up the side of the cake pan. Close the oven and do not open it at all for 30 minutes.
• 9
  Try tapping the edge of the pan with a spoon. If the center of the cake jiggles like jelly but is no longer liquid, which you can tell by a simple careful touch of a finger, it is baked. If you continue further, the cake will crack and overbake. If you still see a little liquid filling in the middle, continue for another five minutes and repeat the test.
• 10
  Once the cake is baked, turn off the oven, open the door a few centimeters, and let the cheesecake cool slowly in the water bath. After half an hour, take it out onto the kitchen counter, remove the aluminum foil, and once it has cooled completely, transfer it to the fridge for further setting. After eight hours of chilling, it should be fully set and ready for its debut.
• 11
  Remove the side of the pan, invert the cake onto a greased plate, and carefully remove the bottom and then the paper with a circular motion. Flip the cake onto a serving platter and remove the auxiliary plate from the top.