Buzz
Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another exciting installment of Will It Sous Vide?, where you get to challenge me with what to do next using my trusty Anova Precision Cooker. (Need a refresher on sous vide? Check out our guide here.)
The top suggestion this Monday was cheesecake, which earned a staggering sixteen votes:
As pointed out by PhilMills_Forgot_His_Burner_Key the week before, the delicate and moist nature of sous vide cooking makes it an ideal method for preparing such a dessert:
I was genuinely excited about this experiment. I'd spotted a few cheesecake recipes on Anova’s website, so I popped over to check them out. Unfortunately, there wasn't a recipe for a simple, classic cheesecake. There were options for pumpkin, chocolate, and ricotta cheesecake, but I craved a straightforward, no-frills cheesecake. (Though, in fairness, the pumpkin cheesecake might actually be the more 'basic' choice.) Rather than follow any of Anova's recipes, I adapted their techniques and applied them to this cheesecake recipe from The Kitchn, which I’d made before (using the oven) and absolutely loved.
From what I've gathered across the internet (including Anova's site and various other blogs), there are three main approaches for cooking cheesecake sous vide-style:
Just drop a whole cheesecake in the bag. Yes, you read that right. In this pumpkin cheesecake recipe, food writer Barbara Freda suggests wrapping a 10-inch springform pan of cheesecake in foil, placing it in a two-gallon bag, and immersing the entire thing in a water bath. I was skeptical, but I gave it a shot because that’s the essence of this column.
Cook in little jars. Rather than deal with bags, you press a crust mixture into the bottom of a jar, pour the batter on top, seal it, and cook at 80°C for two hours. Afterward, chill the jars in the fridge for at least four hours. I made two mini cheesecakes this way.
Sous vide then bake. This recipe has you cook the filling in a bag, then transfer it into a springform pan for baking. It wasn’t sous vide enough for me, so I skipped it. (The point here is to avoid using the oven.)
Now, let's break down the method of ‘just chucking a springform pan of cheesecake into a bag.’ It starts out pretty simple. You prepare a crust, bake it. Then, you make a filling and pour it over the crust. So far, so good. But here's where things get tricky:
Seal the top of the pan with foil. Place the pan into an extra-large (2-gallon) zip-close plastic bag. Carefully lower the pan into the water to create a vacuum seal inside the bag.
Right off the bat, there were issues. First, the cheesecake has to go into the bag sideways, making immersion a challenge. The zipper portion of the bag now runs parallel to the cake, rather than perpendicular as in most sous vide setups. Trying to submerge the pan without tilting it in 80°C water while keeping the zipper out of the water was nearly impossible (and incredibly frustrating). So, I filled the sink with cool water and submerged it there. Amazingly, I managed to expel nearly all the air without letting any water into the bag. After that, I transferred the cake to the hot water, where it promptly floated to the top.
To submerge as much of the cheesecake as possible, I placed my largest metal spatula on top, pressing it down just enough to sink it beneath the surface.
I was feeling pretty good about my setup and thought this might actually work out. (Ron Howard narration: But it wouldn't.) Next, I moved on to the jars. I added two tablespoons of graham cracker crust mixture to two mason jars and pressed it down. One jar went into the oven at 350°F for five minutes to see if pre-baking the crust made any noticeable difference. Then, I filled the jars about three-quarters full with cheesecake batter, leaving room for it to rise. I placed them in the bath alongside the springform pan, and everything seemed to be going smoothly.
It wasn't five minutes before I noticed the aluminum foil over the springform pan had inflated, causing the whole thing to tip to one side.
I tried adjusting the spatula, shifting it to one side to fix the tilt. In the process of fiddling, the bag tore, and the entire cheesecake spilled into the water bath. Panic set in quickly, and, to anyone watching, it was probably quite a sight. I, lacking what the kids call “chill,” immediately plunged my hands into the hot water, pulling out the (very hot) pan and spilling (very hot, cheesecake-filled) water all over myself, the counters, and the floor. Only then did I realize I should turn off my Anova to prevent clogs and general nastiness.
Now I had 12 murky quarts of cheesecake-infused water, two soaked socks, and one ruined cheesecake. Surprisingly, the cake seemed to be setting, and could have turned out fine had the bag held up.
Could this disaster have been avoided? Maybe. If I'd used a real vacuum bag, which are sturdier and thicker than regular zipper bags, it probably wouldn’t have torn, and I probably would’ve had an intact cheesecake to enjoy. HOWEVER. The recipe specifically called for a zipper bag and specifically instructed me to use the water-immersion sealing method, so I had to follow those directions. Also, I don’t own a vacuum sealer, and I’ve never needed one, as the water-immersion method has always worked just fine for me.
Fortunately, I still had the cheesecake jars, so I moved them into a cleaner, smaller water bath.
Those cooked for a solid two hours at 80°C, then were taken out of the bath and left to cool at room temperature for half an hour before being chilled in the fridge for four hours. In a word or two: they were absolutely delicious.
Each jar held some of the richest, creamiest, smoothest cheesecake I’ve ever tasted. Honestly, I have no complaints. I do, however, suggest briefly pre-baking the crusts, as it will stop crumbs from floating into the batter like they did in the jar below (which I skipped pre-baking for).
Now, to circle back to the main question: Will cheesecake sous vide?
The verdict: Absolutely. It works, and works wonderfully—but I (obviously) strongly suggest using the jar method instead of the pan-in-a-bag approach. Even if the bag hadn’t torn, the jar cheesecakes were simpler to put together, cooked faster, and were incredibly delicious.
