I was nervous I wouldn't get the flawless result my stepmother does when she makes cheesecake, but the video recipe made it too easy. One of my dinner guests claimed it was the best dessert she had ever had. But it was the accolade, "better than pumpkin pie" that will make me repeat this dish for Thanksgiving. P.S. Icing sugar is the same as powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar.

Indeed they are all the same. They are all just sugar that has been crushed into a fine powder. There is usually a very small amount of cornstarch added, to prevent it from clumping. You may also need to sift icing sugar before using.

There's no instruction about the oven temperature for the cheesecake, I suppose it's 275 - 300 F... I'm just doing it, I'll come back.

The oven temperature should stay at 350° degrees for the filling. We have tested this many times and it seems to be a good temperature. The last 6 times I have baked it, it has only needed 1 hr. 15 mins.

This has also been tested by a few of my friends, and they also only baked the cheesecake for 1 hr. 15 mins. I have had the pleasure of eating those cheesecakes and they were perfect.

If you like a cheesecake that is more dense, you could bake it for a bit longer.

Thanks for the reply, I baked it a bit different and I think it came out great, first I mixed 2 tbsp of all purpose flour in the sugar, and I baked it at 300° Degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I did everything else exactly the same, and it really is wonderful.

what do you do to save the cheesecake if some water gets into the pan and cake. That happened to me and the top looked cooked. So I ended up removing the cake from the water and baked it for an extra 30 minutes or so to try and dry it out.

This was only my second time making cheesecake, but it was a big hit. Excellent recipe - light texture, great taste. Everyone I served this to was very impressed. I made the entire Rouxbe holiday meal for Christmas (except for pumpkin pie) and it was fun, and successful! Thanks team Rouxbe.

Can you use a stand mixer to incorporate all the ingredients or will that affect the consistency of the filling?

I used a standing mixer and it worked fine.

It's fine to use a standing mixer, just be careful not to over-mix/whip and incorporate too much air. This could form unattractive air bubbles on the surface of your cake. Too much air could also make the cheesecake fall during baking.

Can I substitute canned pumpkin by fresh pumpkin after boiling and crushing it?

For this recipe, canned pumpkin is highly recommended. There are many great brands available, and they tend to have a more concentrated flavor. If you choose to use fresh pumpkin, you'll need to make sure most of the water is extracted after cooking it. If the pumpkin puree is too wet, it will alter the recipe and it may not set. If you do use fresh pumpkin and it works out for you, we'd be happy to hear about it. Hope this helps.

I made this cake two times in the last month, it's just marvelous. the only problem I have is finding cream cheese here so I substitute with mascarpone and/or cottage cheese (although cottage cheese does add quite a sour touch to the cake).

I love cheesecakes and I make them alot although I never actually tried this recipe yet , as the recipe says the best way to bake a cheesecake is in a water bath this will insure a smooth texture and a crack free cake .

Last week I was making a cheesecake and the aluminum foil teared up and started leaking water ,the cheese cake looked good but when I sliced it it was actually wet in the middle and the crust wasn't that crispy as usual , so I started searching the internet for a waterproof spring form and I found one made by a company called Kaiser Bakeware I bought it and it's on it's way I will try it and I hope that I never face any more similar problem's .

Thanks, please let me know how this works for you. I would love to get one.

I made this cheesecake and added 1/4c D'Eaubonne brandy and one extra egg to compensate for the extra liquid. Followed the instructions to the letter (a first for me) and the cheesecake turned out perfectly. No cracks and very light in texture. Not heavy like some cheesecakes. The flavour was exquisite. The little water I had inside the foil was only condensation that collected. I will definitely make this again and again. Thanks Rouxbe!

I have not made this cheesecake yet, but want to try it. Can you suggest another flavor that might work, if I don't want to use the pumpkin? Also, can you recommend a substitute for parchment paper? I live in India and we don't get parchment paper here. Can I simply butter the pan instead?

By the end of the video I could actually smell the damn thing as if it were right in front of me. You did a great job with this recipe, and the video demonstration is fantastic as well!

Where do you get fresh nutmeg from? can you used dried? what would be the equivalent of fresh to dried?

Just to clarify, the recipe indicates freshly grated nutmeg (not fresh nutmeg). Grating or grinding spices yourself will provide more intense flavor as opposed to pre-ground spices. To identify quality, whole nutmeg that isn't old, the surface of the nutmeg should be somewhat shiny. This indicates the volatile oils haven't dried up. That being said, you can use pre-ground nutmeg and still have great results - we just prefer to grind our own spices whenever possible. Hope this clarifies this for you.

Since the cheesecake is basically a custard I heard that it can actually benefit from a long slow cooking (about 200 degrees) I heard you can get a smoother texture this way is that right and is there any risk in using low temperature like water leakage for example ?

My second question is about eggs some recipes call for 2 , 3 , 6 or even more eggs some call for egg yolks only or a mixture of booth. My question is how will the texture of the cheesecake change by changing the egg to dairy ratio ?

There are no quick and simple answers that I can give you to address all of the variables here. Here is a link to a site called baking 911 and here you will find quite a bit of information on cheesecakes.

Question for you Khaled...did you make this recipe as is, and if so, did you like it? How did you find the texture?

Actually I never made this recipe yet !! and the reason is that I couldn't find the pumpkin puree!. However I always make fruit cheesecakes and it really became much much better after baking in a water bath.

The reason I'm asking these question is because I want to understand baking and custards rather than just use recipes this way I can know what to do to in order to change the flavor or texture to my liking instead of looking for another recipe. One very good example is making cookies I can now make thin and crispy cookies and chewy cookies just by altering the ingredients a bit.

First of all, congratulations for taking the right approach to cooking in general (that is learning how and why things happen, rather than just following recipes).

As for custards, cheesecakes and baking in general, these are things that we will address in the cooking school when we get to baking and pastry (which is a monumental project in itself). I wish that we had more information for you at the present time, but our focus has been on cooking and not baking and we need to finish up the cooking curriculum.

We'll get to it. Hang in there - it's just such a big topic to address here.

I am a bad chef. I usually get non-local recipes from the web that are full of unavailable ingredients, try substituting with care but usually end up messing.

I loved the recipe and really want to accomplish a similar result. But before i try and substiture commercial pumpkin puree with home made puree (as we do not have it here) and most likely end up with some strange goo, i want to give a local recipe a try. But it has somewhat different components on ingredients and technique which i would like to ask (its a flat cake, no pumpkins).

1 - Substituting the made-from-scratch base with butter+digestive biscuit base ; What is the difference in tastes?

2- Adding two tablespoons of all purpose flour ; Does it make a big difference in texture, taste or cooking times? (I still will go with bain-marie)

3- 1/2 glass of fresh cream ; texture, taste, cooking times?

4- The local recipe says preheat oven to 260 degreee C, cook for 11 mins, lower the temperature to 95 deg. C, cook for 40 mins..

I baked this. Word for word. But it had a crusty top and crunchy sides. That i do not like. Yours is evenly textured center to side and just looks "dreamy". Mine looked more like an apple pie with cheesecake center.

If i cook this recipe with your technique, i wonder if i can get that homogenous doneness.

The filling for local recipe is ;
900 gr. cream cheese;
1+1/4 waterglass of sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons of all purp. flour
1/2waterglass of whipping cream

PS: If anyone needs any Turkish recipes, I will be more than happy to provide it from my mothers own recipe book.