Production
Cheesecake Formula in Baker's Percent: Raspberry and Plum, Baked Twice in a 26 cm Ring
A baked cheesecake with a biscuit base and a fruit topping, in two variants: raspberry and plum. This page gives the filling in baker's percent with the cream cheese as 100 %, scaled from the 18 cm home tin to a 26 cm bakery ring, and the working values of a bakery that bakes the cake twice.
The formula
In a cheesecake the cream cheese is the main ingredient, so the cream cheese is 100 % and every other ingredient is a percentage of it. The two variants use the same filling. Only the amount of sugar and the spice change. The scaled columns multiply the home recipe by the area of the tin, (26 ÷ 18)² = 2.09.
| Filling | Raspberry, % | Plum, % | Raspberry, 18 cm | Plum, 18 cm | Raspberry, 26 cm | Plum, 26 cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cream cheese (double cream, room temperature) | 100 % | 100 % | 600 g | 600 g | 1,252 g | 1,252 g |
| Sugar | 25 % | 21.7 % | 150 g | 130 g | 313 g | 271 g |
| Starch | 3.3 % | 3.3 % | 20 g | 20 g | 42 g | 42 g |
| Eggs (2, at 55 g each, an estimate) | 18.3 % | 18.3 % | 110 g | 110 g | 230 g | 230 g |
| Cream | 20 % | 20 % | 120 g | 120 g | 250 g | 250 g |
| Filling | 166.7 % | 163.3 % | 1,000 g | 980 g | 2,086 g | 2,045 g |
The recipes also use one sachet of vanilla sugar, without a weight. The plum variant takes half a teaspoon of cinnamon in the filling. The eggs are not weighed in the recipes, so they are counted at 55 g each as an estimate.
The base
| Crumb base | % of cream cheese | 18 cm | 26 cm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Biscuits (oat biscuits / butter biscuits) | 12.5 % | 75 g | 156 g |
| Rusk (Zwieback) | 5.8 % | 35 g | 73 g |
| Butter, melted | 5.8 % | 35 g | 73 g |
| Crumb base | 24.2 % | 145 g | 303 g |
The raspberry variant uses oat biscuits and takes a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of cinnamon in the base. The plum variant uses butter biscuits and a pinch of salt. The biscuits and the rusk are crushed fine, mixed with the melted butter and pressed into the tin, and the base is baked for about 10 minutes before the filling goes on.
The fruit topping
| Topping | Raspberry variant | Plum variant |
|---|---|---|
| Fruit | 300 g raspberries, of which 200 g are puréed and sieved | 350 g plums, weighed without the stones, cooked down to about 200 g of purée |
| Starch to bind the purée | 1 level teaspoon, stirred with 2 tablespoons of cold water | 10 g, stirred with 2 tablespoons of cold water |
| Sugar in the topping | none | 2 tablespoons |
| Garnish | the remaining raspberries | 5 plums, edible flowers and chopped pistachios |
Both toppings are boiled for 1 to 2 minutes with the starch, cooled a little and spread on the cake.
Scaled to the 26 cm ring
A 26 cm ring has an area of 2.09 times the 18 cm tin. The raspberry filling and base together weigh 2,389 g for the 26 cm ring, the plum filling and base 2,347.2 g. This is without the topping. The bakery weighs a cake at about 2.6 to 3.2 kg, which is a cake cut into 16 pieces of about 160 to 200 g. A 28 cm ring has 18 pieces and takes a cake of about 3.2 to 3.5 kg. The cake weight is not weighed in the bakery. It is an estimate, and the calculation above is a check on it.
Decoration
Decoration is part of the formula. There are many options: purée, fruit or a garnish on top. Many bakeries keep it simple. A cake divider is laid on the cake and the cake is dusted with powdered sugar. Chocolate couverture is another option. The decoration is not weighed here. Weigh it per piece in your bakery and put it in the costing, because decoration is often forgotten there.
In the bakery
- Base. In the bakery the base is not made from crumbs. A shortcrust dough is rolled out and a disc is cut a little wider than the ring. The disc goes on the bottom, the ring is pressed down over it, and the base fits exactly. The filling goes in after that.
- Temperature of the raw materials. Cream cheese and eggs come straight from the cooler at 6 °C.
- Fruit. If you put fruit into the filling, use thawed fruit without the water, never frozen fruit.
- Baking twice. The cake bakes for about 1.5 hours. It comes out, cools and settles again, and then it goes back for a second bake of about half an hour, until it has some colour on top. The oven temperature depends on your oven. The home recipe bakes at 170 °C top and bottom heat or 145 °C fan, in a water bath, and takes 1 to 1.5 hours with a topping that goes on after cooling.
- Cooling. The cake has to cool at room temperature for at least half a day before it goes into the cooler.
- In the ring. Leave the cake in the ring for at least 3 to 4 hours, better for longer, and only then cut it out of the ring.
- Storage. Store it in the cooler at 6 °C, where it keeps for several weeks. It should be sold within days, or within a week.
A different cheesecake: no baking
There is also a cheesecake that is not baked. It uses cream cheese and sour cream, set with gelatine, and it chills for at least 3 to 4 hours, better overnight. Its method is different from the one above, so it does not belong in this formula. A strawberry version is published by monsieurmuffin.de.
Things to watch
- The typical faults of a cheesecake are cracks, sinking, a cake that is too firm, and water at the bottom. They come from the baking process, or from not waiting long enough, and they can also happen without any mistake that you could have avoided.
- Fruit: use thawed fruit without the water, never fruit that is still frozen.
- Cold chain: cream cheese and eggs have to come straight from the cooler at 6 °C.
Sources
- King Arthur Baking: Baker's Percentage (professional reference)
- BAKERpedia: Baker's Percent
- Wissensforum Backwaren (Reineke, 2009): Faults in bread and small baked goods and how to remove them
- monsieurmuffin.de: Zwetschgen-Cheesecake (plum cheesecake, source of the plum home recipe)
- monsieurmuffin.de: Erdbeer-Cheesecake (strawberry cheesecake without baking)