Thermomix Sous Vide Cheesecake

These are Freakin' Amazing!

Earlier this week I spotted a post on a sous vide group about sous vide cheesecake. The original poster didn't show a recipe so I thought I would post the one I use. The cheesecake batter is based on a 1979 Gourmet Magazine recipe for New York style cheesecake.

So here we go:

First: Clean and sterilize 6 half pint wide mouth Mason jars with their lids and preheat your water bath to 80° C.

Step 1: Make the Graham Cracker Crust

Yep, that's six - you only need five

Graham Cracker Crust

Ingredients

• 5 Graham Crackers
• 25 Grams Sugar
• 60 Grams Butter

Cooking Directions

1. Tare the butter and sugar into the Thermomix bowl and process at 50° C until the butter is melted and the sugar well combined.



There's Butter Down In There...

2. Break up the Graham Crackers and add to the butter mixture. Process on Speed 5 until ground to a coarse meal texture. If it doesn't hold together when you squeeze some in your hand, just add a little more melted butter.
3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set aside.
4. Clean and dry the Thermomix bowl.

Step 2: Make the Cheesecake Batter

Cheesecake Batter

Ingredients

• 25 grams Butter
• 220 Grams Ricotta
• 220 Grams Philadelphia Cream Cheese (1 pkg.), cut up
• 150 Grams Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 15 grams AP Flour
• 15 Grams Corn Starch
• 1.5 tsp.Vanilla  Extract
• 220 Grams Sour Cream

Cooking Directions

1. Tare the butter into the Thermomix bowl and melt at 50° C, Speed Stir.
2. Tare the ricotta, cream cheese, and sugar into the bowl and process on Speed 4 until well combined, about 15-20 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the eggs and process on Speed 4 until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. Tare in the flour, cornstarch, and vanilla and process on Speed 4 until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and ensure than none of the dry ingredients are stuck to the top of the blades.
5. Tare in the sour cream and process on Speed 4 until the mixture is perfectly smooth.

Step 3: Assemble the Cheesecakes

Divide the Graham Cracker mixture among the 6 Mason jars, pressing it down with your fingers.

Pour in the Cheesecake batter leaving a half inch head space. This is important as the mixture will expand as it cooks and you don't want to have to clean cheesecake goop out of your circulator.

Carefully wipe the rims and seal the jars "hand tight". This is actually just a little tighter than you would for pressure canning.

If you have some left over batter, just add it to another jar.

Gently drop the jars into the preheated water bath and cook for 2 hours. Note that as they warm up you'll see some bubbles as the air and cheesecake mixture expands. You're OK as long as you left a head space.

Carefully remove the jars and place them on a towel to cool for an hour. Mason Jars are tough but they can't handle quick temperature changes. Pop them into the refrigerator until completely chilled, then open, garnish and enjoy!

Have A Bite!

Gelato alla Crema!

Mmmmm... Gelato!

So, is gelato hard to make at home? Well... You do need to be careful, maybe have a instant read thermometer, and be willing to stir carefully for about half an hour while the custard base comes up to temperature. Or...

If you have a Thermomix the whole prep and cooking part takes about 15 minutes. And now that Thermomix is finally available in the United States, you can also (for now) buy cool European TMX cookbooks like this one:

So... how's it go?

The recipe is super simple:

Ingredients

1 Tbs Vanilla Paste (or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean)
250 grams whole milk
250 grams cream
170 grams sugar
4 egg yolks

Dump everything into the Thermomix bowl and cook at 85° C for 7 minutes. My Thermomix is the older TM-31 that works in 10° increments so I went with 90° which worked perfectly.

Then pour the custard into a container and pop it into the 'fridge for a couple hours.

Just takes a minute to start to freeze...

Once the custard has cooled, pour it into your trusty ice cream maker for about 30 minutes.

Half an hour later...

And into the freezer..

Scoop it all out into another container and freeze for a couple hours. Gelato should be pretty soft so if you go overnight, take it out and let it loosen up in the refrigerator for an hour or so before serving.

At our house there is no "overnight" waiting allowed... We sucked down a couple scoops each after about 90 minutes and it turns out that cats like to lick the bowls!

Chocolate version coming soon!