Easy No-Bake Cheesecake vs. Showstopping 10-Hour Pistachio Cheesecake | Melissa Clark | NYT Cooking

lovingly looking at both of them do I have The Look of Love In My Eyes okay I don't know how I did that hi I'm Melissa Clark I'm a reporter for the New York Times and I'm here in the nyt cooking kitchen Studio to bring you a new episode of my show shortcut versus showstopper sometimes you want to make something really quick that's still incredibly delicious and sometimes you want to make an incredible showstopping dessert where you're pulling out all the stops today I'm going to make two versions of a pistachio cheesecake a very fast no bake shortcut version there's a secret ingredient in it which I'm not going to tell you about yet the other one is your showstopper a really classic baked cheesecake super velvety both of the desserts are excellent I have always loved just your traditional cheesecake I grew up in Brooklyn Juniors is just like right here for me and mastering it getting getting it with that perfect creamy consistency was something that I've been working on basically my whole baking life got to be just [Music] right for a classic no- baked cheesecake you want to use a graham cracker crust you can buy graham cracker crumbs already crumbed up you can also just make your own with regular graham crackers I have learned that for the two cups that we need you need about 14 to 16 gram crackers so I've got 16 here if you don't have a food processor you can do this in a plastic bag with a rolling pen which is actually kind of fun especially if you're like you have some aggression to work out you know that works well too if you see any big pieces they can catch the deck bus you can use any kind of wafer cookie gingerbread works really well like you know crisp ginger cookies chocolate wafer cookies work really well shortbread all right and I'm going to add a little bit of brown sugar you can use light or dark brown sugar it doesn't matter a little bit of salt and finely chopped pistachios you do want to take time to really chop them up because you don't want to bite into like a whole pistachio nut you want to have like just the essence of it the flavor of it if you see any bigger pieces of grham cracker just smoosh them down with your spatula and then half a cup of melted butter and this just brings it all together makes it stick now because this is a nobaked cheesecake we are not going to bake the crust so when it looks like wet sand that's when you want to put it in the pan and then we're just going to press it in and I'm going to press it most of the way up the sides anything that goes on the counter can put right back in the pan I am going to use this flat bottomed little measuring cup to press the crumbs evenly into the pan you could use your fingers but this is just easier so we're taking it all the way up this cheesecake reminds me of cookies and milk because the center is so creamy and so milky and then you've just got the cookies all around the sides so as I'm pressing this into the pan I'm thinking this is a little bit drier than I want it I mean it looks pretty good you know how you can tell see how I press the crumbs up and then they fall back in the pan that signals to me that there's not quite enough butter in this so I'm just going to add a teeny bit more melted butter and that's just going to help the crumbs adhere I'm just going to drizzle it in and that's just going to help us out so feel free to do that it really should feel like wet sand all over and if there are dry patches butter to the rescue I always start out using the measuring cup and then I'm like you know hands just can't beat them in the kitchen okay this looks better to me when it goes in the fridge the butter which is soft right now is going to harden up when it's cold and then it's going to Anchor all the crumbs and so it's going to be nice and secure that is all finished we've got a really nice looking crust here so we're going to make the filling for our shortcut pistachio cheesecake and I mentioned a secret ingredient and I'm going to do the big reveal so when I was making this recipe I was thinking how do I get a pistachio flavor I briefly played around with pistachio um put pudding mix which actually doesn't taste anything like pistachios doesn't taste very good and I just kept thinking what do I think of when I think of pistachio flavor and the thing that came into my mind was pistachio ice cream to me pistachio ice cream is the essence of pistachio especially when you have a really good brand that uses you know fresh pistachios infuses it into the cream and just gives you that oh my God yummy pistachio flavor so I thought well why don't I just add melted pistachio ice cream to my cheesecake so I just took this pist IO ice cream I let it thaw in the fridge overnight I don't know if you can see that it is completely liquid which is what you want because we're going to beat it into the cream cheese let's talk about no baked cheesecake no baked cheesecake is brilliant instead of using eggs you beat the cream cheese with your flavorings in this case pistachio ice cream sugar salt I'm going to use some vanilla extract and a little bit of almond extract and then what keeps it together what keeps it light is whipped cream so it's just this great way to get all the flavors of a cheesecake cake and get a lovely soft texture without adding eggs and without baking now whenever you make cheesecake you must soften the cream cheese not just room temperature cuz your room might be cold but actually soft when you poke it or when you stick your spatula in see how there's no resistance that is what you want because if there are little cold patches in your cream cheese you're going to get lumps if you start with softened cream cheese you won't have to beat it as long it'll be smoother it's just going to be better while I beat the cream cheese I'm going to add the sugar at the same time because sugar is Sandy and it's so it's abrasive if there are any lumps lurking in that bowl sugar is going to help dissolve them and then just a little bit of salt I'm checking for lumps I'm actually going to take this off to make it easier and I'm going to scrape down the sides and as I'm scraping I am looking for lumps and if there are lumps I'm going to keep beating this there there are no lumps this is good if you do get a lump it's not the end of the world so there's a lump I mean we're aiming for this smoothest most delicious cheesecake but I don't want to freak you out so I'm going to add um almond extract just a little bit because the flavor that we associate with pistachio isn't just pure pistachio it's pistachio mixed with a little bit of almond most pistachio products on the market have almond mixed in you don't need a lot but it makes a big difference and vanilla okay the extracts are beaten in and now I'm going to add pistachio ice cream about a cup you could measure it I'm just going to eyeball it especially because you're not not baking it you're just chilling it so a little more a little less is okay so I'm going to let this hang out and I'm going to beat the whipped cream and the whipped cream like I said is going to lighten this and it's going to help it set into just this beautiful lovely textured cheesecake if you don't have a stand mixer you can make this whole thing with just regular electric beers it works great if you don't have two bowls whip your cream first take your whipped cream out just put it in another Bowl you can stick it in the fridge actually for the few minutes it takes to make the rest of the batter make the rest of the cream cheese mixture and then fold the whipped cream right in okay so we're looking for stiff peaks don't overdo it don't take it to butter if you do though the secret is add a little more cream and then just whisk it in and it'll be fine so what you want to do is start out adding a little bit of this whipped cream to lighten this mixture and then we're going to add more and when you fold something you just want to go slow and the idea is to incorporate it without beating all the air that's in the whipped cream and my crust you can make the crust by the way a few days ahead just leave it in the fridge it's good and then just going to pour it right into the crust you don't have to worry too much about smoothing the top because we're covering this with berries so just make sure it's even cover it with some plastic wrap and then we're going to put it in the fridge to chill 4 to 6 hours but really actually it's better overnight cuz then it gets super cold or it'll last a couple of days if you want to do this like two or three days ahead you're good all right for the showstopper cheesecake it's got a homemade pistachio shortbread crust so the secret to shortbread for my recipe that I love one cup of flour to half a cup of butter and then everything else is negotiable I'm using a third of a cup of sugar you can make it a little less sweet by using a/4 cup you can make it extra sweet which actually makes it brown really nicely and use a half a cup just remember always use one cup of flour and a half a cup of butter that's like the secret to it all and then salt is really important about 3/4 of a teaspoon of fine sea salt so you want to just give this a mix before you add your fat so it's evenly distributed then the butter and chopped pistachios you want them finely chopped because you don't want a ton of texture I switched over to a spatula because everything was getting stuck in the Whisk and really you can use your hands this is very much like Play-Doh just want to get in there don't need it too much but you can give it you know a couple of times just to have it hold together and now I'm going to press it into the bottom and up the sides of my buttered 9in spring form pan you want to just take your little measuring cup here and just flatten it out and then work your way up the sides I am using my hands a little bit cuz it's easier to feel how even the crust is if you use your hands so if you don't have a spring form pan you can still make cheesecake but you won't be able to get it out of the pan you'll have to serve it directly from the pan which is fine but for a showstopper I mean that's not very showstopping right so do that for your shortcut version if you don't have a spring form pan Tada okay so here we go I'm going to bake it at 3:25 until it just sets and turns a little bit golden brown right at the edges start checking it at 18 just to make sure and then you'll know when it's ready and now we're ready for the filling sweetened pistachio paste or pistachio cream or sometimes it's called spread all you want to do is make sure that when you buy it it needs to have sugar in it so just check the ingred ingredients make sure they're sugar they do sell unsweetened pistachio paste and it is not good there's something magical in this jar also I have to warn you do not taste it before you make this cheesecake because if you do you'll probably eat the entire jar and then you'll just have to go out and buy another jar because this stuff is the bomb it is so delicious it's a lot of cream cheese cuz you know what it's a very big cake cheesecake keeps really well so if you have extras you can eat it for like four or 5 days if it lasts that long keep it in the fridge and it will be fine I'm going to beat the cream cream cheese with sugar I'm also going to add my salt even though cream cheese has salt in it you just need a little extra just to make the flavors pop I'm just scraping down the sides here you can see how just beautiful and smooth it is then you can add your eggs and you want to just add them one at a time beating well in between each addition because it mixes in better but also if you add all the eggs at once and you try to turn the mixer on it will Splash up in your face so this is a it's practical and on many [Music] levels when you wipe the sides of the bowl with the spatula don't forget to wipe the middle of your beers because sometimes a little bit of cream cheese or batter or whatever will just Clump right there and it'll be hard to get it off now I'm going to add some creme fresh because it's a deluxe and fancy cheesecake sour cream works just as well but crem fresh is slightly less sour and a little creamier than sour cream but either one will work and I'm also going to add my extracts I'm going to add a little bit of almond extract it adds this just lovely floral high note and then a little bit of vanilla extract which just rounds everything out and makes cheesecake taste like cake to me vanilla is the ultimate flavor of sweet dessert so this batter is finished this is your basic cheesecake batter if you wanted to bake it off just like this it would taste great it would taste like yum cheesecake with a little almond now I'm going to add the pistachio but I'm only going to add it to half of this I'm going to do a layered cheesecake when you cut the cheesecake two layers on the bottom your beautiful classic cheesecake and on the top is the pistachio and I love the contrast between those two flavors so that when you drag your fork into it you're tasting you know this intense pistachio flavor but then just a creamy richness with a little bit of Tang it works so well and it looks really pretty too cuz it's a showstopper we want to make it look pretty so I'm going to divide the batter in half you can eyeball this you don't have to worry about it being exactly half the batter cuz it doesn't really matter so this one is going to just stay vanilla un almond flavored and then this one's getting the pistachio I'm going to beat it in so put the mixer back together pistachio pastes creams you know spreads tend to vary in thickness so this one look you can see can you see the texture it's like creamy and nice and it's almost the same texture as the batter but if you buy pistachio cream and it looks really thick and dense put it in the microwave for like 5 to 10 seconds to loosen it up because you want it to be runny so that it's easy to mix into the batter it's almost like icing oh did I tell you how expensive it is I didn't actually I forgot to tell you something really important so this amazing delicious fantastic stuff costs like $25 and I'm not kidding it's really expensive this is why this is your showstopper you're not going to do this every day it's an investment this is when you really want to wow people I'm sorry it cost so much I tried to make a homemade one to see if it was cheaper and it was but it didn't it wasn't as good it's just there's no way around it you just got to splurge and I am sorry but as you saw with a shortcut one there are less expensive options for cheesecake so we got you covered okay let's just scrape this down one more time make sure we got everything I mean cheesecake is pnic like you do have to follow the rules you have to make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature you have to beat it really well but it's actually also really easy now I'm just going to check on the crust to see if it's done that looks good you can see that the edges of the crust are golden brown the rest of it is just kind of a light golden color it's firm we're going to let it cool down just for a little bit it shouldn't be super hot when you put the cheesecake mixture in so I'm just going to let it cool for I mean depending on your kitchen 10 to 20 minutes you can also do this ahead if you want to make this crust even the day before it can hang out it'll be fine so um you've got options when I was testing this I was just pouring the pistachio one on top and when I poured it on top it would go straight to the bottom it's a little bit heavier than this one and it sinks so there's a couple of ways to mitigate that I'm going to spoon it on top you could actually freeze this for like half an hour get it really solid and then put the pistachio one on top of it for extra Assurance I'm not going to do that right now because I know that spooning does work resist the urge like I really just want to pick this up and pour it right in but don't do that traditionally you would bake this cheesecake in a water bath which means that you would just keep it in this uh tray right here and you would pour about half an inch of water into the bottom of the tray and pop it into the oven don't forget to wrap the outside of the pan in a double layer of foil just to make sure that nothing leaks I'm going to not use a water bath I think it's just as good to put your oven at a low temperature and bake it low and slow I'm doing 275 because I've made this cake so many times I mean I think I've made it about a dozen times that I feel very secure that 275 is going to be perfect and I'm just going to clean this little bit up right here good all righty so we're going to check on the cheesecake just to see how it's doing it's been about an hour and 10 minutes I don't think it's going to be ready yet but we're going to take a look so I want to point out a few things first of all there's a little bit of butter that has leaked out this is why we're baking this on a sheet pan so make sure to do that because some of the butter from the shortbread might come out it's fine it's not a big deal but you don't want it dripping on the bottom of your oven so very important second thing is you see how there's a few little bubbles that's just from beating the cream cheese beating air into everything don't worry about that the cheesecake is going to rise a little bit that it's going to fall and it's going to look fine at the end actually make crack which is okay too we're covering the whole thing with raspberries so no one's even going to see that but it's also you can see it's not ready see that jiggle that is way too jiggly so I'm going to let it I'm going to let it go for a little while longer so we're going to check it again see how the cheesecake is doing and what we're looking for yes see what we're looking for the jiggle see how it's still jiggling but it's mostly set that is what we want you can see underneath you know it's still a little liquidy and it's going to continue to set as it cools so this is good so we're going to turn the oven on off and now I'm going to let it cool in the oven I'm going to crack the oven door just leave it a little bit open oh this stays open this is great if your oven doesn't stay open you can prop it open with a wooden spoon just going to leave it just like this for another 30 minutes and the reason we do that is because we want the cake to cool slowly and gradually so now I'm going to let this finish cooling cuz it's still a bit warm then I'm going to cover it with plastic and you just want to stick it in the fridge and leave it there until it cools completely complely or overnight or a couple of days this is a really good thing to make it [Music] Advance our cheesecakes are ready for their close-up they've got the perfect texture at this point and now I'm going to unmold them and top them with the raspberries this is going to be enough raspberries for both cheesecakes but I'm going to start off with the shortcut by the way I just want to point out though look at the color on this one this is from the pistachio paste look how green it is it is really beautiful this one even though the ice cream that we used was kind of green because we added so much you know whipped cream and cream cheese it really looks white but you're going to taste the pistachio so as you can see the showstopper has a little bit of a crack and that's perfectly fine because we're going to cover it up we're going to take raspberries and we're going to put them all over the top and this crack does not make it any less of a showstopper because we are going to cover the top and no one is going to see it and no one is going to know the shortcut is just going to get a tumble of raspberries you're just going to throw them right on for the showstopper we're going to arrange them really neatly and then I'm going to paint the top with a little bit of jelly so that they shine and Sparkle so in order to get the shiniest topping you want to use jelly not Jam a clear jelly doesn't have to be raspberry it could be any flavor you like just something clear so it shines and then if your jelly is cold out of the fridge just pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds just to make it a little more liquidy so it's easier to brush onto the berries they both look great this one looks like rustic and pretty the nice high sides just make it look really appealing to me so I'm going to start with the shortcut do you know the secret of cutting nice cheesecake slices you want to dip your knife in warm water it just helps cut through the cake if you want to have really beautiful slices you do it in between each slice this one just looks creamy and Luscious just like thickened whipped cream I mean this is your showstopper right you've got your homemade shortbread crust your layer of vanilla cheesecake and then your gorgeous green pistachio cheesecake with these beautiful berries on top so this one you have the layers you can really see it in the slice going to try this one first this shortcut one is just the creamiest texture ever it's like a cloud it's like whipped cream held together with a wish it's not too sweet it tastes like pistachio it tastes like almond it it is delicious now let's try the showstopper I mean look at how beautiful that is I mean this has that pistachio intensity your classic cream cheese cheesecake it's exactly the texture that you want it is also not too sweet I made so many versions of both of these combined I probably made 40 cheesecakes I thought okay I'm never eating another cheesecake then a couple of weeks go by and I'm like back to square one I'm like oh yes cheesecake you can find these recipes and more at any n YT cooking.com [Music]

Channel: NYT Cooking

Views: 85,494

Keywords: cooking, cooks, recipes, recipe, how-to, how to, kitchen, new york times, new york times cooking, nyt cooking, nyt, nytimes, melissa clark, no bake cheesecake, easy cheesecake, cheesecake recipes, how to make cheesecake, homemade cheesecake, cheesecake filling, best cheesecake, how long does cheesecake last in the fridge, how long is cheesecake good for

Id: AUp-VBkh2RI

Length: 20min 47sec (1247 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024