Review: Alton Brown's sour cream cheesecake

[Kerri]

It is a tradition at my house on Valentine's Day to make my husband a full-fat plain cheesecake. It may be the only full-fat one he gets all year, so he enjoys it! This year I decided to try the one from Alton Brown's "The Trouble With Cheesecake" episode that was on a few weeks ago. The recipe should be at foodtv.com if you are interested. The cake turned out well and tasted fantastic! But, the contistancy is a little thinner that we normally like. Apparently he wasn't kidding when he called cheesecake a "custard pie"! I think the problem was that most recipes I have used add a tablespoon or 2 of flour and this had none. I would repeat this recipe again, but add a little flour and maybe a little bit more sugar in the crust. One thing I forgot to mention, I had absolutely NO CRACKS!!

[Melman]

Kerri...I'm so glad to hear someone has made AB's cheesecake. I really want to try it the next time I have a cheesecake opportunity.

I have a couple of questions....what size pan did you use...and did you use a springform pan like it says on the Foodtv website or a NON springform pan like AB did on his show? The last I heard, the recipe on Foodtv wasn't like the one he made on the show. They were supposed to have changed it to match HIS recipe. Do you know which one you used????

[Kerri]

I did use a springform pan, and just put foil around the bottom to keep water from leaking in. I didn't find a cake pan that I could use for a cheesecake. Well, I did, but it was $20!!

[Melman]

On that show, he never actually spelled out what size pan he was using. The second time I watched it, I was specifically trying to measure it against something...the piece of parchment paper..the size of AB's hands...ANYTHING. To me, it didn't look like it could possibly be 8" or 9". While looking around for pans, I found Wilton pans in 2" and 3" depth...and in 8", 9", and 10" sizes. The 10" wide and 3" deep pan actually looked more like what I thought he used. Was it a lot of batter????

Oh...We have a store called AC Moore's. I know it's a chain store. They had the 10"x3" pan for $9.99...and I know they have 40% off coupons about every 2nd or 3rd week. I figured for $6, I MIGHT go ahead and buy it. I'd just like to figure out if an 8" or 9" would be better.

Thanks for your help!!!

[Kerri]

I wouldn't use a pan bigger than 9". That was the size listed and is what I used. Usually my cheesecakes tend to "bake up", but this one didn't. The $20 one I found was one by Calphalon that I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond or a place like that. That one would probably work because it did have the 3" deep sides, I just didn't want to pay that much for it. The other cake pans I saw just weren't as deep.

I didn't really notice until last night how much the recipes on the web page are different than what he said on the show. I was making the brownies last night(I know, I am bad, but my husband went crazy over them when we watched Wednesday's show) and there were many things in that recipe that he specifically said he did not do.

[Peeps]

Originally posted by Kerri
I didn't really notice until last night how much the recipes on the web page are different than what he said on the show. I was making the brownies last night(I know, I am bad, but my husband went crazy over them when we watched Wednesday's show) and there were many things in that recipe that he specifically said he did not do.

Now that you mention it, you know I made his angel food cake recipe and I remember thinking the recipe I got off the Food TV website was a little unclear or seemed a little different so I printed it out and had it handy so that next time the show came on, I sat there and watched him and made notes on the recipe so I could be sure I made it correctly. There weren't any huge differences ingredient wise but I remember needing to watch the show to get the exact directions and procedures because they were sort of vague on the web site version and not quite what he'd said.
Interesting...

[Melman]

Anytime I'm going to attempt an AB recipe, I always go to the goodeatsfanpage.com site. The entire transcripts are there. I'm pretty much guaranteed to have his recipe (instead of the one FoodTV wants me to have) if I do it that way. I also go that site regularly for hints that he's given out on his show.

Kerri...thanks for the info on the pan. I'm almost certain AC Moore had the 9"x3" pan as well. If the 10x3 was only $10, hopefully, the slightly smaller one will be slightly less.