Polish baked cheesecake with peaches: creamy, crustless, no cracks
A cheesecake on ground curd cheese with butter creamed with sugar, eggs one at a time and potato starch to stabilise the batter. Peach halves pressed into the top sink as it bakes and make juicy orange pockets in the creamy curd. No base, so half an hour of work; a low oven and cooling with the door ajar keep it from cracking.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Cheese batter 30 min
- Baking 60 min
- Cooling in the oven 60 min
- Fridge 60 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePrepare the ingredients and tin
Take the cheese, butter and eggs out of the fridge an hour ahead: cold ingredients won't combine and the batter curdles into lumps. Heat the oven to 170 °C. Line the base of a 26 cm springform with paper, butter the sides and coat with breadcrumbs. Drain the peaches in a sieve and pat dry.
Ingredients: 6 pcs peaches · 10 g butter · 1 tbsp breadcrumbs · 1 tbsp icing sugar
TipThe curd cheese must be ground smooth: tub cheese made for cheesecake, or full-fat curd cheese through a mincer three times. Lumps of curd don't disappear in baking.
Everything at room temperatureCream the butter with sugar and eggs
Beat the soft butter with the sugar and vanilla sugar into a pale cream, 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating half a minute after each, until smooth.
Ingredients: 1000 g ground curd cheese for cheesecake · 150 g butter · 180 g sugar · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 5 pcs eggs · 3 tbsp potato starch · 1 pcs lemon, zest · 1 pinch salt
Pale butter, eggs one at a timeAdd the cheese and potato starch
Add the cheese in batches of 2–3 spoonfuls, mixing on the lowest speed, only until combined. Finally stir in the potato starch, lemon zest and salt. Don't beat long: air in the batter means cracks and a sunken middle.
TipPotato starch binds the water in the curd and gives a smooth batter that slices cleanly. Wheat flour binds it too, but the cheesecake comes out denser and less creamy.
Cheese in batches, briefly, on lowInto the tin
Pour the batter into the tin and level it. Tap the tin on the counter twice to release large bubbles.
Levelled, tin tappedPress in the peaches
Lay the peach halves cut side down on the batter, in a circle with one in the middle, and press gently to half their depth. They sink deeper in baking.
Cut side down, pressed halfwayBake low and slow
170 °C, conventional, lower shelf, 60 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the edges are set and the centre wobbles slightly when you nudge the tin. Don't bake until the centre is firm: it finishes setting as it cools.
Edges set, centre with a slight wobbleCool in the oven with the door ajar
Turn the oven off, prop the door open (slide in a wooden spoon) and leave the cheesecake inside for 60 minutes. Then take it out, cool completely and refrigerate at least an hour, ideally overnight. Dust the cold cake with icing sugar.
An hour in the open oven, then the fridge
Before you start
With fresh peaches
Scald three ripe peaches with boiling water, peel, halve, stone. Fresh ones give more juice: dry them and press in less deeply.
With apricots or plums
The same batter with 8 halved apricots in summer, or 10 Italian plums in autumn: both are tarter than peaches.
It cracked
Oven too hot, beaten too long, or cooled too fast. Hide the crack under icing sugar; next time 160 °C and patience.
