Viennese-style baked cheesecake on shortcrust: dense, creamy, no cracks
A cheesecake built on a generous amount of butter creamed with sugar, into which the curd cheese goes in batches and the eggs one at a time. The butter gives density and silkiness, potato starch stabilises, and a low oven plus cooling with the door ajar guard against cracks and sinking. The shortcrust base is pre-baked so it stays crisp. A kilo of curd cheese, twelve slices.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Shortcrust base 15 min
- Base chilling 30 min
- Pre-baking the base 15 min
- Cheese filling 20 min
- Baking 70 min
- Cooling in the oven and the tin 180 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneMake the shortcrust
Rub the cold cubed butter into the flour, sugar and salt until crumbly, add the yolk and quickly bring together into a ball. Don't work it longer than necessary: warm hands and long kneading make the pastry tough instead of crisp.
Ingredients: 180 g plain flour · 100 g butter · 50 g sugar · 1 pcs egg yolk · 1 pinch salt
Cold butter, a yolk, a quick kneadLine the base and chill
Line the base of a 24 cm springform tin with paper and butter the sides. Press the pastry evenly over the base with your fingers and the back of a spoon, prick all over with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cover the raisins with boiling water.
TipA chilled base doesn't shrink in the oven. The fork holes let steam out, so no bubbles form.
Even, pricked, into the fridgePre-bake the base
Heat the oven to 180 °C. Bake the base for 15 minutes, until pale golden. Remove and cool. Turn the oven down to 160 °C. A pre-baked base stays crisp under the moist filling; an unbaked one soaks through and turns doughy.
Pale golden, cooledCream the butter with the sugar
Beat the soft butter with the sugar and vanilla sugar for 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. This aeration is what keeps an otherwise dense cheesecake light. Everything must be at room temperature or the mixture curdles.
Ingredients: 1000 g smooth ground curd cheese (twaróg sernikowy) · 200 g butter · 200 g sugar · 2 tbsp vanilla sugar · 5 pcs eggs · 40 g potato starch · 1 pcs lemon, zest · 80 g raisins · 1 tbsp icing sugar
Five minutes, pale and fluffyAdd the cheese and eggs
Drop the mixer to its lowest speed. Add the curd cheese in batches of 2–3 large spoonfuls, then the eggs one by one, mixing after each only until combined. Finally stir in the potato starch, lemon zest and drained raisins. The mixture should be smooth and thick.
TipA high-speed mixer at this stage is the most common mistake: it whips air into the filling, the cheesecake rises like a soufflé in the oven, then sinks and cracks. Low and brief.
Lowest speed, cheese in batches, eggs one at a timePour and set up a water bath
Wrap the outside of the springform tightly in two layers of foil. Pour the filling over the base and level it. Stand the tin in a larger roasting tray and pour in hot water to halfway up the tin.
TipThe water bath evens out the heat and keeps the air moist: the cheesecake bakes gently, doesn't dry at the edges and doesn't crack. The foil keeps the water out.
Foil, filling, a roasting tray of hot waterBake low and slow
Bake for 70 minutes at 160 °C on the lower shelf. It is done when the edges are set and the centre (about 6 cm across) still wobbles slightly like jelly when the tin is nudged. Switch the oven off, prop the door open with a wooden spoon and leave the cheesecake inside for 60 minutes.
TipSlow cooling in the oven is the second half of the no-crack recipe. The thermal shock of taking it straight out contracts the filling and tears the top.
Edges set, centre wobbles; then the door ajarCool completely and chill
Lift out of the water bath, remove the foil, run a knife around the edge of the tin and cool in the tin for 2 hours. Then refrigerate, ideally overnight: the cheesecake firms up and takes on its dense, creamy texture. Release the ring and dust with icing sugar before serving. Keeps 5 days in the fridge.
A knife around the edge, a night in the fridge, icing sugar
Before you start
With chocolate glaze
Melt 100 g dark chocolate with 80 ml of 30 % cream and pour over the completely cold cheesecake. The holiday version.
Without raisins, with peaches
Skip the raisins and arrange drained tinned peach segments on the filling before baking. Lighter, summery.
It cracked
Oven too hot, too much air in the filling, or cooled too fast. It is still delicious; hide the crack under icing sugar, glaze or whipped cream.
