Why would a recipe be sensitive to the brand of cream cheese I bought?
I have a chocolate chip cheesecake recipe I have made several times before without problem. My mother's recipe says to use a particular brand of cream cheese. I thought this was nonsense. Anyways, when I went to the store, they didn't have Philadelphia brand, so I bought whatever they had, something organic such and such brand.
The results looked disastrous. Supposed to cook for an hour, but took 1hr 40 minutes. Didn't have the same look at all. And I was about ready to throw it out. But in the end tasted excellent! If this was food network, I would have gotten tons of points off for look and texture though, because it is supposed to have the chocolate chips evenly distributed brought it, and they seemed to have fall to the bottom while baking.
my question:
Why would brand of cream cheese affect the recipe so much? It seems unreasonable. I also don't think it's the oven because I baked a pie last week and it turned out great.
Best Answer
Philadelphia Brand ingredients: Pasteurized Milk and Cream, Whey Protein Concentrate, Salt, Carob Bean Gum, Xanthan Gum, Cheese Culture.
Organic Valley Cream Cheese (don't know which brand you used) ingredients: Organic Pasteurized Milk and Organic Cream, Cheese Culture, Salt, Organic Locust Bean Gum.
Nancys Organic Cream Cheese ingredients: Organic cream, Organic nonfat dry milk, L. acidophilus, B. bifidum and 4 strains of Lactic cultures, salt. <-- no gum in this one
The fat specs for all 3 brands are about the same.
I'd say it's any combination of:
- the gums used
- did the manufacturer use milk and cream processed through ultra high temperature (UHT) pasteurization
- what is the moisture content (hard to determine from a label)
- maybe human error by the Baker??
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Quick Answer about "Why would a recipe be sensitive to the brand of cream cheese I bought?"
The recipe might accidentally rely on the presence or absence of a thickener, gelling agent, stabiliser, emulsifier, or pH modifier that is contained in certain brands.How does cream cheese affect baking?
Adding buttermilk, sour cream, or cream cheese gives more moisture and flavor to the cake. The acid in buttermilk and sour cream produces a very fine crumb because it tenderizes the gluten in the flour. Sour cream and cream cheese add so much richness that cakes made with them are super moist and almost springy.What cream cheese is best for baking?
When we test recipes for baked goods that call for cream cheese, we always use regular Philadelphia brand cream cheese\u2014the kind that comes in a brick, not a tub. The cream cheese in a tub is formulated to make it more spreadable than the brick kind.Does Philadelphia cream cheese taste better than store brand?
Overall Comments: "Very similar tasting." "Ehh." "Both pleasantly creamy." In Summary: The comments clearly suggest that there is a real taste difference between Philadelphia cream cheese and other cream cheese brands -- one that sets this cream cheese apart from its competitors for better or for worse.Is there a difference in cream cheese?
On paper, the main distinction between the two cheeses is their fat content: While cream cheese by law must contain at least 33% milk fat and not more than 55% moisture, American Neufch\xe2tel weighs in with about 23% milk fat and slightly higher moisture content.Fluffy Cream Cheese Castella Cake Recipe
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Answer 2
The recipe might accidentally rely on the presence or absence of a thickener, gelling agent, stabiliser, emulsifier, or pH modifier that is contained in certain brands. Or, it could rely on the exact moisture content of that brand, or on modalities of how it was processed - homogenization of dairy ingredients used, heat treatment, particle size of solids contained in it...
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