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Is it possible to replicate the texture of cheesecake without using cream cheese?

I really love the texture of cheesecake and I really love its aesthetic.

But I just really dont like the sour taste of cream cheese which destroys the entire experience of eating cheesecake for me.

So I'm trying to look for an alternative.

I'm thinking about, replacing all the cream cheese with just heavy cream, maybe add some cooked cornstarch to thicken it to try to replicate the consistency of cream cheese. My hypothesis is that it should hold perfectly like regular cream cheese/ be runnier but should have a lighter taste which should make it 100x more suited to my tastebuds.

But I also want to hear your opinions/alternatives you might have. I want to have the best chances of success

Mikester919
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    Other than marscapone, which @LightBender points out is used in what I'd typically call Italian Cheesecake and is a good answer, you may want to look at vegan recipes, which try to replicate the texture using no dairy. Usually this is using tofu, ground nuts and other ingredients. – GdD Oct 16 '20 at 07:10
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    @GdD reads like an answer to me? – Stephie Oct 16 '20 at 07:36
  • You can use gelatine to make something similar to cheesecake. Have you used different cheeses? I don't know what type you use but you can mill some lean quark, or try to thicken pancake cheese. – SZCZERZO KŁY Oct 16 '20 at 08:13
  • @Stephie, I know it's possible but I've never done it, so I wouldn't be able to make it a good answer with details on how to make it work or the benefits of different approaches. – GdD Oct 16 '20 at 08:18
  • You could consider something like a sernik, which is made with farmer's cheese, but the texture is quite different. – Roddy of the Frozen Peas Oct 16 '20 at 15:33
  • Are you sure it isn't the sour cream that's contributing to that taste? I stopped adding sour cream to my recipes because I didn't like the sourness that it added. – Carcigenicate Oct 16 '20 at 17:35
  • hell ! that would be like an alcoholic substituting alcohol ! – Fattie Oct 16 '20 at 18:23
  • PS I have never found it to be *sour* ... – Fattie Oct 16 '20 at 18:24
  • My gluten-avoiding friend swears by cashews as a basis for cheesecake (although note that it's no less fattening than the real thing! :) ). https://food52.com/recipes/82162-cashew-cheesecake – Jeremy Friesner Oct 16 '20 at 20:50

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Cheesecake is essentially a baked custard with that substitutes cream cheese (and often some sour cream) for the dairy ingredient.

After all, a basic custard recipe is just milk, sugar, and eggs with some kind of flavoring added.

The cheese is the thing that gives cheesecake it's distinctive texture. Substituting cream and corn starch is going to end up with a much more pudding-like consistency.

All that being said, there are a number of recipes that substitute the much milder Mascarpone cheese in place of about half of the cream cheese. This may be sufficient to get you a milder sour flavor without drastically altering the texture. You could also give it a try with all Mascarpone, but you might be pushing into that pudding texture again.

Also, be prepared for the added cost with Mascarpone, which tends to cost 2-3 times as much as cream cheese.

LightBender
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  • Would cottage cheese be a alternative? – Neil Meyer Oct 16 '20 at 08:10
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    @NeilMeyer I wouldn't think so. Cottage cheese has a very different texture, being lots of little lumps, and also has a much higher liquid content. You could potentially come up with a recipe that uses it, but you'd have to take those factors into account somehow. – senschen Oct 16 '20 at 13:12
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    @senschen In Poland (and slav countries) we use cheese called "Twaróg/tvarog" which in english is usually named "cottage cheese". And we use fine milled twaróg to make cheesecake – SZCZERZO KŁY Oct 16 '20 at 13:37
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    @NeilMeyer I think I gagged a little imagining cottagecheesecake. – Azor Ahai -him- Oct 16 '20 at 14:29
  • You can also make marscapone yourself to save money. Buying enough cream is still somewhat expensive, but it's cheaper than storebought and not very hard: https://cheesemaking.com/products/mascarpone-cheese-making-recipe – marky1991 Oct 16 '20 at 15:00
  • @marky1991 Correct, in fact I always make my own when I make Tiramisu. I've found that for best results always use fresh raw cream (no pasteurization or homogenization). My grandma's old recipe is just a quart of raw cream and a tablespoon of lemon juice (citric acid works just as well as tartaric) the process is the same as the recipe you provided. – LightBender Oct 16 '20 at 15:11
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    Disclaimer: I have never, ever tried this, so I'm just asking a question here. Would clotted cream work as a substitute in this case? I can imagine you might need to whisk it a bit to lighten the texture, and the cost (and calorie content!) would be truly horrendous, but I can also see it being utterly delicious. Part of me really wants to try this now. – Spratty Oct 16 '20 at 15:27
  • You can make cheesecake using sieved or blended cottage cheese and gelatin. However the texture does come out a bit different, panacotta-ish. – andrea Oct 16 '20 at 15:49
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    @SZCZERZOKŁY, *twaróg*/*tvorog*/*twarc*/etc is often *mis*translated as "cottage cheese." The proper English name is *quark*. However, quark is uncommon in the US (not sure about the rest of the Anglosphere), so consumers are unlikely to know the word. It *is* available in grocery stores with large enough numbers of Jewish or other Eastern European shoppers, but in such cases, I've always seen it sold under the name "farmer cheese." – Juhasz Oct 16 '20 at 16:03
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    You absolutely can make a cheesecake with quark/farmer cheese, **but it will not have the same consistency as New York cheesecake**. New York cheesecake seems to have been adapted from a Central or Eastern European recipe that used quark, of which there are many: In Germany and Austria, *Käsekuchen, Quarkkuchen, Matzkuchen, Topfenkuchen*; in Poland *sernik*; in Russia *vatrushka, tvorozhnaya zapekanka*, or *paskha*. – Juhasz Oct 16 '20 at 16:03
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    @Juhasz Cheap ricotta (in the US) is basically just farmer cheese. I've used it often for blintzes, don't see why it wouldn't work for a Russian-style cheesecake. – FuzzyChef Oct 17 '20 at 04:57
  • Cheesecakes made using mascarpone are delicious. The main point, as it is for almost every recipes, that the results is not anymore like the original one. In this case you get a real sweet cake, rather than the cheesy sour taste. As far you are not in a Newyork cheese cake competition you could try the above suggestion. +1 – Alchimista Oct 23 '20 at 15:32