Cheesecake pie with flaky pie crust

I have a loaf of cream cheese that I'd really like to use right away. So it comes to my mind to bake some cheesecake. I've only done it once or twice, and never fully understand how it is like. So I start off thinking that I'd make a pie dough and bake the cheese in it. Then I remember that it won't work. I've done something like that before, and the dough eventually floated on top because the filling was too liquid. The pie dough dissolved.

So I decided that the pie dough needed to be baked separately. My friend, Linda, also suggested that the cheesecake may be baked without a crust! That's something I'd never thought of. So here comes my crustless cheesecake experiment.

After baking both the pie crust and the cheesecakes separately, then it suddenly dawns on me that a pie crust that is baked without filling could be primarily used for cold fillings. This realization takes my experiment one step further to make a pie of cheesecake.

Recipe: Cheesecake pie with flaky pie crust

Ingredients for flaky pie dough (make at least four 4"-diameter by 1"-height pie crusts):

- 1 cup + 5 TB King Aurthur unbleached all-purpose flour

- 3/4 tp salt

- 3 TB unsalted butter

- 7 TB shortening, chilled

- about 1/4 to 1/3 cup iced water

Procedure:
To make the flaky pie dough, see the mini tarts post.
1. Press the pie dough against a spring pan.
2. Place beans in the bottom of the dough to add weight. Bake at 350F.
3. If the bottom of the pie keeps rising up, use a fork to poke the bottom generously to allow air to escape.
4. When the edge of the dough is almost done, remove the pie crust carefully from pan. It is very soft and may be dripping with fat. Use paper towel to absorb extra fat.
5. If the bottom of the crust still appears not quite done, place the pie crust on a rake by itself and continue baking at 300-350F. If the side and top has browned before the bottom is done, cover the side and top with foil and continue to bake until the bottom is lightly brown.
6. Allow to cool at room temperature.

Ingredients for cheesecake filling:
- about 1 loaf (8 oz) 1/3 less fat Kraft cream cheese
- 2 TB white sugar
- 1 egg
- a few drops of lemon juice
- a few drops of vanilla extract
- optionally, 1-2 TB cornstarch

Procedure:
1. Mix all ingredients of the filling and beat until creamy.
2. Line a container with parchment paper. Pour the filling into the lined container. Bake at 325F until set.
3. Allow to cool at room temperature until bottom can be handled by hand. Remove from parchment paper.


Ingredients for cheesecake pie:
- 1 flaky pie crust
- 1 crustless cheesecake
- 1/3 - 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream with 1-2 TB white sugar, whip until thickened
- frozen blueberries
- frozen strawberries

Procedure:
1. Line the bottom and side of the pie crust with whipped cream.
2. Place the cheesecake in the middle, on top of the whipped cream.
3. Use a knife to spread a layer of whipped cream on top of the cheesecake. Pad the gap between the cheesecake and the crust with whipped cream.
4. Line the edge with blueberries.
5. Top with strawberries.

Results:

Pie crust
1:54pm, flaky pie dough pressed onto the spring pan:

2:13pm, pie dough baking with beans to add weight; apparently this amount of beans is not sufficient, the pie bottom keeps rising up:

2:24pm, bottom of the pie dough being poked many times to release the hot air:

2:47pm, pie crust removed from pan and baking alone on a rack:

3:10pm, pie crust baking with a cover as the top has browned while the bottom is still undone:

No crust cheesecake
2:46pm, cheese cake filling initially baked in wax paper; it does not work because the paper smokes, so it's subsequently transferred to parchment paper:

3:10pm, cheesecake baked in parchment paper at 325F; observe that the filling is already set:

3:26pm, cheesecake over done:

3:33pm, cheesecake removed from parchment paper when cooled:

3:33pm, cheesecake bottom when cooled:

Cheesecake pie
4:00pm, whipping cream whipped until really thick:

4:01pm, spread whipped cream as layer 1 of the pie:

4:02pm, place cheesecake on whipped cream to make layer 2:

4:10pm, cover top and side with more whipped cream to make layer 3:

4:14pm, layer 4 with frozen berries:

6:54pm, pie chilled:

8:32pm, interior of the pie:

Remarks:
1. To use wax paper for baking, the wax paper must be completely covered by filling.
2. The cheesecake is over-baked. So it's very hard after chilling. It also tastes like bread.
3. The ratio of cream cheese to egg is about 1 loaf (8 oz) to 1 egg. It is optional to add cornstarch to help the cake set.
4. When the cream cheese mixture heats up, it becomes liquid at first. Then as the heating continues, the mixture sets into a solid. That's why it's a cake even at room temperature.
5. This is a good experiment for me to understand what cheesecake is. It is possible to make a pie out of a mixture of cream cheese without baking. The resultant filling simply remains solid because of cold temperature. But a proper cheesecake that has been baked is a solid even at high temperature.