Cheesecakes fall apart when frying: what to do and how to fix it

Point No. 1: choosing cottage cheese

Like any food, cheesecakes start with purchasing groceries. Those three or four ingredients can vary very significantly, but one remains unchanged: cottage cheese (although it can be replaced, but more on that later). In principle, there is no cottage cheese from which it would be impossible to make cheesecakes at all, but there are ideal options, there are average ones, and there are bad ones. Among the latter, I would include, first of all, low-fat and soft cottage cheese in tubes. It is great for creams and mousses due to its delicate consistency and the large amount of liquid it contains. But the liquid in cottage cheese is the main enemy of cheesecakes, and a low percentage of fat is also not a friend. Curd grain in cream is also not suitable for us - it contains not only liquid, but also pieces, they are of no use to us either. The middle option is cottage cheese in rectangular packs. It looks dense, but there is still more liquid in it than necessary. Oddly enough, I would also classify the delicious, but expensive layered homemade (farm) cottage cheese sold in the markets as a middle option - and again because of the liquid. It is easy to squeeze out, but as a result the price of your cheesecakes will be unreasonably high. There are people who like to make cheesecakes from curd mass - but they are too sweet and fatty. So the ideal cottage cheese for cheesecakes is this: as dry as possible, slightly crumbly, with a fat content of at least 5%. I like farmer's by weight the most.

The ideal cottage cheese for cheesecakes is as dry as possible, slightly crumbly, with a fat content of at least 5%

Classic cheesecakes with egg and flour

Ingredients

• 250 g cottage cheese;
• 1 egg;
• 1 tablespoon sugar;
• 1½–2 tablespoons flour.

Preparation

Combine cottage cheese, egg and sugar. The mass should be of uniform consistency. Pour flour into it, mix thoroughly and start frying.

Preparing ingredients for cheesecakes

Before you start cooking, prepare all the necessary utensils: a deep bowl, a sieve or fork, a measuring cup, a spoon. If you want to save time and effort, you can use a mixer or blender. For those who plan to bake cheesecakes in the oven, you need to turn it on in advance so that it warms up, and grease the baking sheet with butter or margarine.

If you want to end up with very tender and fluffy cheesecakes, the cottage cheese for them needs to be rubbed through a sieve in advance. Dried fruits (if used) need to be poured with boiling water a couple of hours before cooking, allowed to swell, squeezed out and dried properly.

It is also necessary to prepare the fruits for the filling in advance, for example, peel apples or bananas, cut them into small pieces or grate them and sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent them from darkening.

Roasting

This is the point that I want to especially emphasize! Both the degree of roasting and the delicate, beautiful crust depend on it. And there are a few points:

1. Fry the cheesecakes on one side and the other under a closed lid.
2. Fry over low heat until the cheesecakes are baked. If you want a brighter, firmer crust, after cooking, open the lid and increase the heat.
3. If you do everything correctly and everything is according to the recipe, simply reduce the size of the cheesecakes. The smaller they are, the easier it is to fry them. The cottage cheese bakes well and has a beautiful barrel and a tender center.
4. Any products made from cottage cheese require a little more time to prepare. And we are not talking about baking or frying. In fact, the cottage cheese needs to be given a little more time to just rest, stand in the heat or cold. Just stand there. You probably noticed this yourself that yesterday’s cheesecakes are tastier and more aromatic than freshly made ones. And if you keep your cheesecakes for a little while, about 10 minutes, in a preheated frying pan (with the heat off), they will cook!

In one of my articles dedicated to cheesecakes with semolina, I already said that you need to hold the cheesecake preparation in your hands as little as possible. Confidently take the dough in your hands, roll it into a ball, press it lightly on both sides to form a puck, and “apply” the breading. That's all! Otherwise, you risk getting cheesecakes spreading across the pan. Add flour to “strengthen” the dough and you will get a thick, firm crust. We definitely don't need this!

Why do cheesecakes often fall apart?

The integrity of cheesecakes is not only beauty, but also a pleasant taste and uniform roasting. Agree, it is impossible to turn over a product that has spread in a frying pan or cracked.

Although they say that they can be prepared for breakfast from practically nothing and in a hurry, this phrase should not be taken literally. Everything must be thought out and prepared. But after that, when you gain experience and dexterity, you can cook them without any problems.

It is important to know why cheesecakes can fall apart in a frying pan when frying. There are several reasons:

• the technology of preparing the dish is violated (proportions of products, frying temperature, mixing rules, etc. are not followed);
• the dough is very liquid;
• the mass turned out to be dry, the particles of individual products are not glued together;
• a bad frying pan is used;
• the bottom of the selected frying pan is heated unevenly;
• ingredients are added that liquefy the dough during frying.

Having analyzed all the reasons why sometimes the housewife’s cheesecakes fall apart, it is easy to understand: that mistakes are not easy to avoid, but it is possible, as well as correcting them if a problem has already happened.

Additional Ingredients

Having learned about the main reasons why cheesecakes fall apart during frying, I asked my grandmother whether additional additives like poppy seeds, raisins and dried apricots could affect the integrity of the product’s structure? She told me that she uses them quite rarely, since she prefers to prepare dessert according to the classic recipe, which does not include them in the composition.

If there is little snow, there will be no harvest: December 16 is Ivan the Silent Day

Why French children behave well: eight ways to raise them

"Dad is offended." Agata Muceniece about her relationship with Priluchny after the divorce

Grandma suggested that if you want to use such ingredients, you should cut them as finely as possible, so that the cheesecakes will remain intact.

Reason 1: You do not check the quality of the cottage cheese

Cottage cheese should not expire. / Photo: smoldaily.ru

Since the basis of cheesecakes is cottage cheese, and other components such as flour and sugar are more auxiliary, it is necessary to carefully select the main ingredient. The final result directly depends on how fresh and tasty the fermented milk product is. So, for example, if you buy sour cottage cheese, you will have to add a lot of sugar to the dough, which will negatively affect its consistency. Also, be sure to pay attention to the expiration date - if a dent remains on the product when touched, then the structure is optimal.

Eggs

As for eggs, they act as a binding component in cheesecakes. Grandma said that to make good cheesecakes, you should use the freshest eggs, and, if possible, it is better to take a homemade product.

Previously, I mistakenly believed that the more eggs, the better, which is why, for the sake of experiment, I added not one, but a couple of eggs to the dough. This was my big mistake, because when the amount of this component changes upward, it becomes quite difficult to form the cheesecakes, and in the pan they float and stick to the bottom, finally losing their shape (though they don’t fall apart, but they still turn out ugly).

A Brazilian travels 36 km by bike every day to take his loved one home.

“We are still friends”: Derevianko commented on the breakup with his wife

Women's jeans: before you buy them, you need to pay attention to one detail

Point No. 2: liquid in cottage cheese

If this is your first time buying the type of cottage cheese described above, I would advise you to put it under a press and see what comes out (or rather, flows out). Take a kitchen “waffle” towel or gauze folded in 4-5 layers, cover the colander, lay out the cottage cheese, cover with the hanging ends of the towel, place the colander in the sink or in a large basin. Place a board or flat plate on the cottage cheese, and on it - the largest pan filled to the top with water. And leave it for a couple of hours. During this time, excess whey will drain. If there is too much of it, next time look for a different cottage cheese. Don't throw away the whey! You can make delicious and healthy smoothies from it (for example, with cucumbers, ginger and herbs) or use it for pancakes.

To remove excess liquid from the cottage cheese, you need to put it under a press

Point No. 3: eggs

This point is completely determined by the previous two. If you have the right cottage cheese, it requires very few eggs. Remember that in an egg, the yolk acts as fat and the white acts as water. One egg is enough for 500 g of cottage cheese! You can add an extra yolk to low-fat cottage cheese, but avoid excess white.

One egg is enough for 500 g of cottage cheese. Remember that in an egg, the yolk acts as fat and the white acts as water.

Point No. 5: sugar

If you use delicious cottage cheese, you don’t have to add sugar at all (but I always add a couple of pinches of salt; in my opinion, cheesecakes benefit greatly from this). All the same, lovers of sweets eat cheesecakes with some kind of jam or condensed milk, but non-lovers eat it with sour cream or just like that. If you want to sweeten the cottage cheese, you can give the cheesecakes a new taste - with honey, caramel syrup or strawberry jam syrup. But remember again: honey, syrup, and sugar melted inside the dough are also liquid; the excess amount will make the cheesecakes “float.” It is easiest to mix flour/semolina, eggs, and sweeteners with cottage cheese using a submersible blender - it will also make the structure of the cottage cheese smooth and homogeneous.

You can omit sugar at all from delicious cottage cheese, or replace sugar with honey, caramel syrup or strawberry jam syrup.

Sugar

The ingredients used to make cheesecakes include sugar. I would like to note that it is with the help of this component that you can adjust the degree of sourness that the cottage cheese gives.

Even if you have a great desire to make the sweetest dessert, beware of adding too much sugar. My grandmother drew my attention to the fact that sugar crystals are able to draw moisture from the cottage cheese, as a result of which the base becomes too liquid, and the cheesecakes made from it begin to spread and fall apart during the frying process.

Rare shot: Viktoria Isakova showed her grown-up daughter from Yuri Moroz (new photo)

Lost weight: what Sofia Tarasova sacrificed for the sake of “VIA Gra” (new photos)

Smooth and fresh skin: dermaplaning, or why a woman needs to shave her face

Step by step recipe

How to make cheesecakes so they don't fall apart

Let's take as a basis the basic recipe for cheesecakes without fillers. The list of ingredients is quite simple, but you should select them according to the recommendations. It is also good to have some stock of the listed products. As the description progresses, we will indicate what to do if the cheesecakes fall apart, what to add or change in the recipe.

Ingredients:

• cottage cheese, fatty – up to half a kilo;
• selected raw egg;
• three tablespoons of flour for the dough and for breading;
• 4 tablespoons sugar;
• a pinch of coarse salt;
• oil, refined.

How to choose products:

1. It is preferable to choose grainy cottage cheese; pasty masses are often sour, and unscrupulous manufacturers often use this method to hide additives that should not be in the cottage cheese. The grains should be large and seemingly dry. Smooth and elastic ones are not suitable - this is overheated cottage cheese, you cannot make good cheesecakes from it.
2. One selected egg is enough for the specified amount of cottage cheese. However, it is worth doing this: take two smaller eggs, release one whole into the cottage cheese, and first separate the second. When kneading the curd mass, first add only the yolk and only if necessary the white.

Cooking process:

1. If the cottage cheese is still wet, place it on a layer of gauze, tie it into a bundle and hang it over a bowl, wait about an hour. Even a small amount of drained whey will make the curd mass more viscous.
2. Grind the drooping cottage cheese first through a colander, then through a large sieve. Avoid grinding the curd with a blender, especially at high speeds, as this will most likely “knock out” the whey from the curd and it will noticeably affect the moisture content of the mass.

IMPORTANT!

If the cottage cheese you get is completely dry, be sure to add a certain amount of any liquid fermented milk product to it. The best option is fatty fermented baked milk, but non-acidic kefir or low-calorie, 10% sour cream are also suitable.

1. Add an egg to the cottage cheese, add half the measured flour and sugar, and add a little salt. Using a fork, thoroughly mix the ingredients and taste. If there is enough sweetness, try to limit yourself to the amount of sugar already used.
2. The kneaded curd mass should stick together well. If this is not the case, first add a little flour, then, if absolutely necessary, add up to half an egg (or just one yolk). At this stage, add sugar if it is not enough.
3. Be sure to taste the mixture and pay attention to whether you can feel the salt. There should be a little of it, but without salt at all, cheesecakes noticeably lose their taste. Low sweetness is usually compensated for by serving jam, honey, and sweetened sour cream with ready-made cheesecakes.
4. A serving of curd dough for one cheesecake is about a tablespoon. Scoop the mixture evenly; if there is noticeable moisture in it, drain it or mix it. If this is not done, even an inexperienced cook will understand the reason why the cheesecakes fall apart. Roll the dough into a ball with damp palms, flatten it to a thickness of one centimeter and bread it with sifted flour.
5. Do not pour a lot of oil into the pan; it should barely noticeably flow over the surface when tilted. We choose the frying pan itself, if possible, massive and thick-walled. The presence of non-stick coatings is not necessary; if you know how to fry in your “grandmother’s” cast iron frying pan, that’s just great!
6. Once the oil is very hot, reduce the temperature to moderate. Lay out the cheesecakes evenly and not too tightly, fry until amber in color, turn over quickly and deftly. If you need to add oil, you can do it carefully, right between the pieces in the pan.
7. Place the finished cheesecakes in a bowl and do not cover so that the crust remains dry and crispy.

Does the product on which they are fried affect the integrity of cheesecakes?

My grandmother also talked about how the look and taste of ready-made cheesecakes is affected by the product on which they are fried. She strongly recommended that I cook them in sunflower oil, and not in lard, as suggested in some recipes.

The reason for refusing lard is also that when frying cheesecakes on it, you need to have time to monitor the strength of the fire and regulate it in a timely manner, otherwise the products will burn. In addition, cheesecakes fried in lard should be eaten exclusively warm, which cannot be said about those cooked in sunflower oil.

Reason 8: You are forming the wrong size of cheesecakes

Cheesecakes should not stick together

In the process of making flatbreads, many people ignore such important indicators as the size and thickness of each of them. If you make the cheesecake too thick, it will only cook on the outside and remain raw on the inside. And large cakes are inconvenient to turn over. It is also worth laying the cheesecakes at a small distance from each other. During the cooking process, they increase in size, and therefore can stick together with their “comrades”.

Point No. 8: deboning

It is not necessary to roll cheesecakes, especially those made from well-seasoned dough. But if you roll them, they will look much more elegant. The thinnest crust is made from corn starch or rice flour - they instantly form a dense layer on the surface, and the excess is easy to shake off. It is better to roll the cheesecakes immediately before frying. The size of the cheesecakes and their thickness is a matter of your taste. The smaller the cheesecakes, the more “reliable” they are in terms of wheel alignment.

It is not necessary to roll the cheesecakes. But the rolled ones look much more elegant. The thinnest crust is made from cornstarch or rice flour.

Correct dough consistency

Thick dough is not easy to mix well. But this is not the only “trouble”. Cheese pancakes made from this dough are dense, poorly baked and uninteresting in taste. Liquid dough is also fraught with consequences: it will spread over the surface of the pan and you will end up with a wonderful curd porridge, but not cheesecakes.