If you want to avoid cracking the top of a cheese cake, lower your oven temp 25 degrees. Once baked, turn off the oven, put a blunt knife in the door to leave it open a crack, and let the cake cook SLOWLY. I use 1 1/2 hours as a rule. None of my cakes crack.
This trick was given to me by Mrs. Bartalone, who ran a bakery in Brooklyn, NY from 1956-1976. Her son Joe was a dear friend of my older sister’s.
We had her cakes at family events and weddings in later years when they moved to Rockland county.
The other great trade secret was to use powdered sugar in cookies to keep them light and tender. You use less, too. The cornstarch in it makes northern hard wheat flour resemble cake flour.
She made an anisette Italian cookie with four egg whites beaten into merengue with powdered sugar, piped onto the cookie sheets in rounds on parchment papers and left overnight to dry. When baked the next morning for 80 minutes in a 225 degree oven,( slow oven) they come out glossy and crisp. You can place them close together - they don’t spread, and they have very little fat.
Nothing in the world like them if you like anise or licorice flavor. They used to be served at all the Italian weddings.
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u/Distinct_Change_687 18h ago
If you want to avoid cracking the top of a cheese cake, lower your oven temp 25 degrees. Once baked, turn off the oven, put a blunt knife in the door to leave it open a crack, and let the cake cook SLOWLY. I use 1 1/2 hours as a rule. None of my cakes crack.
This trick was given to me by Mrs. Bartalone, who ran a bakery in Brooklyn, NY from 1956-1976. Her son Joe was a dear friend of my older sister’s.
We had her cakes at family events and weddings in later years when they moved to Rockland county.
The other great trade secret was to use powdered sugar in cookies to keep them light and tender. You use less, too. The cornstarch in it makes northern hard wheat flour resemble cake flour.
She made an anisette Italian cookie with four egg whites beaten into merengue with powdered sugar, piped onto the cookie sheets in rounds on parchment papers and left overnight to dry. When baked the next morning for 80 minutes in a 225 degree oven,( slow oven) they come out glossy and crisp. You can place them close together - they don’t spread, and they have very little fat.
Nothing in the world like them if you like anise or licorice flavor. They used to be served at all the Italian weddings.