From the Jack Schmidling Productions, Inc. Site :http://schmidling.com/index.htmBAKER'S CHEESEFollowing this recipe for the cheese is my recipe for "Milwaukee Cheesecake" along with some background on how I got into this cheese.
Baker's cheese is made from skimmed milk so it is a natural for powdered milk. This is the procedure for about a pound of cheese from a gallon of milk.
1. Mix up a gallon of milk from powder. I used one gallon of water and 388 gr powdered milk. Alternatively, use a gallon of 1% milk.
2. Heat to 90F and add 1/8 tsp EZAL culture or whatever you use as equivalent.
3. A few drops of rennet in 1/4 cup water is added to milk.
4. Let sit for 8 hrs if you can keep the temp at about 90F or overnight at room temp. Actual target is pH of 4.5 if you have a way to measure it.
5. Pour curds and whey into cheesecloth lined colander and then hang up to drain for 15 minutes.
6. Press bag lightly between boards and drain until "moist but not wet". This will take about 2 hrs.
The cheese can then be refrigerated till needed. It is also, one of the few cheeses that freezes well.
MILWAUKEE CHEESECAKEI grew up on what we called "Milwaukee Cheesecake" and developed an intense dislike for the gooey sweet, cream cheese cakes that Americans have come to consider cheesecake.
Until about 10 years ago we could still drive up to Milwaukee and get it but they all stopped making it because no one wants it anymore. As it is no longer available anywhere I know of, I have made a career of trying to duplicate it from memory.
The cheese used is basic "baker's cheese" which can easily be made from powdered milk and my latest iteration of the cheesecake recipe and it is about as close to my recollection as I can get now without tasting the real thing again.
The base is fairly heavy cake dough about midway between pie-crust and sponge cake. The filling is similar to the cheese fillings still found in some sweet rolls. Moist but not creamy and a bit of an acid tang balanced against the sugar and texture of a very heavy custard. They were typically made in a large baking sheet and sold as squares of any size.
As a point of interest, I went through about 20 cookbooks and found only one recipe for cheese cake that was not based on cream cheese. This indeed is the problem. First of all, cream cheese is neither cheese nor made from cream (not even Philly) these days. It is a chemical concoction that has little to do, even with cows.
The key to real cheesecake is
"baker's cheese" and this just is not available in supermarkets. If you can find it, then all you need is a recipe for real cheesecake.
MILWAUKEE CHEESECAKECrust........Flour.......................... 1 cup
Butter........................ 3 TBS
Baking Powder.......... 1 tsp
Egg ................... 1
Half and Half............ 6 TBS
Blend all till smooth and pour into greased 8 x 8 baking pan. We use a 9" round spring form pan.
Cheese Filling............Baker's Cheese.............. 1/2 lb
Flour ................... 1 TBS
Half and Half ............ 1/2 cup
Vanilla........................... 1/2 tsp
Egg ..................... one
Sugar............................ 1/4 cup
Salt............................... pinch
Blend it all together and pour over crust. Bake at 350F for about 45 mins.
Bon appetit ...
js
