# guava cheescake and gelatin



## karendf (Jul 2, 2008)

hello everyone!

I've made this cheescake about 6-7 times I reckon, it has a wonderful flavor, I freeze it, and then when I wish to finish its decoration with ate de guayaba (guava fruit pate?) I take it out of the freezer and put the layer of the guava on the top. I leave it in the fridge before delivering. I have served it still slightly frozen and it maintains shape.

The problem: as it has been outside of the fridge a while it starts to slope over, especially as you start to serve it when its not so colds anymore. I don't know if this is the quantity of gelatin problem, if this type of cake must at all times be in the fridge or what...?

I asked the chef about it and she said that the sloping over shouldn't occur, but I don't know what I'm missing ...

My clients haven't complained about it, they're pretty content with the flavor.

recipe calls for:

500g cream cheese
200 g sugar
300 pureed guava, 150 diced guava

300 heavy cream (whipped)
9g gelatin

Shall I up the quantity of gelatin and see what happens?


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Karen,

The cream has me wondering if it's a _gelee_ or a mousse. In either case, to keep it firmed up... Don't know for sure. (Some help!) Two suggestions, from the abysm of my ignorance, are:

Yes, more gelatin. _Por supuesto_ as we say here in _el Norte_.

Try using slightly greener guyabas to make the puree. Less ripe fruit has more pectin. You can compensate with a little extra sugar.

Nice hearing from you again,
BDL


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## jessiquina (Nov 4, 2005)

i was under the impression that u cant freeze things with gelatin. (like mousses and bavarians)  but i never tried it...


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## karendf (Jul 2, 2008)

I didn't really think about whether or not I could freeze it, we did it at the school, so I think that's not the problem. I may try using greener guavas, but they have such an intense flavor when they're _en su punto_ (they're cooked in sugar water with cinnamon of course), I may just play with the gelatin.

bavarians I think can be frozen as well, mousse I don't know.

cheers, Karen


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## rrcos (Apr 2, 2007)

Hello Karendf and all..

Would you be so kind as to share the entire formula and method of preparation..? It would be greatly appreciated..

Thank You
Bob


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## karendf (Jul 2, 2008)

Sure. No problem Bob. I apologize for some of the translations, I cook in Spanish! :smiles:

Ingredients:

300 g pureed guava
150 g diced guava
(you will need about 1000-1200 g fresh guava, save two raw for decoration)
cinnamon stick
sufficient heated guava paste for decoration (la costeña)
500 g cream cheese
200 g refined sugar
300 g heavy cream
8 g gelatin or 14 grams in sheet gelatin

Wash/scruba the guava, cut in half, remove ends. Put to boil in a sugar syrup of 250 g water and 100 g sugar, with a stick of cinnamon.
Don't reomove the skin. When it's done, drain and let cool. Then proceed to take out the seeds (they're very hard and you can break your teeth on them!)

Mix cream cheese with sugar until it becomes fluffy (spongy?), add pureed guava, gently mix in the diced guava so as to have small pieces in the finished product.

Prepare the gelatin with water (5 gr of water per gram of gelatin), mix a bit of the guava mixture with it as it is liquid, and then incorporate it into the whole mixture. (I don't know how to say "temperar" in english.)

Whip the heavy cream until "flower" appears.

Fold the cream into the mixture and pour into a previously prepared graham cracker crust-20-24 cm spring pan) I have been using the following recipe with good results: 100 g graham crackers, 30 g pecans, 52 g butter, 1 tsp cinnamon, 24 g brown sugar (mascabado). put in oven shortly to cook/brown. Before putting the mixture in, it's a good idea to use plastic roll (?) around the pan so it doesn't stick.

I have been freezing this overnight. In the morning, I take the guava paste out, warm it on the stove, put it in the food processor, and put it on the top using a metal spatula. (de angulo) The two fresh guavas: cut them in half , one half being a little larger, take out the seeds, put them on the cake, put a piece of anis in each one. My son says they look like eyes!

well, I hope that explanation wasn't too hopeless! Suerte! Karen

Picasa Web Albums - Karen - pastelería/de...


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Si refirerte al gelatin, "temperar" significa "soften."

"Flower appears" es preciosa, pero mejor es "soft peaks form."

"Muscovy sugar" Muscovy sugar es mas similar al producto norteno "Sugar in the Raw" de "brown sugar." Pero yo tengo una pregunta: ?Puedes usar piloncillo en lugar de mascabado? _ This one I'm going to translate for the non-Spanish speakers. Karen translated mascabado as "brown sugar," but it's really "muscovy sugar" which is slightly different than US brown sugar. "Sugar in the Raw is closer." I also asked if a kind of Mexican raw sugar called piloncillo (which I happen to like a lot) would be a suitable substitute for the muscovy. _

"Offset spatula."

Encantado,
BDL

PS Gracias para la oportunidad, Karen. Me falta mucha practica, es un golpe de suerte.


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

BDL 
I have found that when a cake or pastry with gelatin is defrosted and it is homemade, it will weep or fall. Commercial cakes on the other hand add a starch or stabilizer of soughts to prevent this. Maybe she ought to add a little arrowroot or modified food starch to the mix. It can be dissolved in the cream. Also what doesn't help is after defrosting she is adding weight to the top of cake.


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## karendf (Jul 2, 2008)

Hello again.

Thanks for the tip of the modifed food starch. I would ask another question there. If I left it only in the fridge for several hours rather than freezing it, the "weeping" shouldn't happen then?

As for "temperar"-what the purpose is, is to avoid in this case, that the gelatin hardens up if you put in all at once into the whole mixture, which would be a disaster. You also do this when making a pastry cream...a little of the cream to the yolks gradually as you don't want cooked eggs...don't know what the translation is.

piloncillo: I don't know that you could use that, myself I find it very sweet, it certainly might be cheaper as an ingredient you can find in the market, but it's only used for the crust, and its very little anyway.

Usually, you find it used in typical dishes such as calabaza de castilla, which is a sort of pumpkin which is boiled in water, piloncillo, and cinnamon. Typical of the day of the dead, a harvest food,

thank you for all your help. :smiles: Karen


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

I do too know the translation for yolks, it's "temper" as in "temperature." The idea is to bring the yolks to temperature slowly and evenly to prevent the protein strands from seizing which would make the egg curdle or scramble. The food science between the gelatin and guava is similar, only the problem is not only with exposure to heat but with dissolving the gelatin completely and evenly in a solution which is not only acidic but has some tricky enzymes. 

I just like it. For those who don't know, "piloncillo" is as "raw" as sugar ever gets. It's made by cooking the juice from crushed cane into syrup then hardening the syrup in a cone shaped ("pilon") mold. I find the taste to be more vital and lend more caramel than either white or brown sugar (which in the US is white sugar colored with molasses). Muscovy or muscavado sugar is the next stage of refinement -- it's sugar which has been cooked enough to drain off the molasses, but not washed; for all intents and purposes it's what we call "Sugar in the Raw." 

Karen, piloncillo is extremely common with Latinos in "el Norte," for all sorts of uses -- maybe more than in DF. I'm not sure if it's because it's a taste of home, or a function of who comes here and from which parts of Mexico they come. 

I not only enjoyed your picture of the cheesecake, but must say I really like the level of detail in your presentation generally. It's neat without being overly fussy, and hits my visual sweet spot. All I need is a cup of espresso from that other thread and ... 

BDL


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## karendf (Jul 2, 2008)

one last thought for Ed the chef:

If I don't freeze this cake, the problem is that the ate (guava paste) is not going to work. The cake is very soft, and really a mousse.

cheers and good day! karen


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## ed buchanan (May 29, 2006)

So then this is not a cheesecake at all, and no it should not weep in fridge for a while .If however left in fridge for longer periods it will, since cream will slightly break down and sugar will slightly liquify. It is hard to put something heavy on top of any mousse, even commercial mousse cakes have just choco shavings on top or some light pulled design. Sweet Steet one of the better brands of commercial cakes are all like this.


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## rrcos (Apr 2, 2007)

Muy agradecido Karen..

It works out very well.. I eat in Spanish..


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## karendf (Jul 2, 2008)

For those of you who are venturing to make this, I got some other tips on it:

for the mousse: up the gelatin to 10g,

and for the guava paste: use: 
180 GR ATE DE GUAYABA LA COSTEÑA
2 GR GRENETINA EN POLVO
10 GR AGUA 

somehow I feel like I'm always getting the penultimate tip... (can I say that? the next to last), lots of learning to do!

sweet guava dreams. Karen :lips:


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