Experienced using paper bakerware?

Thanks Drogon, this looks like an overseas company, are you in the UK? The photo of the mouse rings looks like there is not a bottom, I must not be viewing it correctly. The walls of it look really high. Today I baked with the different size paper bakeware and found out you can not spray the inside before baking or the show  a greasy ring and look bad. The silicone free standing large muffin size worked pretty good with the mini cheesecakes and they released pretty easily from them. The texture was perfect on the cheesecakes, but I would like them slightly higher and rounder. I know people use these 9 or 12 hole cheesecake muffin pans, but they either create bite size cheesecakes or they get poor ratings like non stick surface peeling off and losing removeable bottoms. In your experience is it easier to sell to restaurants whole cheesecakes (these are special cheese, quark and chevre, etc) or mini cheesecakes these days?

So, you have a cookie sheet, set the round biscuit base dough on the cookie sheet, then set this ring over it, which means the biscuit base had to be the perfect size, seems hard for an advanced beginner like myself. Did you line the cookie sheet with parchment, then how do you remove these cheesecakes successfully? Do they call in this ring or do you remove it?

Yes, most of the paper liners have these muffin ridges which I do not like. But for the goat cheese minis, I put a roasted nut topping on sides and top after I plopped them out so it covered it. But I found some online that look like they are aluminum lined and maybe don't have the ridges. I found it at pastrychef.com They are called disposable alum crème brulee baking cups. $48.99 for 500 so only 10 cents each and no washing of pans! It says they are good for "plated dessert presentations."  That's ok for a coffee shop but the restaurants would have to remove them and plate them. I plan on ordering them and trying this as it's the only thing on line I have found the right size for indiv. cheesecakes that have no ridges. Dia. 2 3/8" height: 1 3/16"

I did put the decorative paper muffin cases in a metal muffin pan for more support, this worked well, just pulled them at the tops easily out. But they were too high for the mini cheesecakes which don't rise. I filled them 2/3's full and well that's where they stayed. My husband said it didn't look like a cheesecake in there! 

Thank you Gordon for the link with all the photos of the mini's, that was extremely helpful as it shows the moulds and how to release them, though I don't know where she gets those perfect paper liners to put in them...

Tell me have you made cheesecake w/ fresh ricotta (whole milk) before? I have done it a couple of different ways, and both times it tastes nearly the same, bland and slightly grainy. I am not using cream cheese as the cheese company wants me to make a good tasting cake that profiles their ricotta. I have added heavy cream and full fat yougart, but I still don't like what I am getting.Nearly 99% of the ricotta cheesecake recipes one finds in American books or online have half ricotta, half cream cheese then maybe with sour cream thrown in-- is this what I have to do to make it taste good, make the Ricotta a sideline?

Mini, Wo sind Sie in Oesterreich? Mein lieblings Land. Anyway, is this Gu product used to bake the cheesecake in, refriderate the cheesecake,  then serve at the coffee shop? Because how in the world when I get the mini cheesecake cleanly out of the small glass container? What do you do in Austria if I may ask! I wonder how people keep the fingerprints off the glass, I can just see me trying to wipe smudges off the outsides before I deliver them and hoping the windex doesn't get in the food (just kidding...)

I did figure out how to release the mini cheesecakes cleanly from the silicone free standing cups, they have to have been in the fridge for hours, then take a plastic knife around the edges, turn them over and the cake comes out cleanly. But one of these red silicone things was soaking in warm water yesterday for 45 min in another bowl in the sink and when I came to wash it, the bowl had red water from the red silicone thing in it. So, these are not a good idea, don't know if it is the crappy brand I got or they all will leach. So, the search continues for the right containers.

Thanks Gordon for the article attachment, I will read it.

I partially froze some of the cheesecakes (2 hours in freezer) before I drove the 60 miles with them in the cooler w/ ice packs as it was 82F outside. They were still a little too cold unfortunately at taste test time, but it's hard to get it just right. They loved 3 of the things and asked me to try an Ital style with Ricotta they gave me.

Gordon, how long would these refridgerated cakes last? They asked me yesterday what the storage life of the baked cheesecakes with the ricotta, quark and chevre were and I told them I thought only 2 days refriderated for the ricotta minis and maybe 3-4 days for the cakes with the other cheeses. Do you think this is accurate? So, now they will want to freeze the cakes and take out as needed, more for me to research and figure out. How to transport perfect slices of frozen cheesecake.I am assuming refridgerated cheesecakes with sheet gelatin don't last too long but I am not positive, but I would love to try this, There is one with sponge cake slices on top and bottom and quark in the middle w/ gelatin that looks beautiful but worried it will be to fragile to transport.  I will be for ex. making or baking the cheesecakes on a Monday then delivering next day Tues preferably fresh or frozen if this will be necessary.

Mini- vielen dank- eine ganze Dissertation ueber Kaesekuchen! I watched the German lady make it, but I do not have Makerquark, I have full fat quark to work with and I don't have access to her packet of vanilla pudding powder (what does that do) and don't know how much vanilla sugar is in the packet they put in the recipe. They also don't state what size springform so it will be tricky to test their recipe. Do you know if mixing the batter ingredients with a hand mixer like she did on both the cheesecakes she profiled is better than using a stand mixer which is what I have been doing? Do I want less agitation? I have been using the hand mixer for the egg whites I later fold in, but I have been using the standing mixer to cream the sugar and butter and to mix in the quark, sour cream or whatever but never on high speed. On the other hand, she uses oil instead of butter so maybe that's why- she's not creaming anything. Thanks again for the link.

If you go to the supermarkets here, all the cheesecake is frozen, unless you go to the upscale supermarkets with a serious bakery and they sell it by the slice. I will have to look next time to see if they even offer an expiration date on the fresh indiv cake or cheesecake slices.

Yes post your pictures!

Maybe the food scientists (that's their title!) will know the answers to these shelf like questions on products with no preservatives at the local Dept of Agriculture which will come to inspect me.

Gerhard you made me laugh on your comment regarding not asking the scientists any questions; earlier today I emailed one asking if the large transport cooler for the cakes I bought will be ok (I heard they need the measurements)  and then I got an auto reply that she was on medical leave with no info about when she was returning. In the message, there were phone numbers of 2 other food scientists. I called the first and it went into his voicemail on the 1st ring so I hung up and called the second scientist and the same thing happened. I decided if they didn't want to pick up the phone then I wasn't leaving a message and hung up on that one too. Then I emailed the owner of the commercial kitchen and I said, "Hey it doesn't seem like these scientists want to talk to anyone." And he replied:"No, they were probably on the phone, they only have 2 food scientists but they probably need triple that amount."

I will remember what you said, the ingredient that expires the soonest is when the whole dessert has gone kaputt. That is easy to remember. Thanks.

Thanks Sonia for the correct measurements, I can now try this German recipe!

Hi Sonia! I just found yesterday afternoon at a super large market 30 miles from me the Dr. Oetker "Vanilla Pudding" packet. It is 43 gr. (1.5 oz) per packet and they come 3 packets together. Is this what they are using on the German video recipe called van. pudding powder for the quark cheesecake? This seems kind of a lot for one cake. This is basically just a lot of cornstarch, dextrose, salt and artificial colorings and fake vanilla flavoring.  I suppose a recipe with cornstarch to thicken and real vanilla extract would suffice which is what I already did. Anyway, I bought it and will try it but want to make sure 43 gr is right for the 26 cm (10 in cake). Maybe this ChefKoch outfit is getting paid to advertise Dr. Oetker products in their baking recipes, just wondering...

Thanks Kathy for the link on the CA cheesecake co. I just emailed them to ask if they would let me know how best to freeze because I cannot find anywhere on the internet if I have to put in fridge to set before freezer or if directly in freezer works and like you say, best uncovered for a while first before wrapping or what? These cheesecakes with locally made cheeses are very expensive to make so I don't won't to keep doing inadequate experiments if someone has the answer!

Gordon, sorry I didn't see your section on freezing in answer to my question before I replied! Huge help! Will talk to the comm. kitchen guy about his freezer, it was huge but I had no idea what to ask about it. I think freezing only mini cheesecakes is going to be effective re. time paid in the kitchen as there is no air cond in that comm kitchen I will be in- i.e. no cool room to let cakes rest. Maybe in winter it will be easier, but don't think by much in a one large room kitch where the ovens have been on for a long time. And you're right about warm things bringing up the temps of the other foods already in the freezer!

What do you mean by putting the cakes in air tight containers? I was thinking if a cake is cool, I would wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then foil and then freeze but now that I think about it that looks ugly to transport a frozen cake to client. But I also can't give them a bunch of plastic containers w/ each cake nor could I afford that. How do restaurants receive frozen cheesecakes, I suppose they are probably in some special machine wrapped plastic from Sisco but what little outfits do, I know not.

thanks for the blast freeze explanation, now I can see they are doing it. I found your Eng. digestive biscuits in the international section too and tried a base with that and some melted butter, little sugar and ginger powder on the minis, I did not bake it first. It tasted pretty nice, not oily which I liked. You're lucky that your clients are nearby and you can deliver fresh! I am becoming a bit disillusioned at how much all these premium goods are costing to make with real butter and eggs (which have gone up tremendously since the avian flu outbreak), Euro. chocolate, expensive local, soft cheeses, etc. I understand more and more now why the food is so crappy that we buy and even get in the restaurants, people don't want to pay the high prices that real food items would cost, so we get imitation cream cheese, oil instead of butter and cocoa powder instead of choc. etc, etc. I wonder if the restaurants will be able to pay me for my products what I need to make a go of this!!

I hear ya Gordon... surprised they don't want your wonderful sourdoughs. What are they serving, just that awful doughy white industrial bread? I have done breads with starters many times but I find it so wasteful to have to keep throwing away so much flour to refresh the starter so then I stop the sourdough thing for 6 months and then I start it again. My favorite bread books are by Dan Lepard. I love his method of gently kneading for a few seconds and then leaving to rest at numerous intervals, but you have to be home more or less all day to complete his loaves. I have made many of his recipes straight dough and starter breads. I think the overnight sponge would be best for my long-term style but too busy for bread lately due to making and tasting desserts trying to get this little business rolling.

I did have some good luck today talking to a busy specialty food market that wants to taste my local cheese cheesecakes and a couple of other items. He will want everything delivered frozen weekly or every 2 weeks. He prefers whole cheesecakes instead of the minis which is good as I am having trouble making them look great. He said I could just score them and then they will slice and pack them in indiv. containers. I need to put some kind of light sour cream or other glaze on top which covers up little flaws like cracks and makes them look more professional. They will be expensive at least $5.99 for one slice so they have to look good. He said his cream cheese cheesecakes come from a local cheesecake place wrapped in plastic and then a cardboard box. We did discuss prices and I think this might work. I live near farmland too so I can go get fresh eggs but it has to be from a licensed facility by law. I'll have to see what I can find.

Good luck and keep us posted!