[13 - 15] [Music] hello there welcome back to another
[15 - 17] hello there welcome back to another episode of anything with Alvin today
[17 - 18] we'll be attempting to recreate the
[18 - 21] famous cheesecake from Junior Junior's
[21 - 22] Cheesecake is probably one of the most
[22 - 24] famous cheesecakes in the city and maybe
[24 - 26] now in the country what sets their
[26 - 27] cheesecake apart there's usually two
[27 - 29] things one is that it actually uses a
[29 - 31] sponge cake based rather than a graham
[31 - 33] cracker crust and two The Filling is a
[33 - 35] lot on the creamier and Lighter Side not
[35 - 38] as dense as usual so being a New York
[38 - 39] institution I thought it would be fun to
[39 - 41] see if we can recreate the same effect
[41 - 43] all right first things first let's visit
[43 - 44] Juniors we went to the location in
[44 - 46] Brooklyn which is rather large it's not
[46 - 48] only a place that sells cheesecakes but
[48 - 50] it is actually a full- built restaurant
[50 - 52] where you can go inside eat have a good
[52 - 53] time and definitely feels like a place
[53 - 55] that has been around for quite a while
[55 - 57] after checking out their cheesecakes the
[57 - 59] different flavors diameters I was pretty
[59 - 60] excited about how many flavors there
[60 - 63] were but today let's go ahead and get
[63 - 65] the normal one and the strawberry one
[65 - 66] which I would say are probably two of
[66 - 68] the most famous ones so now we're back
[68 - 70] in the studio let's give these a closer
[70 - 73] look I got an 8 in normal cheesecake and
[73 - 75] I got an 8 in strawberry cheesecake the
[75 - 77] strawberry one comes with a sponge kick
[77 - 79] crust as well but sometimes there's a
[79 - 80] different kind of crust on the bottom it
[80 - 82] also comes with strawberries that are
[82 - 84] glued together by this nice
[84 - 87] strawberry spread let's say and some
[87 - 89] crumbles around the outside which I'm
[89 - 90] guessing is a kind of of a strucel or a
[90 - 92] crunch upon cutting them they're still
[93 - 94] on the relatively dense side you know
[94 - 95] the kind of dense where you got to kind
[95 - 97] of clean the knife with your mouth after
[97 - 99] each slice cuz a lot of it sticks to the
[99 - 100] blade even after running it under hot
[100 - 102] water all right these are some pretty
[102 - 104] good looking slices it's a pretty light
[104 - 106] color especially on the normal ones but
[106 - 107] in the shop I've noticed that the top of
[108 - 109] the normal flavored cheesecakes can
[109 - 111] usually range from a light pale to a
[111 - 113] darker golden brown all right after
[113 - 115] giving this A Taste it's quite delicious
[115 - 117] the normal cheesecake it's quite Tangy
[117 - 119] it's not as sweet as usual cheesecakes
[119 - 120] which I person personally love it is
[120 - 122] very milky which I think definitely is
[122 - 123] from the addition of heavy cream in
[124 - 125] their batter that I think distinguishes
[125 - 127] them from a lot of other cheesecakes oh
[127 - 128] look Kendall's here she actually
[128 - 130] mentioned in passing by that it was
[130 - 131] actually one of her dreams to just take
[131 - 133] a bite of a cheesecake just hold it up
[133 - 135] to her mouth and give it a big oh and
[135 - 137] being the people that we are we
[137 - 138] obviously had to let her fulfill that
[138 - 142] dream yep she is now a very happy lady I
[142 - 143] guess the rest of the cheesecake is now
[143 - 145] belongs to her okay so examining the
[145 - 147] sponge kick layer on the bottom seems
[147 - 148] like it definitely compressed and absorb
[148 - 150] a lot of the liquid from the cheesecake
[150 - 152] I don't really taste anything besides
[152 - 153] just sweet cake but maybe that's the
[154 - 155] point of it is not to clash with the
[155 - 156] cheesecake flavor so I think that's a
[156 - 158] pretty interesting move all right so
[158 - 160] let's get started they actually have a
[160 - 162] cookbook with an official recipe quote
[162 - 163] unquote so we're going to be using that
[163 - 165] as a base recipe to go off of to begin
[165 - 167] okay so for the cheesecake batter we're
[167 - 168] actually be making a double batch cuz
[168 - 169] we're going to be making the same batter
[169 - 171] for both the normal and the strawberry
[171 - 173] cheesecake I'm want to add in 8 8 oz
[173 - 175] packages of cream cheese half cup of
[175 - 179] corn starch and about 666 g of sugar
[179 - 180] interesting number we got there 2
[180 - 182] tbspoon of vanilla extract and two large
[183 - 185] eggs are added in after that first bat
[185 - 187] is processed and nice and smooth without
[187 - 189] lumps after that we're going to add in
[189 - 190] the signature part I think that makes
[190 - 192] their cheesecake batter shine 1 and 1/2
[192 - 194] cups of heavy cream with all that excess
[194 - 196] liquid sometimes the cheesecake batter
[196 - 197] may not hold together so having
[197 - 199] cornstarch in there ensures that the
[199 - 201] cheesecake is nice and smooth all right
[201 - 202] now we're going to set that batter aside
[202 - 204] and go ahead and make a sponge cake
[204 - 205] batter that we're going to use for the
[205 - 207] bottom of the normal cheesecake in a
[207 - 209] sand mixer I'm going to first start with
[209 - 211] two egg yolks first I'm going to beat
[211 - 212] them on high for about 3 minutes and
[212 - 214] then I'm going to slowly add in 2
[214 - 215] tablespoons of sugar and kind of beat it
[216 - 217] until the egg yolks turn into that
[217 - 219] beautiful light pale yellow fluffy
[219 - 221] ribbon stage takes about a couple
[221 - 222] minutes for this then I'm going to add
[222 - 224] in some lemon extract and some vanilla
[224 - 226] extract I think lemon and Spong cake go
[226 - 227] together really well so I'm going to be
[227 - 229] a little more heavy-handed on the lemon
[229 - 231] if I want to smells really good too then
[231 - 232] I'm going to add in a/ thir of cup of
[232 - 234] sifted cake flour and let that mix
[234 - 236] together until it has become a nice
[236 - 237] smooth batter then I'm going to add in 2
[237 - 240] tbsp of unsalted butter and make sure
[240 - 242] that comes together into a nice yellow
[242 - 244] batter looking stage now I'm going to
[244 - 246] take the remaining egg whites and add in
[246 - 247] some cream of tardar about 1/ qu of a
[247 - 249] teaspoon to help that stabilize that's
[249 - 251] going to get beat until it's nice and
[251 - 252] froy I'm going to slowly add in the
[252 - 254] remaining sugar which is about 1/3 of a
[254 - 257] cup or so until it is nice and to the
[257 - 259] stiff peak stage making sure not to
[259 - 260] overbeat cuz that will cause it to
[260 - 262] deflate then what we're going to do is
[262 - 263] after these are nice and glossy we're
[263 - 265] going to perform a sacrifice I'm going
[265 - 266] to take about a third of these egg
[266 - 269] whites mix that into that thick egg yolk
[269 - 270] batter and till that part is nice and
[270 - 272] fluffy and then slowly pour that in Back
[272 - 275] to the egg whites and fold it using a j
[275 - 277] motion until it is nice and smooth and
[277 - 278] it looks like a sponge cake batter then
[278 - 280] I'm going to pour this batter into a
[281 - 282] nicely buttered spring form pan with
[282 - 284] some foil on the outside for later and
[284 - 287] bake this in the oven at 350° for about
[287 - 288] 10 minutes depending on your oven you
[289 - 290] might need to go a little longer or
[290 - 291] shorter okay that's going to go ahead
[292 - 293] and rest and cool off before we can move
[293 - 295] on to the next step now that our sponge
[295 - 296] chick has been completely cooled from
[296 - 298] the fridge I'm going to press it down a
[298 - 300] little bit just so that it can push into
[300 - 301] the sides and make sure that we have a
[301 - 303] nice even bottom for our cake I don't
[303 - 304] think the goal of the sponge cake is to
[304 - 306] make a super light fluffy base that the
[306 - 307] cheesecake is supposed to match with I
[308 - 309] think it's just there to kind of be
[309 - 310] there because it's going to get smashed
[310 - 312] down by all that heavy cheesecake batter
[312 - 313] which is what we're going to do right
[313 - 315] now I'm going to evenly divide half of
[315 - 317] the cheesecake batter right on top and
[317 - 319] can examine and appreciate how soft and
[319 - 321] jiggly this batter might be and resist
[321 - 323] all the temptation of wanting to either
[323 - 325] dunk my hand in it or dunk my face in it
[325 - 326] let's give it a tap to remove some
[326 - 328] Bubbles and go ahead and get started on
[328 - 330] our strawberry cheese cake so instead of
[330 - 332] grham crackers for this cheesecake I've
[332 - 334] read that Nilla wafers is also a really
[334 - 336] acceptable substitute and I've never
[336 - 337] done this before but I love Nilla wafers
[337 - 339] so let's give it a shot I'm going to
[339 - 341] pulse a big bag of these uh usually it
[341 - 343] says 50 but I might as well just use the
[343 - 344] whole thing because well I don't like to
[344 - 346] waste nilow Wafers and I pulse those
[346 - 348] Wafers with some baking powder
[348 - 350] approximately a teaspoon and a food
[350 - 352] processor for about 30 seconds until we
[352 - 354] have fine even crumbs and then add in
[354 - 356] about 8 tbspoon of melted butter once
[356 - 358] everything comes together like wet sand
[358 - 359] I'm going to go ahead and press this
[359 - 361] down just like a graham cracker crust
[361 - 363] into another 8 in string form pan Lin
[363 - 365] with some foil bake this at 350 for
[365 - 367] about 10 minutes until the aroma starts
[367 - 370] to come out then chill this as well all
[370 - 371] right now that it is chilled I'm going
[371 - 373] to pour the rest of the batter on top of
[373 - 375] that crust and place both of these
[375 - 377] unbaked cheesecakes into large pan so
[377 - 378] that we can do a water bath
[378 - 380] approximately going up 1 in of the way
[380 - 382] up the side making sure that the foil is
[382 - 383] going to prevent any water from leaking
[383 - 386] in I like to bake these pretty low at
[386 - 388] 300° for about an hour and a half to 2
[388 - 390] hours depending on how long it takes I
[390 - 392] kind of do this by eye once the
[392 - 393] cheesecake is about 60% of the way
[394 - 395] cooked I actually like to turn off the
[395 - 397] oven but leave the cheesecakes inside
[397 - 399] until the oven has returned to a normal
[399 - 401] temperature that takes another 2 hours
[401 - 402] or so and then after that let them rest
[402 - 403] at room temperature until they have
[404 - 405] cooled down and then into the fridge
[405 - 407] it's a lot slower of a temperature
[407 - 409] decline which leads to a less risk of
[409 - 411] cracking but I guess the water bath also
[411 - 413] helps with that a little bit as well so
[413 - 415] after these have been refrigerated for a
[415 - 416] whole day as usually is the norm for
[416 - 418] cheesecake let's take a look pretty salt
[418 - 420] smooth top nice color everything looks
[420 - 422] looking good pretty identical or very
[422 - 423] close to what we saw at the Junior's
[423 - 425] shop all right let's go ahead and crack
[425 - 427] into the normal one just to see how it
[427 - 428] Compares with Juniors looking pretty
[428 - 431] good and place that side by side with a
[431 - 432] slice from Junior's normal slice
[432 - 434] cheesecake ours is definitely a little
[434 - 436] bit darker maybe a sponge cake baked a
[436 - 438] little hotter or that we decided to take
[438 - 439] it a little bit longer in temperature
[439 - 441] but overall still relatively similar to
[441 - 444] what we saw let's give this a taste so
[444 - 446] after tasting Junior's as a good base
[446 - 448] control ours is definitely a little bit
[448 - 450] sweeter now I think we could match that
[450 - 452] by taking down more of the sugar and I
[452 - 454] do taste less cream in the homemade
[454 - 455] version which is a little odd because
[455 - 457] this recipe is from their book but if I
[457 - 459] were to make our recipe and make it
[459 - 461] adjusted to theirs that we tasted from
[461 - 464] the shop I would reduce the Sugar by 30%
[464 - 465] I would actually add in probably 30%
[465 - 467] more heavy cream to bring out that
[467 - 469] creamy milky taste that Junior has give
[469 - 471] it more of that Tang but overall I still
[471 - 473] like the flavor of our cheesecake it
[473 - 474] also tastes less dense there's kind of
[474 - 476] taste a little on the gluey corn starchy
[476 - 478] side maybe from all the cornstarch
[478 - 480] needed to match the amount of cream so I
[480 - 482] think there's definitely value in both
[482 - 483] okay let's go ahead and finish making
[483 - 485] our strawberry cheesecake so when
[485 - 487] tasting the strawberry gel that put on
[487 - 489] top of theirs it tastes instantly like
[489 - 490] strawberry Jell-O that was the number
[490 - 492] one taste in mine so let's make some
[492 - 494] strawberry Jell-O made it according to
[494 - 496] the package with half the water and the
[496 - 498] normal water just to see how much
[498 - 500] consistency we needed to achieve then
[500 - 502] after immersion blending it um I put a
[502 - 503] little too much air into it and I think
[503 - 505] that didn't really look quite right so
[505 - 506] we're going to have to go back and melt
[506 - 508] this Jell-O down to get rid of the air
[508 - 509] bubbles and see how we can acheve
[509 - 511] achieve that clear likee look now Rachel
[511 - 512] had a good idea and use some of this
[512 - 515] like squeezable strawberry jelly you can
[515 - 517] get from a bottle and after combining a
[517 - 519] good amount of that with our Jell-O
[519 - 520] mixture that is looking and tasting more
[521 - 523] similar to what we have on Juniors then
[523 - 524] because it's still relatively thin I'm
[524 - 526] going to pour this into a pan and add a
[526 - 528] cornstarch slurry a ratio of 1 to one
[528 - 530] cornstarch with water and cook that
[530 - 532] until it has become a thickened gel now
[532 - 533] that's the texture I think is a lot
[533 - 535] closer to what we're looking for okay
[535 - 536] for our strawberries let's go ahead
[536 - 538] first and admire this crazy one that
[538 - 540] seems like um it didn't really separate
[540 - 542] in the womb so we're going to probably
[542 - 543] not eat that one I don't know what's
[543 - 545] going on with that one there okay after
[545 - 546] we take the tops off the strawberries
[546 - 548] and give them a nice wash and clean
[548 - 549] these are going to go straight onto the
[549 - 551] cheesecake itself and to hold those all
[551 - 553] together I'm going to carefully spread
[553 - 555] that strawberry gel mixture that we made
[555 - 556] and the last part of the strawberry
[556 - 558] cheesecake is that crumble we saw on the
[558 - 560] outside now I've seen in other Junior's
[560 - 562] cheesecakes recipes and visuals online
[562 - 564] that sometimes the crumble looks more
[564 - 566] like a crunch with nuts and oats and
[566 - 567] things but this one didn't have any of
[567 - 569] that texture this one just looked like a
[569 - 571] a typical strucel made with flour butter
[571 - 573] sugar and not much else it also didn't
[573 - 574] taste that great either it was a little
[574 - 576] soft by the time we got it maybe because
[576 - 577] the strawberry and the gel kind of
[577 - 579] seeped into it and it wasn't very
[579 - 581] pleasant to haste overall so to achieve
[581 - 583] a similar effect I had an idea we had a
[583 - 584] good amount of that Nilla Wafer crust
[584 - 586] mixture from earlier leftover because I
[587 - 588] decided to use the whole bag of Van
[588 - 590] Nilla wafers rather than just 50 of them
[590 - 592] and I thought maybe if we blend this
[592 - 593] with some oats we might get a very
[593 - 595] similar strucel texture so that's
[595 - 597] exactly what I did I took the leftover
[597 - 598] threw in a heavy handful of Oats food
[598 - 600] process that until it was nice and
[600 - 602] pretty evenly combined and throw some
[602 - 604] extra softened butter to compensate
[604 - 605] after mixing the thoroughly with my
[605 - 607] hands I'm spreading that on a sheet tray
[607 - 609] lined with some parchment paper baking
[609 - 612] that at 325° until nice golden brown and
[612 - 614] crunchy now this looks very similar to
[614 - 616] what we're eating on the cake and tastes
[616 - 618] quite good too all right to finish after
[618 - 620] the stral has cooled I'm just putting
[620 - 621] this along the ring or the edge of the
[622 - 623] cake They Don't Really top the whole
[623 - 624] thing with it because I think the visual
[624 - 626] is that you want to see the strawberries
[626 - 628] and let's go ahead and give ours A Slice
[628 - 630] all right so comp compared to Juniors
[630 - 632] they have kind of achieved this magical
[632 - 634] clear gel look with their strawberry
[634 - 636] mixture while ours is a little bit more
[636 - 638] cloudy the flavor-wise I think I like
[638 - 641] ours better not because the cheesecake
[641 - 643] is better but because the vanilla wafer
[643 - 644] cheesecake crust is actually quite
[644 - 646] mind-blowing somehow theilla wafer crust
[646 - 650] is just so concentrated and so so so
[650 - 651] delicious in contrast with the
[651 - 653] cheesecake filling and the strawberries
[653 - 655] and I think that has single-handedly
[655 - 657] convinced me to use only nilow Wafers
[657 - 659] when making cheesecake crust from now on
[659 - 660] because Grand crackers don't taste that
[661 - 663] good vanilla wafers already taste good
[663 - 664] and if you make a crust out of it by
[664 - 665] adding butter and sugar of course one is
[666 - 667] going to taste better than the next it
[667 - 669] also has that beautiful built-in vanilla
[669 - 670] flavor that I think a lot of people try
[670 - 672] to achieve with extracts but I don't
[672 - 674] know vanilla wafers it's kind of in the
[674 - 676] name the strawberry Jello-O kind of goes
[676 - 677] away you don't really taste that Jello-O
[677 - 679] flavor after eating this whole thing I
[679 - 680] think it's just kind of there to hold it
[680 - 681] together but honestly I think I would
[681 - 682] have preferred just having normal
[682 - 684] strawberries considering the fact that
[684 - 686] the normal cheese sck from Juniors cost
[686 - 689] $40 and the Strawberry One cost $59 I'm
[689 - 691] a little bit more inclined to now make
[691 - 693] these at home but nevertheless we have a
[693 - 694] lot of cheesecake in the studio so none
[694 - 696] of that will go to waste we all took
[696 - 698] home some happy leftovers and I ate a
[698 - 700] lot of it frozen which is actually Pro
[700 - 701] tip one of the best ways to eat