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I'm thinking of changing a Mocha-Mint Cheesecake recipe of mine to a more plain Peach Cheesecake.

Among the other things that need to be modified, I was thinking of instead of using butter as an "adhesive" to hold the (oreo) crust together, I would use graham crackers mixed with a small amount of peach juice. The idea being that the sugar in the juice would caramelize while cooking, and hold the crust together.

Does this sound feasible? If so, can anyone with relevant experience give me tips on how to have this work out as well as possible?

Provided it would work, the only downside I could immediately see was that the absence of butter in the crust may make it drier. Is this actually a concern? I'm currently using 3 tbsp of butter for 1 1/2 Cups of crust

It's baked in a 10" springform at 375F for 70 minutes; if any of that info is required.

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  • Any particular reason you wouldn't flavour the actual cheesecake instead? I think it'd taste better anyway as butter is tasty.
    – talon8
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 4:32
  • @talon8 I am flavouring the cake itself. I just thought I'd this as an interesting alternative, if it'll work. I anyways use butter.
    – Carcigenicate
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 4:34

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I've experimented a bit with liquid flavorings in tart crust (not specifically replacing butter -- I still had butter in there) and I find that it does tend to make the crust soggy, but if you are baking the crust first, you can cook it longer to counteract this and it comes out a little more like shortbread. I don't think I would recommend it, and I actually try to keep as much room-temperature liquid out of my crusts as possible.

On the other hand, one of the most famous NY cheesecake places, Junior's, uses a spongecake base instead of a traditional crust. If you really want to add peach to the crust, maybe you could work off of this? Maybe replace one of the eggs with pureed peach? (I was surprised and pleased to find that Epicurious has the official Junior's recipe online, actually.)

Another option would be to keep your normal crust recipe and put a layer of peach jam or compote on top of the crust (if you have a baked crust, or even the sponge cake method). You would want to make sure there is as little liquid as possible in this layer or you're still going to have soggy crust.

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  • Mmm, cool idea. Idk how peach jam would turn out. I had an image in my head of a layer of caramelized juice holding the crust together, but that may not even be possible. Do you think boiling off some of the water would help with the soggines? I don't know how juice would fare being exposed to heat like that; especially after losing some moisture.
    – Carcigenicate
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:34
  • @Carcigenicate Honestly, peach liqueur might be your best bet.
    – Tritium21
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:36
  • @Tritium21 I'm going with peaches only because we just brought back boxes of them from our tree, and they're starting to turn. I'd rather not have to buy any peach-related ingredients.
    – Carcigenicate
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:38
  • @Carcigenicate Might i suggest a crumble and an ice cream instead?
    – Tritium21
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:39
  • @Tritium21 I'm also trying to use up excess cream cheese that someone bought me for a previous cheesecake that I forgot about. I suppose I could freeze it, although I'm not sure when I'd use it. Oh well, thanks for your suggestions.
    – Carcigenicate
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:42
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I see three issues with omitting butter; Butter is a fat - a cooking medium that aids in heat transfer. It also acts as a browning agent (makes crusts 'crusty'), and it also contains lecithin, which is a binding agent. This helps hold the crust together.

I have omitted butter/fat exactly once... to disastrous effect+.

As for adding a flavorful liquid to the crust? I would worry about making it too wet.

+The disastrous effect of which i speak is the crust did not come together and the crumb migrated into the bottom 1/4" (about a cm?) into the cheesecake. I could not separate the cheesecake from the pan. ...We ate it with spoons out of the spring-form.

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  • Damn. Thank you. What do you mean "disastrous effect"? What happened?
    – Carcigenicate
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:31
  • Edited to show disaster.
    – Tritium21
    Commented Aug 28, 2015 at 18:36

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