Can fruit juice be used to hold a cheesecake crust together?
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.
Best Answer
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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Answer 2
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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