Baked Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 21:
 
The careful fine-tuning with the xanthan gum continues! I wanted to do what would hopefully be the final plain cheesecake of my 2017 basic overhaul that I began back in the spring with Prototype 17. Perhaps 1 1/4 teaspoons of this stabilizer came up a little too short, but 1 3/4 teaspoons turned out to be sufficient—but in this case I had to really crank up the blender that I was using in order to fully incorporate the xanthan gum. I had fears about burning out the motor by maxing out the blender too much.

So how about a compromise at 1 1/2 teaspoons?

But I also wanted to get rid of those somewhat unappealing brown spots on top of the cheesecake. Could I get away with greatly reducing the baking time?

Let's give this a try!
 
Repeat Prototype 20, but for the batter, reduce the xanthan gum by 1/4 teaspoon, to 1 1/2 teaspoons.
Also, bake this cheesecake in tub for only about 90 minutes, rather than 110 (if using a 9 1/2" pan). Then cool it down in the oven (shut off at this point), door slightly ajar, for an hour—just like the previous prototype. Afterwards, remove from oven and tub and continue to cool down at room temperature, doing so for 120 minutes (not 90), then remove from pan and refrigerate.

Plain Cheesecake—Prototype 21

The brown spots were greatly diminished on this one, hopefully even to my satisfaction.

As expected, Prototype 21 had a nice taste to it. And I felt that the batter was still firm enough as well. This cheesecake ended up being nearly 5/6 gone perhaps close to an hour after it was served at Living Hope Church (among a small selection of snacks, mainly Munchkins from Dunkin' Donuts). But I ended up heading out of the church while leaving the remaining cheesecake for others to enjoy later on.

With this mid-September cheesecake turning out as best as I could hopefully make it, this would wrap up my basic cheesecake overhaul of 2017. Next: Apply the results to other cheesecake flavors—starting with chocolate (coincidentally, Prototype 21 on that flavor).
 

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