I was rooting around my basement shelves looking for something, and I came across an item that I had forgotten that I bought. It was a 7″ spring form pan. When did I buy this? Then it came to me, I bought it during the pandemic because I was going to try to make a dessert in my electric pressure cooker. However, I never got around to it.

Supposedly, pressure cookers are great for making cheesecakes. Baking a cheesecake in the same high pressure pot where you make a chuck roast? That sounds counter-intuitive. However, cheesecakes are often made in a water bath, and the steam in a pressure cooker provides a similar environment.

My sister’s birthday was coming up and I wanted to make her a cake. Finding the spring form pan had to be fate. She loves cheesecake, and now I had the tool to make it.

Some people change out the sealing ring when going from savory to sweet foods, as they are afraid that the ring, which retains smells, could transfer those smells to the dessert. My ring had a slight savory food smell, but it was the only ring that I had so I had to risk it. Thankfully, it had no impact on the flavor of my cake.

Let’s get into the recipe. It is from the Instant Pot website. My electric pressure cooker is not an Instant Pot, but most electric pressure pots cook very similarly so I’ll follow the recipe with no change in cooking times.

Here is everything that you need. The ingredients are pretty simple and not very expensive, I’m guessing less than $7. This makes a 7″ cheesecake, so I thought I would search for a 7″ cheesecake online. What would one cost?

Holy cow, look at these prices! I’m not saying that my homemade cheesecake will be as deluxe as any of these, but wow!

Let’s start by crushing the graham crackers. I’m using them instead of digestive biscuits, as I already had a package. One hundred and fifty grams is about one of the packages that is in the box (there are usually three). I put them in a zip lock bag and used a can to crush them. You could also use a rolling pin, or just beat the heck out of them with your fists. Pro tip: My crackers were very slightly stale so I fanned them out on a plate and microwaved them for about 30 seconds. I then let them dry out for a minute or two, and they were as good as new.

I melted the butter in my microwave, added the graham crackers, and mixed it all together.

I well-greased my spring form pan with butter, and added the graham cracker mix and flattened it out with the bottom of a glass. It is OK if the crust goes up the side a bit. I then placed the pan in the freezer to harden the mixture. and continued on with making the batter. 450 g of graham crackers = 16 ounces.

The recipe called for softened cream cheese, so I left the bricks out on the counter for an hour or two. It also called for using a food processor, so I brought out my ol’-faithful and very old Cuisinart. I’m sure a hand mixer would also work.

I blended the cream cheese bricks together. This only took a couple of seconds.

I then added the eggs, one at a time, and blended them.

I measured out 60 g of sour cream, and blended it into the mixture. Sixty grams is around 1/4 of a cup.

I then measured out 100 g of white sugar, and blended it into the mixture. One hundred grams of sugar is about 1/2 cup.

I added the zest of one lemon and the juice of 1/2 of the same lemon. This is less than what the recipe called for, but that’s OK, as this is just a flavoring. A Microplane is great for zesting, if you don’t have one you can peel off the lemon skin (avoiding the white part) and finely chop it with a knife. I blended it all together.

I then added a splash of my homemade vanilla extract. I added a bit more than what was called for in the recipe because I’m a big vanilla fan. Lemon and vanilla are flavorings, so altering them to one’s personal preference isn’t a big deal. I added the 1 and 1/2 T of flour, and the 1/2 t of salt, and blended the mixture until it was smooth. This only took a few seconds.

I prepared my electric pressure cooker (AKA Instant Pot) by adding 1.5 cups of water (to make the steam) and inserting a trivet. In my case I’m using this steaming rack, but any type of heat resistant trivet would do. Many electric pressure cookers include a trivet when you buy the unit. If you don’t have one consider getting one. They are both useful and inexpensive.

I took the spring-form pan out of the freezer and filled it with my filling. I then placed it in my electric pressure cooker. There is no need to cover the spring form pan. Many will construct a sling out of aluminum foil to make it easier to remove the hot pan once it is cooked. I didn’t, and manged to remove it, but it was hot!

I closed the lid and made sure that the pressure regulator was on seal. I pressured cooked the cake for 25 minutes on high with the keep warm setting off. I then let the pot naturally release its pressure. That process didn’t take long as I had only added 12 ounces of water. Still, I opened the regulator valve to confirm that there was no more steam and I made sure that the float valve was down before attempting to open the pot.

I let the cheesecake cool on the counter for 15 minutes, and then transferred it to the fridge uncovered for 1 hour. I then covered it and let it chill. You want to refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours, I let my chill overnight.

Here it is out of the spring form pan and ready to celebrate my sister’s birthday. This size cake will make 7-8 slices. It would be delicious with a topping like canned cherry pie filling, but we ate it as is.

A rich and delicious cheese cake that came together in no time, and that was made in a pressure cooker. It was perfectly smooth and crack free. Who knew!

I’m not claiming that this $7 cheesecake is as good as those that selling for $60, but it was still rich, luxurious, and delicious. Inflation, the war, and every changing tariffs are getting many of us down. For very little money you can put a moment of sweetness back in your life.

Peace

Mike