Cheesecake is truly one of the most delicious desserts that you can make. Everyone looks forward to it because of how delectable it is.
If you’re new to making it, you might still be learning the ropes. Sometimes it’s easy to make little mistakes that will throw everything off.
For example, you might bite into one and discover that it’s a little bit grainy. Why would a cheesecake turn out to be grainy, though?
Keep reading to learn about the potential causes, so you can prevent it from happening down the road.
The Cheesecake Was Overcooked
The best and most likely answer to your question of why your cheesecake is grainy involves overcooking. When you overcook a cheesecake, it’s going to turn out grainy.
There are a few reasons why this could happen. You might not have followed the recipe to a tee, and this means that you could have baked it a bit longer than you were supposed to.
Sometimes you might forget to set a timer or you might have read the recipe wrong. Little mistakes such as this can happen, and it might be what caused the cheesecake to turn out grainy.
Why does overcooking a cheesecake make it turn out grainy, though? It has to do with what happens to the eggs when they’re cooked for too long.
Eggs are going to start to curdle if you cook them longer than you’re supposed to. A cheesecake is set using eggs, and this means that you need to approach the cooking process carefully.
When the eggs overcook, they become grainy because the proteins contract and force the moisture out. You’ll be left with a cheesecake that doesn’t taste how you want it to.
You might notice liquid seeping out of the cheesecake when this happens. Often, the cheesecake will crack when it has been overcooked too.
Avoiding this is important when you’re trying to get the cheesecake to turn out properly. Be very careful to cook it only as long as you’re supposed to.
Oven Temperature Issues
It could be the case that you’re experiencing oven temperature issues. Sometimes people will have ovens that won’t actually heat up to the temperature that they set them on.
For example, you could set your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and wind up having the internal temperature of the oven reach 360 degrees Fahrenheit instead. There could be something wrong with your oven, and you might need to monitor the temperature more carefully.
If you’re curious about how reliable your oven temperature settings are, you can test things using an oven thermometer. Getting an oven thermometer to place inside the oven will allow you to test the temperature to get an accurate reading.
You should be able to check things out to ensure that the oven is baking the cheesecake at the proper temperature. If it’s not, you might be able to adjust things up or down as necessary to try to lock it into the right range.
People can deal with issues in ovens such as hot spots as well. A hot spot in the oven involves certain spots of the oven getting hotter than average.
For instance, the back of your oven might be a hot spot where the temperature is slightly higher. You can test this by toasting bread on the oven rack and then pulling out the slices to see where the slices of bread that are burned are located.
It might be necessary to get a new oven if your current one isn’t reliable. You can try to work around oven issues by cooking things at lower temperatures, too.
Gentle Heat Is Best for Cheesecakes
When you’re trying to bake the tastiest cheesecakes that you can, it’s wise to remember that they do best with gentle heat. For this reason, it’d be better to bake them at a lower temperature.
Consider turning your oven down and trying to bake the cheesecake that way. You might need to keep an eye on it and check it a few times to see if it’s done.
Eventually, you should be able to dial in a good temperature to bake cheesecakes in your oven. You’ll also learn the approximate amount of time that it takes to finish things up.
Every oven has the potential to be a little bit different. Knowing that, you’ll have a better time going with a low temperature should prevent you from making too many mistakes.
The grainy texture that you experienced only occurs when you overcook a cheesecake. So long as you avoid overcooking, you shouldn’t have to deal with the graininess again.
Double-Check the Recipe
Double-checking the recipe is going to be a worthwhile endeavor. It’s easy to make mistakes when you get distracted, after all.
In today’s world, people are constantly being bombarded by phone calls, texts, and email notifications. You could have simply lost your concentration when mixing the ingredients up to make the cheesecake.
While overcooking was almost surely the cause of the grainy texture, your issues could have come down to ingredient measurement mistakes, too. Too much or too little of an ingredient will change the way that the cheesecake bakes in the oven.
You’ll always have a better experience if you double-check the ingredients. Do your best to make sure that you’re getting it right so that you don’t wind up having to eat a less-than-ideal cheesecake.
Final Thoughts
You’re likely having your cheesecake turn out grainy because you cooked it for too long. Check how long you’re supposed to cook it and make sure that you stick to the recommendations.
It’s also possible that your oven could be having temperature issues. Buying an oven thermometer might be a good idea so that you can check to see if the internal temperature of the oven matches the settings that you’ve chosen.
Otherwise, it’s good to double-check the ingredients. You could have measured something wrong and thrown your recipe off.
It’ll be easy enough to avoid making mistakes such as this in the future. If you’re aware of the potential mistakes that you can make, you’ll be able to be more mindful to be careful from this point forward.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.