Can You Freeze Dry Cheesecake?
I’m glad I know how to freeze dry cheesecake. When things hit the fan or I need to get into my food storage for whatever reason, I won’t be worrying about carbs or calories. In fact, we will probably want something to cheer us up as only extra calories can.
Enter the cheesecake.
A good friend of ours dropped off this amazing treat one day because my husband had been over helping on their roof. The treat wasn’t necessary, BUT it was greatly appreciated. Who wouldn’t want something that looked so utterly delicious and tasted even better?
You’re right. I couldn’t turn it down. How rude would that have been?
Freeze Drying Raspberry Cheesecake
I was so grateful she brought over a homemade raspberry topping, too. She’s one of those women who can do everything – the cheesecake was made with raspberries from her garden and goat milk from… you guessed it, her goats.
This was the creamiest cheesecake I’ve ever had. I had to wrestle a piece from MYSELF just so I could freeze dry it.
I would imagine any topping would be great: huckleberry, blueberry, strawberry, peach, blackberry, boysenberry, and more. It really just depends on what your favorite is. You could do it plain, as well.
How Do You Prepare Cheesecake To Freeze Dry?
You could probably do them in one whole slice, but I’m pretty determined to keep most of my freeze dried items in the mylar bags so I can just grab and go, if it comes to that. I like the idea of smaller sizes and anything that won’t get destroyed when I pack those bags around.
I’ve seen cheesecake pieces in mason jars and they’re gorgeous with great coloring. But, personally, I can’t pack those things around.
This cheesecake, I cut into small pieces while it was cold, but it would have been better to freeze it and THEN cut it.
Freeze Dried Cheese Cake Bites
I would cut the cheesecake into one inch by one inch squares. Not the crumbly mess you see above. But it was unavoidable and at this point, I was legitimately having a hard time not eating everything in sight. The crust really was as crumbly and delicious as it looks.
These store great in mason jars or in mylar bags without worrying too much about crumbling. When they’re in the full size of a slice, edges crumble off and you’re more in danger of losing the integrity of the shape.
Freeze Dried Dessert
As far as freeze dried desserts go, cheesecake is one of my favorites. It’s versatile and you can do a lot with it. Not to mention, it’s delicious.
But what a great item to have in your food storage. When you need your food storage, it’s not usually during a time of low stress. Having comfort food is imperative during times of high stress and cheesecake is a great food to have on hand to eat by the handful or just slowly enjoy bite by bite. Plus, let’s be honest, when you need your food storage, more calories is better. It will probably be the first time in my life where I’ll be encouraging myself to eat all the things. Lots of calories? Yes, please!
This is a great way to keep dessert available long into the end of the world. Other desserts you can freeze dry include: spice cake, ice cream, candy, and more.
What Is The Texture of Freeze Dried Cheesecake
It holds together surprisingly well as it goes through the process. Only one bite of the two trays I did of bite sized cheesecake separated in my hand by layers. The crust stayed on the tray while the rest came up in my fingers. I had to eat that one to make sure it was okay. Don’t judge me.
You can see in this one where little flakes of cheesecake are on my fingers. The cheesecake is almost like the ice cream when it’s freeze dried.
How Do I Reconstitute Freeze Dried Cheesecake
You can dip this in any kind of liquid (I would recommend water, but that’s me) and then sit it on a plate and cover it. Let it rest for a few minutes and it will reconstitute to almost the correct constitution. The larger the size of the cheesecake, the longer it takes to recon it.
But why recon it? I like them in the bite sized version for a reason. Just popping these into my mouth as they are is my favorite way to eat them. That makes them easy to pack and eat when I’m camping, dirt biking, hunting, or bugging out – not that I’ve bugged out, but I’m ready with cheesecake. Maybe I’ll even be able to trade some cheesecake, if I need to!
All of the options are amazing and versatile.
This is a win and I highly recommend you give it a try!
HOW DO I FREEZE DRY CHEESECAKE?
Many people think it’s next to impossible to do the freeze drying for themselves. This is far from factual. Freeze drying at home is made easy by Harvest Right. They sell three different sizes of freeze-drying machines that do everything in the machine – except prep and package.
That’s up to you.
For all intents and purposes, here at Freeze Drying Mama we use the medium sized freeze dryer. You can check out the sizes offered at Harvest Right here.
What this machine does is first freeze the items on stainless steel trays to -41 degrees or lower. This takes about 10 hours or so.
Then a vacuum pump turns on and creates a vacuum inside the drum. This is the drying stage and will vacillate the heat of the tray up and down to a pretty warm temperature. This makes the frozen items release any water in them in vapor form. The vacuum sucks the moisture to the drum. This collects in ice form on the inner circle of the drum.
Then there’s the final dry which is essentially the same thing, but with a time associated with it and an end in sight!
WHAT SETTINGS DO I USE TO FREEZE DRY CHEESECAKE?
On the Harvest Right freeze drier – this works on all sizes – after putting the trays inside the drum on the shelves, I put in the drum cover and then tighten the handle as I lock it shut. On the computer touch screen, I selected START >NON-LIQUID > NOT FROZEN > CONTINUE. After inputting the settings and making sure my drain tube was closed, I walked away.