Why did my cheesecake base fall to pieces?

[LifeIsGoodish]

I made a baked cheesecake from memory last night. First time in...oh, ten years or maybe longer.

I made the base from crushed digestives mixed with soft butter, packed down firmly into the cake tin.

Tastes deeeeeelicious, but the base crumbles and collapses. Where have I gone wrong?

Maybe you didn't use enough butter?

Did you put the base in the fridge for an hour before putting the topping on? I normally do that so it "sets"

Do you mean melted butter when you say 'soft butter'? It has to be melted then refrigerated again once mixed with the biscuits, and then cooled properly once baked - I make far too much cheesecake it seems!

Yes, you melt butter and add digestives to it. My recipe says to bake it for a bit. Then you do the cheesecake bit, bake that and put in fridge.

• I'd say not enough butter OR
• if you didn't melt it, it didn't stick all the crumbs together as it would be too blobby OR
• not enough biscuit and the base was too thin. I think it should be around 1/2cm deep or a bit more.

I think Gracies may be right about cooling fully after baking.

I've just had a piece for breakfast (purely for scientific investigation, you understand) and the base held its shape. So it may well be that the base needed to 'set'.

It would seem that I broke all the other rules, though . The kitchen was so hot yesterday that the butter was just holding its shape, so I didn't bother melting it, and I didn't put the base in the fridge, either. For a gelatines cheesecake I would (except that I wouldn't make a gelatined cheesecake!).

Chocolate brownie cheesecake.

It sounds like a combination of factors then! If you don't melt the butter then it can't coat the biscuits properly and it definitely needs cooling in the fridge before baking and afterwards. Looks lovely though, which recipe is it?

Wasn't so much a recipe as "What can I do with this leftover partial packet of Ghirardelli brownie mix?" and "Can I get away with not folding in beaten egg whites?"

IIRC:
2 small tubs of Quark
3 large eggs
A good squirt of Hellman's full fat mayo (because the Quark was fat free and I had no cream) guess about 100-150ml
About 3/4 of a sachet of Ghirardelli brownie mix (Costco!)

Beat all together gently. I think I should have beaten everything except the quark first, then beaten the quark in last. Because I did it all together, I think the quark was over beaten until everything was combined, and it then split a bit. Or else I should have strained the quark in muslin while preparing everything else. Poured into the biscuit base.

Baked at Gas 7 for 10mins, then turned down to 4 for about 1h until cooked for 1-2" around edge and firm in the middle, left to cool in the oven.

Biscuits definitely well-coated. Butter was on the verge of melted, and used K-beater to mix, which makes brilliant crumble topping, better than handmade IMO.