“The cheesecakes made by the Nuns of New Skete are, dare we say, divine? They give new meaning to the term heavenly.” So read the opening to a recent article by Wendy Page for life@home magazine regarding our New Skete cheesecakes. The Nuns of New Skete were founded in 1969 and initially earned income to maintain their facility and life by making church vestments and religious icons. With the entrance of Sister Magdalene, whose hobby was baking, the Nuns expanded our work to include cheesecakes. In 1975 the original recipe that was to become the basis for New Skete Kitchens had been fined tuned. With the money raised from the sales of the cheesecakes, New Skete Kitchens upgraded the equipment and in 1983 built the streamlined bakery of today. The high-ceilinged room was designed by an architect with green-energy efficiency in mind. The bakery has a spacious open feeling comfortable in terms of size, temperature and noise levels. After all, New Skete Kitchens is part of the monastery!
The Nuns run New Skete Kitchens as a primary means of funding our monastery by producing cheesecake and other goods that are available online, at the monastery gift shop, and various locations around the Capital Region of New York State. There are twelve cheesecake flavors: Amaretto and cream, Chocolate, Chocolate and Amaretto, Deluxe or classic cheesecake, Irish cream, Kahlua, Key Lime, Raspberry Ripple, White Chocolate, plus Apple Walnut and Pumpkin which are produced seasonally in the fall and Eggnog, which appears in the winter season. In addition to cheesecakes, we are also known for our brandied fruitcakes. Click here to see our brochure.
The Nuns bake twice a week following a highly efficient two-day process. The production line is larger than would be found in a residential kitchen, but small enough to be managed by a handful of Nuns and four part-time employees. Whereas cream cheese in supermarkets comes in 8oz. packages, we use a 30lb. block. Originally with an old commercial mixer six cakes were produced at a time taking 20-25 minutes to mix. The new mixer is more like a food processor and tips to pour the batter so that there is not as much heavy lifting. We have been told that we have the process down to a science.
Some of the cheesecakes have their flavoring added to the batter like the Chocolate, while others have the flavoring incorporated onto the top by hand. As an example the raspberry sauce is poured on and then swirled with a bamboo skewer to mix the flavoring and achieve the aesthetic ripple effect. Similarly, the apples and then the walnuts, or key lime zest or white chocolate are added depending on the cake’s contents.
Meanwhile, the cookie-crumb crust is spread in the pans via an apparatus that bears a similarity to a potter’s wheel. This crumber was adapted for us by an engineer. The batter is poured into the depositor, which dispenses the batter into the now-crusted baking pans and balanced to a pre-determined weight. The cakes are baked in a revolving five-shelf oven that holds over one hundred cakes each baking round. There is enough time between morning and evening prayer services for the cakes to cool and to be unmolded for cutting the next day. A slicing machine places dividers between each of the sixteen slices of the frozen cake. Cakes are then sealed and boxed ready for sale or shipment.
New Skete Kitchens does retail and wholesale distribution as well as working with different area school and other nonprofit organizations in their fund-raising.
Gift shop hours are 12 to 4 Tues. through Sat.
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