A Springform Pan: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

Unless you like to bake, it’s unlikely that you would own a springform pan.  I bought one when I was planning to make a chocolate cheesecake with a cookie crumb crust and worried: 1) a regular cake pan wouldn’t be deep enough to hold all the cheesecake batter, and 2) if I used a deep dish casserole, how would I get the baked cheesecake out of it without making a mess?

Whoever invented the springform pan had these same worries.  That’s why this kind of pan has a removable bottom and sides.  Just unlatch the clamp on the side of the pan and voila!  The sides fall away and the baked cheesecake is sitting on the pan’s bottom ready to be transferred carefully to a serving plate or cut and served directly from the bottom itself.

I think of this pan as ‘my cheesecake pan,’ but others use springform pans to make ice cream cakes, other delicate cakes, oversize pies and deep-dish quiches.

Springform pans come in different sizes, from 4 inches across to 10 inches across.

Here’s a tip to prevent a springform pan from leaking: before transferring the batter into the pan, press a sheet of aluminum foil into the bottom and up the sides of the pan and smooth it out.  If the recipe calls for greasing the pan, grease the foil instead.  Then proceed with the recipe.

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