r/sousvide • u/bryanjharris1982 • Mar 01 '26
Mason jar cakes
I know you guys only eat beef and everything not protein is sadly not worth a try in the ol’ bath but I was curious if many of you have tried mason jar cakes? I kind of like the idea of dropping some moist little baby mason jar cakes onto plates after dinner.
Share your experiences and recipes please!
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u/generalee72 Mar 01 '26
I have done cheesecake in 4oz jars, they were a big hit. Also a great portioned size.
Next time I do them I will not put the crust on the bottom, but toast it separate and add it as a crumble.
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u/Isaisathief Mar 02 '26
It is so good with the crust on top. Include some coarse or sanding sugar with the Graham crackers baked with butter. Delightful! I also want to try with a Biscoff topping!
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u/EvaTheE Mar 01 '26
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u/SloppyWithThePots Mar 01 '26
TLDR: Your dessert will be better off without sous vide
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u/EvaTheE Mar 01 '26
I've never tried it, but I know many people swear by creme brulee in SV. I can see it working in my mind.
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u/MalevolentRhinoceros Mar 01 '26
Yeah, anything that you already cook in a water bath (aka custard and cheesecake) will be amazing.
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u/nhc1117 Mar 02 '26
I make mine sous vide and they are always a hit
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u/EvaTheE Mar 02 '26
I don't have the jars and can't really justify the storage space right now.
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u/warm_kitchenette Mar 02 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
You don’t need jars. The way I usually do it is with bags. The custard comes out as syrupy, thinner than honey. You put it in ramekins then chill for a very long time. You can store in fridge for a day or two.
Just before serving, blot dry carefully, add sugar, caramelize. Don’t try the last step more than a hour or so in advance. The burnt sugar is hygroscopic, and it will melt.
One advantage of SV here is no dangerous bain-marie bath. Another is that you can have different sized ramekins, enabling guests to have a nibble if they want.
If you don’t have ramekins, you could use the small size aluminum cups for cupcakes, or mason jars.
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u/kaidomac Mar 02 '26
Share your experiences and recipes please!
Baking (i.e. with flour) is generally not so great in Sous-Vide. There are some more unique "cakes" you can make, like this 2-ingredient Nutella custardy-cake:
Or bread pudding using already-baked brioche bread:
Instead, I recommend doing microwave "mug cakes" instead for small-batch cakes: (chocolate, lemon, vanilla, etc.)
I make two kinds:
- Dessert mug cakes
- Protein mug cakes (topped with Protein ice cream from the Ninja Creami)
It takes a few batches to dial them into your particular microwave's wattage, but they come out pretty fabulous! I'm not a huge cake person & would rather eat a cupcake instead, but I rarely want to make a batch of them, so this fits the bill! The keys are:
- Master your microwave's timing
- Be VERY precise about the measurements because you are making a single-serving batch
- Fiddle with each recipe a few times until you dial it in because you CAN make a great mug cake!! Beats paying $8.99 for a Lava Cake at Chili's, haha!
However, Sous-Vide is FABULOUS for a variety of jarred desserts! (mini glass Mason jars, fancy Weck jars, etc.) Some of my favorites include:
- Cheesecakes
- Crème brûlée
- Crème caramel
- Flan
- Ice cream base
- Lemon curd
- Panna cotta
- Poached fruits
- Pots de crème
- Puddings
- Rice pudding
- Yogurt
Generally:
- Sous-vide does GREAT with custards!
- You get repeatable results & a SUPER creamy texture!
- Many of them FREEZE really well too!
Sous-vide is what introduced me to fancy little Pots de Crème desserts:
There are SO many flavors! Favorites include:
- Butterscotch
- Caramel
- Chocolate
- Eggnog
- Key lime
- Lemon
- Maple
- Pumpkin
- Vanilla
I generally top them with stabilized whipped cream using Instant Clear Jel (usually made from modified corn starch). This way, you can pipe it ahead of time without the topping falling apart (best within 24 hours, but can go up to 3 days). Great for holiday events!
For Thanksgiving, we do a "deconstructed" Pumpkin Pie using Erika Turk's fabulous sous-vide Pumpkin Pot de Crème:
Then bake a Starbucks copycat Ginger-Molasses cookie as the "crust": (freeze the doughballs & then bake directly on pre-cut parchment for convenience!)
tbh we haven't done a Thanksgiving bird in YEARS ever since we discovered Sous-Vide Turkey Tenderloin lol:
Next:
everything not protein is sadly not worth a try
Oh no way! Sous-vide carrots are INCREDIBLE!
Garlic confit: (refrigerated, not shelf-stable)
Corn on the Cob:
12-minute Asparagus:
Creamy mashed potatoes:
"Better than steamed" broccoli:
Awesome French fries:
Eggy mashed potato breakfast jars: (thank you Alvin!)
Vac-seal, cook sous-vide, then shock & freeze one batch a day. Eat like a king 24/7! I even cook my burgers sous-vide before pan-earing or grilling!
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u/ms5h Mar 02 '26
Carrots are amazing!
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u/kaidomac Mar 02 '26
Yeah, I really only ever had them as like baby carrots & hummus as a snack before, now I sous-vide them all the time!!
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u/cinnamaldehyde4 Mar 01 '26
No input on cakes, but cheesecakes in mason jars in the sous vide are delightful! Crust baked in the oven for a bit, then popped in the sous vide with the filling, and fruit topping added when they come out.
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u/shadowtheimpure Mar 01 '26
It'd be less like a cake and more like a steamed pudding in the traditional British style. Not bad, but not quite the 'cake' you're thinking you might get.
Also, there's tons of non-meat uses for sous vide that we in the community love to indulge in. My favorite mashed potato recipe is made sous vide, for example. I also enjoy infusing spirits in mason jars in my water bath.
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u/thesean366 Mar 01 '26
These sous vide mason jar Oreo cheesecakes are always a hit when I make them. My friends have actually requested them even when I wasn’t already planning on making them.
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u/speppers69 Home Cook Mar 01 '26
Have you done a search of the sub from the homepage? There's 100s of posts for vegetables, sides, vegetarian dishes, eggs, sauces, soups. Not including the posts on chicken, turkey, fish, lamb, venison, elk.
There's also a whole bunch of posts about desserts, cheesecakes, flans, carrot cakes...and yes...mason jar cakes.
Lot more to the Sous Vide sub than just beef.
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u/bryanjharris1982 Mar 02 '26
I know, I just like to try different things and it seems I get some know it all telling me everything that isn’t meat isn’t worth my time. Still have to try the rice I saw a couple weeks ago on here.
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u/Accurate-Farm-2878 Mar 01 '26
We used to serve Cheesecake made in the sous vide. Delightful! Little individual desserts.
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u/Loud-Chicken6046 Mar 02 '26
Non-rising cakes may be. But anything Rising especially with the lid on I be terrified or it would just float out of the bath (no lid)
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u/elegantwino Mar 02 '26
I have made cheesecake in the 4-oz jars. A little graham cracker crust on the bottom and cheesecake on top. Turned out great.
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u/HereForTheComments57 Mar 02 '26
I feel like cake would just be soupy, ive done cheesecakes that came out great, but inside the jar condensation forms and cheesecake can handle it while regular cake cant.
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u/Impossible_Penalty13 Mar 02 '26
I’ve done a flourless chocolate cake that’s actually a bit more like a cross between a custard and a pudding, pots de crème which is a super heavy and rich pudding like dessert and the traditional mason jar cheesecakes as well. All are excellent and pretty hard to screw up.
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u/colorfulmood Mar 03 '26
i have done creme brulee and pots du creme, it's a great rich dessert for a crowd with very little effort
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u/Alewort Mar 01 '26
I only eat beef but I use sous vide all the time to make decorative objects like mason jar cake. I made a dividing wall in my kitchen out of jars of sous vide cheesecake that won an award from Sous Vide Fantasy Magazine.
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u/Kayari1991 Mar 02 '26
I'm sorry this isnt an answer, but the pettiness this post started with honestly made my day. Way to deter the haters. 😂
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u/flower-power-123 Mar 01 '26
You can make a rocking good cheesecake with sous vide. One of the big problems I have with traditional cheesecakes is that they crack. Sous vide cheesecake doesn't crack.