This cheesecake almost didn’t happen. The night I had planned to make it for a lunch we were holding the next day, I conveniently forgot where the springform pan’s base was. I sat for a while on Pinterest trying to get inspirations for another dessert to make, but nothing was appealing to me. Once I had the idea to make this cheesecake, I just couldn’t forget it and that was the problem. I tried again, opening every cabinet and looking between pans that the springform base could be hidden in. Just when I was about to call it a night, my mom yelled over to me and there it was in her hand. Apparently it was in our outside refrigerator; an area that I never thought to check. Cheesecake is one of those desserts that is really worth making because the end product never fails to satisfy. Check below to enjoy your own home-made version as well!
New York Style Cheesecake
Printable Recipe Here
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups crushed graham wafers
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
Cheesecake Filling
- 32 ounces (4 of the 8 ounce packages) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 5 eggs
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (optional)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Put the wafers in a food processor and blend until they are small crumbs
- Pour the crumbs in a bowl and add the 1/4 cup of sugar and melted butter
- Spray the springform pan with cooking spray and press the crumbs on the bottom and halfway up the pan
- Refrigerate while you make the cheesecake filling
- Put the cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, and flour in a mixing bowl and beat until well incorporated (1 minute)
- Add the eggs, one at a time, until they are blended in
- Scrape the sides of the bowl as you mix so that you do not have any lumps of cream cheese remaining
- Add the whipping cream, lemon zest, and vanilla extract and beat for a minute or until well mixed
- Before you pour the filling into your crust, cover the outside of the springform pan with aluminum foil (so no water gets in)
- Pour the filling into the aluminum wrapped springform pan
- Put the springform pan in a large baking dish and fill the dish with water (so the water is halfway up the pan)
- Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes
- Reduce to 250 F and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until only the center is a little wobbly when you shake the pan
- Cool and refrigerate overnight and decorate/serve the following day
Tips
- For the design, I melted semi-sweet chocolate and dipped strawberries in it. For some strawberries, I covered them with chopped almonds and for the others, I dipped them in a ready made strawberry glaze.
- If you do not have graham wafers (as I did not), be creative and improvise with ANYTHING that you have. I used waffle cones that we had and just put those in the food processor. I have also used animal crackers in the past so anything will work.
- Baking the cheesecake in a water bath will prevent it cracking because then the outer edge will not bake faster than the center (the hottest the water bath can get is 100 C).
- Short 1 minute video for how to assemble a water bath here
Recipe modified from ZoomYummy
For more ideas check out some of my past cheesecakes below: