This is a wonderful cheesecake recipe from a cheesecake cookbook that I have. It has never failed me, and has received rave reviews from everyone who's tried it. But of course, I had to change it a little from the original. Otherwise, I just wouldn't be Chief Longwind of the North, now would I.
Original New York Cheesecake
Dense, rich, and yummy. This cheesecake is my favorite. My whole family loves it. I give you two options for the preparation. Both use the same recipe. However, option 2 gets trickier, but produces a truly, over-the-top cheesecake. Here’s the recipe.
Ingredients:
For the crust:
1 ½ cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
6 tbs. Butter
2 tbs. Sugar
For the Filling:
2 lbs. Cream cheese
¾ cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 tbs. Cornstarch
1 cup Sour Cream
Preheat the oven to 450’ F.
Option 1: Combine the crust ingredients and press into the sides and bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan. Place the crust into your freezer for 15 minutes.
Soften the cream cheese in your microwave (Don’t over do it; the cream cheese must be warm, not hot.) and place into a large bowl. Cream in the sugar until everything is smooth. Beat in the remaining ingredients until all is well blended, smooth and creamy.
Remove the crust from the freezer and pour in the filling. Place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 200’ F. And bake for an additional 35 minutes. Turn off the heat and crack the oven door. Let the cheesecake cool with the oven for 2 to 3 hours. This will help prevent the custard from cracking.
For a firmer cheesecake, bake at 200’ F. For 45 minutes. My favorite topping on cheesecake is sour cream that has been sweetened with sugar or Sucralose. But you can put virtually any fruit pie filling on top that you want. Cheesecake goes great with apple, pineapple, strawberry, blueberry, cherry, even banana cream. It’s all good.
Option 2: Line the spring-form pan with parchment paper and omit the crust. Cook the cheesecake filling in the parchment lined pan. Remove the pan sides when all is cool. Carefully slide the baked custard onto a thin, plastic cutting sheet and set aside. Then bake your crust inside the spring-form pan as in option 1. Fill the crust 1/4 full of firm fruit-filling, or something ridiculously good that will go with the custard flavor. Allow to cool. Gently slide the cheesecake custard into the crust. I know this can be done, because I did it. You could make this red, white and blue by using strawberries on the bottom, followed by cheesecake, and finally blueberries on top. You could put apple pie filling under the custard, with a sweetened, cinnamon flavored whipped cream on top. You could even bake a shallow pumpkin pie custard on the bottom, then place the cheesecake custard on top. Let them try and figure out how you accomplished that trick.
You can do whatever you want with this cheesecake. You could even bake different cheesecake recipes, and layer each custard on top of each other. Be creative. It's for your Mom.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North