Best Cheesecake I've made, or Eaten

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Chief Longwind Of The North

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This New York Cheesecake is the best I've ever eaten. It's far better than what yu can get in the grocer's bakery. It's creamy and light, with a wonderfully balanced flavor, and topped with sweetened sour cream. I half again the recipe and it's just right for a ten-inch spring-form pan. You do have to increase the baking time though.

Original New York Cheesecake

Dense, rich, and yummy. This cheesecake is my favorite. My whole family loves it. 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.
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 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and crack the oven door. Gently jiggle th pan. The custard filling should wobble slightly. It will continue to cook and become firm, yet creamy If you cook it until the custard is firm when you open the oven door, the custard will crack, as it will try to shrink, but can't as it adheres to the crust. The custard will be almost dry in texture, but still feel and taste really good. After turning off the oven, open the oven door a bit, and let the cheesecake cool with the oven for 2 to 3 hours. Then top with your choice of toppings. My favorite, and the classic for a New York cheesecake is sweetened sour cream. Bu as I said earlier, you can put any topping on it you wish, from a brule', to blueberry pie filling, to sliced strawberries. It's all good.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
Very similar to my cheesecake formula, but fresh lemon juice is one of my star ingredients. Might want to give it a try next time and see how you like it. (c;
 
Very similar to my cheesecake formula, but fresh lemon juice is one of my star ingredients. Might want to give it a try next time and see how you like it. (c;

I also add lemon juice to my cheesecake filling.
 
With Lemon Juice, it's not the original New york Cheesecake. Here's a recipe you might like with the lemon, and orange zest as well.

Lindy’s New York Cheesecake
Ingredients:
PASTRY
1 cup AP flour
½ cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated
4 tbs. Cold, unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 large egg yolk
1 tbs. vanilla extract
1 tbs .water

FILLING
5 (8 ounce) pkg. cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tbs. AP flour
1 ¾ cups sugar
¼ tsp. Salt
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
zest of lemon, finely grate
1 tbs. Vanilla extract
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
¼ cup*heavy cream
SAUCE
3 cups washed, with the stems removed
¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/8 tsp. salt
1 ½ tbs. cornstarch
1 tsp. Lemon juice
2 tbs. Unsalted butter


DIRECTIONS:

For the pastry, place the sugar and lemon zest in a blender, or food processor and pulse 6 times..
Add the butter, egg yolk, water, and vanilla and pulse until the mixture looks gritty. You should be able to see little bits of butter.

Add the flour and apply shot pulses until just starts to form a dough..
Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and roll from the center outward into a 1-inch-thick coxk.
Wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Butter a 9-inch spring-form pan.
Separate the spring-form sides from the pan bottom.

Cut slightly less than one half of the dough. From the disk and break it up into small chunks. Scatter the chunks onto the pan bottom. Press the dough bits to make an even, thin layer.
Place this crust into the oven and bake for 6 to minutes until blonde in color. And with a wide spatula, slide the crust onto a parchment paper lined cooking rack. All to cool completely.
Increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees.
Roll the remaining pastry into approximately a 10 by 6 inch rectangle.
Cut the pastry crosswise into five equal strips.
Put the spring-form pan back together, Press the dough strips against the pan sides to make a seamless side crust.. Place the pan into the refrigerator while making the filling.

Now to make th filling:
Use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese, in a large bowl until smooth. Add the flour, salt, sugar, Lemon and orange zests, and vanilla. Mix until smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time, just until mixed well.
Turn the mixer to low speed and mix in th heavy cream.

Remove the cake pan from the refrigerator and pour the filling into it; Smooth the top with a spatula.
Place the cheesecake into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. After the ten minutes has papssed, turn the oven heat setting t to 200 degrees. Bake for 50 minutes. After the 50minutes has elapsed, open the oven and gently jiggle the pan. The custard should wobble slightly. If it is too liquid, bake for another ten minutes and test again. .When he cheesecake is done, Turn off the oven and open the oven door slightly to let the heat escape. Let the cheesecake cool with the oven (about 2 hours).
Cover loosely and refrigerate for 6 to 8 hours, until very cold.

Slice enough strawberries to fill one cup and set aside. Place the rest of the sauce ingredients into a sauce pan and mash with a sturdy fork. Place he pot onto the stove over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir with silicone spatula, scraping sides,, for 2 minuets until the sauce is slightly thickened.
remove from the heat and fold in the sliced berries, lemon juice, and butter. Let cool to room temp, then chill in the refrigerator.
Serve wedge-shaped slices with a tbs. of strawberry sauce on top.


This is also a great cheesecake, as is the Hollywood Cheesecake. I have a cheesecake cookbook with dozens of different versions, some made with gelatin that need no baking, some made with ricotta cheese, some made with cottage cheese, and some that that look odd, but taste wonderful. I'll have to dig it up so that I can share the author's name. It's a small cookk, but a great one.

seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I'm a massive fan of the tang that lemon brings to the table and had been trying to perfect my own lemony filling for years... this recipe is the one I've found to be the best:

https://blog.creamchargers.co.uk/lemon-whipped-cream/

I'm sure you're right about the lemon filling making it not an authentic New York cheesecake Chief... but when it tastes so good, who cares? Not me, that's for sure!
 
I'm a massive fan of the tang that lemon brings to the table and had been trying to perfect my own lemony filling for years... this recipe is the one I've found to be the best:

https://blog.creamchargers.co.uk/lemon-whipped-cream/

I'm sure you're right about the lemon filling making it not an authentic New York cheesecake Chief... but when it tastes so good, who cares? Not me, that's for sure!

For a whipped cream that doesn't melt, and can be used t frost a cake, or even to use almost like a mousse, ad a packet of Knox unflavored gelatin to a 1/4 cup of water, heat and stir to dissolve. Add slowly to your whipping cream as you are whipping it to firm peals. This makes a really stable. and yummy cake frosting.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
When I want a whipped cream to frost a cake I use 2 C of heavy cream and a TB of vanilla then whip it to soft peaks then add ¼ C of powdered sugar and beat to stiff peaks.
 
Welcome to the forum!

On this site it takes a while, before new new members can post a link. Not sure if it's the time, or # of posts. At any rate, it's not something that you did wrong.
 
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