New York Cheesecake

D: Cheesecake! My Aunt Wanda had a request for a cheesecake recipe, so this week we’re trying this Epicurious recipe: Original New York Cheesecake. I can’t say I’ve ever put cornstarch in my cheesecakes, or cream, so this should be quite interesting. It’s decsribed as the best, and the proper original New York style Cheesecake. So it will be an interesting experiment if anything. The style also uses a cake crust rather than pressed graham crumbs. So it’s a 2-parter. We’ll see how it goes on both counts; reviews etc. claim that it’s going to blow our minds, but we’ll see about that.

S: Cheesecake! As David already said, this recipe is out of the norm for us… as we grabbed an online recipe over a cookbook one. gasp I KNOW, right?! How did we even have the courage to do that? But no really, Aunt Wanda wanted to help a friend out. Surprisingly, the hubster and I haven’t made cheesecake together ever. Like ever. Which is so odd, as we both absolutely love it so much. We sadly couldn’t find a recipe in any of the cookbooks we had, that was close to a traditional cheesecake, so I went and GOOGLE’d a recipe. As David already said, this recipe uses a cake base… which I was really intrigued about. So I sent it over to him, to see what his thoughts were. He was not impressed, but I figured we’d give it a go, as there were so many amazing reviews for it.

Ingredients:##

  • 1 Sponge cake crust
  • 4 8oz packages of cream cheese
  • 1 2/3C sugar
  • 1/4C cornstarch
  • 1 TBsp vanilla extract
  • 2 XL egs
  • 3/4C heavy whipping cream

Needed:##

  • 9in springform pan

Directions:##

  • Preheat oven to 350F
  • In your mixer, with a paddle attachment (if you have, or a large bowl with a hand mixer) beat 1pkg of cream cheese, 1/3c sugar and corcnstarch on low until creamy (~ 3min)
  • Blend in the remaining 3 packages, one at a time, scraping the bowl as needed
  • Increase the mixer to medium, beat in remaining sugar, then vanilla
  • Blend eggs one at a time
  • Beat in the cream just until completely blended
  • Spoon the batter over the crust [or pour it]
  • Place into a large shallow pan containing hot water that comes ~ 1 inch up the pan
  • Bake until the edge is brown, top light cold, and the centre barely jiggles (about 1.25hr); if still soft bake for another 10 minutes
  • Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 2 hours; cover loosely with saran and refrigerate until completely cold

Verdict:##

D: Holy shit. By far the best cheesecake I’ve had. Both the cake base, and this recipe are all we’ll be making from now on. If anyone wants something different, they can have cherry pie filling on top for a cherry cheesecake or something; this is now the base of any cheesecakes we’ll ever feed anyone. Just delicious, like no other cheesecake I’ve had. Amazing. It does manage to stay reasonably light, great texture (largely because of the corn starch, since it is kind of light on the eggs). We did substitute limoncello, oddly enough, for the lemon extract as it’s all we had (as who owns lemon extract!?); and it didn’t suffer for it, so it’s a valid replacement if you have to. Just great, seriously, try it.

S: Holy shit. I’m a genius. Yay for thinking out of the box. This cheesecake is to die for. Though in the end I couldn’t, I took my first bite, and wanted seconds. It’s melt in your mouth delicious, and I’m never going back to a graham crust ever again. The lack of needing to dig my fork into the hard crust, and possibly have it fling to god knows where. This is it. I die just thinking about it. I’ve found cheesecake heaven.