Desserts have a way of bringing people together, and sharing a fresh Classic New York Style Cheesecake Recipe with loved ones is a special experience.
Whether you’re hosting a dinner party, celebrating a birthday, or simply treating yourself to a delicious dessert, sharing cheesecake with others can create lasting memories especially when it’s homemade and looks like it came from a professional bakery.
Sharing a cheesecake is one thing but making it is another. Review different techniques and enjoy the process. You can do it!
The Perfect New York Style Cheesecake Recipe
Baking a New York Style Cheesecake Recipe from scratch can be a bit challenging, but the feeling of achievement when you pull a perfectly baked cheesecake out of the oven is incredibly rewarding.
It’s a great way to boost your confidence in the kitchen and impress your friends and family.
Bravo to every baker and cheesecake that comes out near perfect! A cheesecake with no cracks, no craters, no bubbles, no sinking, perfect color, silky consistency, not overcooked, not undercooked, no over-browned cooked top, no water leakage from a water bath, no soggy crust, and transfers off the pan without fail of any kind is a huge accomplishment in my book.
The delicacy of this dance is one you must practice many times and you will have the power! Just don’t give up.
What not to do – when making Cheesecake
- Don’t use regular cake pans when making a cheesecake: The best pan for cheesecake is a Springform pan. These pans have a removable side piece with a latch and a separate round bottom layer that supports the base of the cheesecake. The side piece unhooks from the bottom round piece making it an ideal pan for baking, releasing, and serving cheesecakes.
- Never use cold ingredients: Always use room-temperature eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, ricotta (for Italian cheesecake), extracts, and even dry ingredients. Room-temperature ingredients make for a smoother more evenly baked cheesecake without lumps or dense texture caused by cold ingredients.
- Resist the urge to “Overmix”: It’s tempting as we think everything has to be beaten to a pulp with not one bump left or seen to blend. Stop the fear of something not getting mixed enough. Think of it this way…every time you add an ingredient you’re mixing, and remixing as each ingredient goes in. And don’t forget when you use a spatula to scrape the bowl to pour your batter into the pan, that’s also a form of mixing. That’s already enough mixing! Overmixing causes aeration. Aeration adds extra air into the batter which will cause cracks and rob your cakes of height and fluff. It will ruin cheesecakes, cakes, and many other baked treats.
- Don’t open the oven too early: Keep the oven door closed! Do not open the oven door while your cheesecake is baking. Precious steam and heat gets out changing the temperature inside the oven. This can make your cheesecake crack, sink, and bake unevenly. Patience is a virtue.
- Never use a cake tester stick or thermometer on a cheesecake: It’ll just put holes in it and can make it sink. You can’t test the doneness of a cheesecake like a regular cake. Simple jiggle the pan. If the sides are set and firm and the center jiggles your cheesecake is done. If not bake for 5-10 minutes longer depending on how loose the batter is. See additional notes in the recipe.
The Classic New York Style Cheesecake is known for its rich, creamy texture and decadent flavor. The combination of cream cheese, eggs, sugar, and sometimes sour cream or heavy cream creates a luxurious dessert that many people find irresistible.
While the basic recipe for New York Cheesecake is simple, there are endless variations and ways to customize it to your liking. You can add different flavors like vanilla, lemon, or chocolate, or incorporate toppings such as fruit compotes, chocolate ganache, or caramel sauce.
After you make the Classic Style New York Cheesecake Recipe a few times you’ll feel more comfortable trying different adaptations, frostings, and fruit toppings.
Check out my 5 Cheesecake Design Ideas with Toppings for more inspiration when decorating and adding more pizazz to your cheesecakes!
If you’re new to making cheesecakes please read about my 10 Tips for a Successful Cheesecake on my blog, Heavenly Cheesecake with Chocolate Ganache: How To Guide. These tips will help you make as few mistakes as possible when prepping and baking your Classic New York Style Cheesecake.
Classic New York Style Cheesecake
Equipment
- 10" springform pan
- High Edged -Round Cake Pan 2 sizes larger than your 10" Springform Pan
- High Edged/Deep dish pan or deep oven tray
- Hot water kettle
- Parchment Paper
- Hand Mixer
- Mixing Bowl
- Thin Bowl Spatula
- Aluminum foil
- Disposable food safe rubber gloves
- Cake board, cake platter, or plate
- 1 Thin plastic cutting board
Ingredients
- 4 cups Full fat creamcheese Room Temperature
- 5 Large Eggs Room Temperature
- 2 cups Full fat sour cream Room Temperature
- 8 tbsp Real butter Room Temperature
- 1 1/2 cups Granulated Sugar
- 2 tbsp Cornstartch Mix cornstartch and flour together
- 2 tbsp Flour Mix cornstartch and flour together
- 1 1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1 1/2 tsp Freshly squeezed strained lemon juice Strain pulp
Graham crackers and waffle cookie crust
- 3-4 tbsp Unsalted Butter Melted
- 1 1/2 cups 1/2 Graham crackers & 1/2 Waffle Cookies Waffle Cookies are optional
- 1 tbsp Granulated Sugar
Instructions
Making the Crust
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
- Make graham cracker & waffle cookies crumbs (optional) by pulsing in a food processor until finely ground. If you don’t have a food processor, place the graham crackers & waffle cookies in a heavy-weight Ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin until finely ground. **Using waffle cookies is an added treat and stabilizer to the graham cracker crust but it's still great by itself.
- In a small bowl, combine all the crumbs and sugar before stirring in the melted butter. If you add all three ingredients at the same time, the sugar can clump. With gloved hands mix the crumbs with sugar and melted butter. Combine with your fingers for even distribution. Make sure that all crumbs are moistened but not over-saturated before putting them into the pan. Set aside for a minute.
- Tightly wrap 2 layers of aluminum foil around the outside of the springform pan covering the bottom and sides. Lightly grease the whole pan/sides with real butter, insert a round parchment paper circle and lightly grease the top. (This bottom liner will help later to slide the cheesecake off the pan onto another serving plate or cake board before serving.)
- Press crumbs into the bottom of a lightly buttered parchment paper-lined springform pan. Pack the crust down (approx. 1/4" thick) to avoid crumbling after it is baked. Press the crust down using your fingers or a straight-sided flat object like a measuring cup or a flat glass.
- Bake the crust for 10 minutes until golden brown. Then remove from the oven and cool on a rack. Cool completely at room temperature and do not remove the crust from the pan while cooling and do not remove the foil.
Cheesecake Filling
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
- Place your foil wrapped springform pan with cooled crust into your other larger round cake pan. This is to keep the water bath from seeping into the springform cheesecake pan. Be ready with your deepdish pan or deep oven tray for the water bath. If you're using a deep oven tray place in the preheated oven now.
- With your mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. *don't overmix.
- Add eggs one at a time until blended.
- Add sour cream until smooth
- Add sugar, cornstarch & flour mix, vanilla, and lemon juice, and mix until smooth, about 2 minutes. Avoid overmixing.
- Heat a full kettle of water to boiling and have it ready to pour.
- Pour the cheesecake batter into your springform pan (inside a larger cake pan) and place in a another deepdish pan so the sides are not touching OR place on your deep oven tray inside the oven.
- With the oven door still open carefully & slowly pour your hot water into the deep dish pan/oven tray. Fill the tray as high as you can (without reaching the cake pan side top) with hot water. Take extra precautions not to splash water on top of the cheesecake or burn yourself pouring or touching the heated oven sides or door.
- Close the oven door and bake for 2 hours. Do not open the door during this time.
- After two hours you can open the oven door and with oven mits jiggle the pan a little. If the jiggle is mostly focused in the center your cheesecake is done. (If not bake for an additional 5-10 minutes until you see this. **Watch closely and be careful not to overbake!!) Close the door, turn off the oven, and keep the cheesecake in for another half hour then open the door for another half hour.
- Remove the cheesecake (still inside the larger cake pan) and place it on a hot pad. After the larger pan cools a bit carefully lift the inner cheesecake/pan from the larger cake pan and place the main cheesecake pan on a wire rack to cool for several hours to room temperature. You can also remove the foil wrap (only) to speed cooling whilst not disturbing the cheesecake. Handle each step very carefully and try not to allow your fingers to dent or crush the cheesecake top during removal. Do not jostle or shift the cheesecake too much.
- Once your cheesecake is 100% cooled and at room temperature place it in the refrigerator overnight. **Your cheesecake is still in the 10" springform pan. You can tent foil over the top of the cheesecake just to lightly cover without touching the top!! because it will stick.
- The next day remove the cheesecake from the refrigerator. You'll see the cheesecake has settled and most likely released slightly from the sides. If need be take a thin spatula and gently & slowly edge around the sides of the pan. Release the springform latch and lift the edge piece up and away. Avoid scraping the side of the cheesecake. Your cheesecake is still on the pan base.
- Now is the really tricky part!! You need to remove the cheesecake off the pan base whilst keeping the cheesecake in tact, cookie crust base, and parchment paper or foil (which is not removed at any time) without cracking or damaging the cheesecake. With a thin plastic cutting board gently edge the board under the parchment paper underneath the whole cake. Gently lift up the cheesecake removing it from the pan base. Lower the cheesecake (still on the thin cutting board) onto the edge of the cake platter. Use a large flat spatula to gently slide the cheesecake (from under the parchment paper) off the cutting board onto the cake platter. Phew, you're done! congratulations!!
- Now decorate as you wish with fresh fruit, chocolate genache, creamcheese frosting or whatever your heart desires.
- Always hand wash your cake pans as the dishwasher can ruin bakeware.
Nutrition
Thanks for visiting & Happy Baking!
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