Mom’s New York Style Cheesecake

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    Cake and Desserts

Temperature

350ºF

Baking Time

1 hour

Yields

12

Cake, Desserts

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ C Graham Cracker Crumbs
  • 6 Tbsp Butter, melted
  • 3 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
  • 4 Eggs
  • 1 ½ C Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp Vanilla Bean Paste
  • 1 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice
  • 24 oz. Cream Cheese (3 – 8 oz. packages)
  • 16 oz (1 pint) Sour Cream
  • 3 Tbsp Corn Starch
  • 3 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
  • 4 oz. (1 stick) Butter, melted

Directions

Take the batter ingredients out of the refrigerator so that they can warm up a bit while preparing the rest of the recipe.

Preheat oven to 350°.

Make the crust. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, 6 Tbsp of melted butter and 3 Tbsp sugar. Mix to combine. It will look like wet sand. Spray the sides and bottom of a 9” springform pan and wrap the bottom and sides of the pan in heavy duty aluminum foil. That will be the insurance against water seeping in when it is baking in the water bath. Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides. It does not need to cover all the way to the top of the sides. Set aside. Have a pan that is larger than the springform pan available to use as a water bath – I usually use a 12” x 18” cake pan. Make the batter. Beat the eggs until frothy. Add the sugar, vanilla bean paste and lemon juice and mix. Add the cream cheese, sour cream, corn starch and flour and mix until well combined and smooth. Add the melted butter last and mix until all combined. Pour into the prepared springform pan. Position the pan for the water bath in the oven on the center rack. Set the cheesecake into the pan and carefully pour warm water into the larger pan until the water comes about halfway up the sides of the springform pan.

Bake for 1 hour. Do not open the oven door but turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in for another hour. Take it out and allow to cool.

Refrigerate. About 20 minutes before serving, take the cheesecake out of the fridge, remove the sides of the pan and let it set out to warm-up just a bit before serving.

Yield: 12+ servings. Store in refrigerator up to 7 days.

Enjoy!

This is my Mom’s cheesecake recipe that brings back memories of many dinner parties and get-togethers with family and friends. It is smooth, creamy, just sweet enough and is also easy to make. Allow some time for it – it takes a bit of time to bake and cool – and then it is best chilled overnight in the refrigerator so I usually make it a day or two before I am going to serve it. You can top with a fruit sauce – or my favorite way to eat it is just plain. It can be made with or without the graham cracker crust – but to me it is not really cheesecake without the graham cracker crust on the sides and bottom. A springform or removable bottom pan makes it super easy to get out of the pan once it is cold. Hope you enjoy this!