The Best New York Style Cheesecake You’ll Ever Have
The ingredients for this cheesecake are very simple, but the key to a great new york style cheesecake is baking it in a water bath at 350 degrees, and never, ever open the door until the baking time is up.
The other key that makes this cheesecake stand out is the crust. I love using ground up nilla wafers over graham crackers. I just feel graham crackers always get soggy, whereas nilla wafers stand up better to the baking process. When you bite into a piece of this cheesecake the nilla wafer crust is a very pleasant surprise. Plus depending upon the flavor or topping I’m adding to the base cheesecake recipe, I may add in chopped pecans or walnuts for an extra bit of deliciousness.
The key to keeping your cheesecake from getting soggy or runny from the water bath is to wrap the pan in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. I use the wide, heavy duty aluminum foil, and I also have the wide restaurant roll of plastic wrap – this way I don’t have any seams to worry about the water leaking in through. The worst thing is to have a soggy crust.
I use a food processor to grind my nilla wafers into a nice crumb, then add the butter and use a drinking glass to press into the bottom of my springform pan. Once I have the crust done, then I wrap the pan in the plastic wrap and foil. You want that to be your last step before you fill the pan and put the whole thing in the oven. This way you don’t risk poking a hole in the wrapping.
I also don’t like to prebake my crust. I feel it gets too hard, and if using chocolate wafers the crust can almost taste burned. I have always just baked the crust with the cheesecake in one step and it always turns out great.
New York Style Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1½ cup nilla wafers (ground into crumbs)
- 3 tbsp butter – melted
- 5 pkg (8 oz each) Philadelphia cream cheese (softened) I only use Philadelphia
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup good quality sour cream I like to use Daisy
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F
- Wrap your springform pan in one layer of plastic wrap and then aluminum wrap so that both come up to the top of the springform pan, being careful not to poke a hole in either. You can roll the foil and plastic wrap at the top to keep it in place.
- Place springform pan into another pan that is deep enough to hold the springform pan along with enough water so that the water comes up ½ to ⅔ of the way up the side of the springform pan. Don't add water yet.
- Mix your nilla wafer crumbs and enough butter so that when squeezed, it sticks together. Press firmly into bottom of 9 inch spring form pan, using a drinking glass to make sure you get all the way around the edges.
- Beat your softened cream cheese and sour cream together at medium speed until completely mixed, but careful not to overmix. Add sugar, flour and vanilla and mix until completely combined, making sure to stop and scrape down the sides and bottom of mixer bowl as needed. The mixture shouldn't have any lumps or unmixed cream cheese.
- Add eggs one at a time, with mixer at lowest speed setting just until blended. You never want to mix at high speed or for too long because it will introduce too much air into the mixture and your cheesecake will sink and crack when you take it out of the oven. I will actually just mix with mixer for a little, then once all eggs have been added, I take and manually fold the mixture with a rubber scraper to make sure it's blended but not over mixed.
- Fold cheesecake mixture into the springform pan, and level off the top with an offset spatula.
- Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes until the center is almost set but still a bit jiggly. The cheesecake will continue to bake as it cools, so don't over bake.
- Turn oven off, and carefully remove pan with water bath and cheesecake from the oven, and then quickly remove the cheesecake from the water bath pan and carefully remove the foil and plastic wrap and return the cheesecake by itself to the oven. leaving the oven off, slightly prop the oven door open and allow cheesecake to come down to room temperature slowly in the oven – this last part is the key to keeping your cheesecake from cracking on top.
- Once cheesecake as reached room temperature you can remove from oven, and using an offset spatula carefully run it around the inside of the pan to loosen the cake from the sides. Refrigerate the cheesecake in the pan until completely set and cold.
- Once the cheesecake is cold and set up, you can remove it from the springform pan, and put it onto a serving plate, or cake drum.
- Slice into 14-16 pie sized serving pieces – depending upon how big you want the pieces.
Notes
- the key to a cheesecake that is not under-baked is keeping your oven shut – don’t open that door for anything until the baking time is up.
- the water bath is essential to creating a smooth, creamy cheesecake that doesn’t crack.
- you want the center to be slightly jiggly yet when you turn the oven off – remember it will continue to bake as it cools. This is how you get that creamy smooth texture.
- you will want to make the cheesecake at least a day ahead of any planned events you want it for. Cheesecake only gets better the longer it sits and all the flavors meld together. I never make a cheesecake the same day I plan to serve it.
