New York Cheesecake

Arnold Reuben, owner of Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway in New York City, developed the recipe for New York cheesecake in 1929 after eating a slice of cheese pie at a friend's home.

Ingredients

• 5 ounces Barnham and Bailey animal crackers or sweet digestive biscuits
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 ½ pounds softened cream cheese
• 1 ¾ cups white granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 3 tablespoons flour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 5 large whole eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• ¼ cup heavy cream

Steps

1. Butter bottom and sides of 10-inch springform pan.
2. Crush animal crackers into a fine powder. Mix with 3 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Add to melted butter and mix with a fork until blended.
4. Press mixture into the bottom and up about one third of the sides of the pan.
5. Refrigerate 1 hour.
6. Have all ingredients at room temperature.
7. Preheat oven to 475°F.
8. Mix sugar, flour and cornstarch together.
9. Using a wooden spoon, beat cream cheese with sugar mix, zest and vanilla until it is smooth. Do not overbeat.
10. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating lightly with wooden spoon after each addition. Do not overbeat as this causes the cheesecake to crack.
11. Gently stir in cream.
12. Pour mixture into the pan. Place pan on cookie sheet to avoid leakage.
13. Bake at 475°F for 15 minutes
14. Lower heat to 225°F and bake for 1 hour
15. Raise heat to 250°F and bake for about 15 more minutes
16. Refrigerate immediately for at least 1 hour, covered with a cloth and cookie sheet (cloth on bottom) until condensation stops forming. Condensation will drip onto the cake if you cover it right away with plastic wrap.

More recipes with crackers, butter, cream cheese, cornstarch, flour, lemon, vanilla, eggs or cream

Adapted from “New York Cheesecake” in the Wikibooks Cookbook by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for this site; this page's recipe text is shared under the same license.