New York cheesecake is dense, rich and creamy, with a slight tang from sour cream and lemon. It’s baked in a water bath at a moderate temperature, which keeps the surface smooth and the center soft. The recipe isn’t hard, but it does reward patience, and it needs a full night in the fridge.
Everything should be at room temperature before you start. Cold cream cheese leaves lumps that never beat out.
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About this dish
New York cheesecake is dense, creamy and rich, with a clean tang from sour cream and lemon. It’s firmer than a whipped cheesecake and silkier than a baked custard, with a buttery graham crust and a smooth top. A spoonful of strawberry sauce cuts through the richness nicely.
Plan ahead: it needs a full night in the fridge to set and slice neatly. That also makes it ideal for entertaining, because everything is finished the day before.
Prep 30 min · Bake 75 min · Chill 6 hours or overnight · Serves 12
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/2 cups (150 g) graham cracker crumbs, about 10 full sheets
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 6 tbsp (85 g) unsalted butter, melted
- Pinch of salt
Filling
- 32 oz (900 g) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature (four 8-oz blocks)
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup (240 g) sour cream, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) heavy cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- Zest of 1 lemon and 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 4 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
Quick strawberry topping, optional
- 2 cups (300 g) strawberries, sliced
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Method
- Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan in two layers of heavy-duty foil so water can’t leak in.
- Mix the crumbs, sugar, salt and melted butter until it looks like wet sand. Press firmly into the base of the pan and a little way up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, then let it cool. Lower the oven to 325°F (160°C).
- Beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes until smooth. Add the sugar and cornstarch and mix until combined, scraping the bowl and paddle well.
- Mix in the sour cream, heavy cream, vanilla, lemon zest and juice. Add the eggs and yolk one at a time, mixing on low just until each disappears. Don’t whip the batter. Air bubbles cause cracks.
- Pour the filling over the crust. Set the pan in a large roasting pan and pour hot water into the roasting pan until it comes about 1 inch up the sides of the springform.
- Bake for 70 to 80 minutes. The edges should be set, and the center should wobble like gelatin when you nudge the pan.
- Turn the oven off, crack the door open and leave the cheesecake inside for 1 hour. This slow cooling prevents a sunken center.
- Lift the pan out of the water. Run a thin knife around the edge to loosen it, then cool at room temperature for another hour. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.
- For the topping, simmer the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice for 5 minutes until syrupy, then cool before spooning over the top.
Tips
- Use block cream cheese, not the whipped kind sold in tubs. The texture won’t be the same.
- Mix on low speed and scrape the bowl often. Lumps in the batter are the most common problem.
- For clean slices, dip a long knife in hot water and wipe it dry between cuts.
- A little cracking isn’t a failure. Cover it with the strawberries and nobody will know.
Storage
Keeps for 5 days, covered, in the fridge. To freeze, chill fully, then freeze whole or in slices wrapped well for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight.
Variations
- Swap the graham crackers for crushed digestive biscuits or shortbread.
- Fold 1/2 cup of lemon curd into the top of the batter with a knife for a marbled effect.
- Add 4 oz of melted, cooled dark chocolate to half the batter for a two-tone cake.
A short history of cheesecake
Cheesecake is old. Versions of it are described in ancient Greece, and one often-repeated story says athletes were served it at the early Olympic Games. The Romans spread the idea across Europe, and different regions developed their own cheese-based cakes, from German käsekuchen to Italian ricotta cakes.
The American style we know depends on cream cheese, which was developed in 1872 by a dairyman in New York named William Lawrence, who was trying to make a French-style soft cheese and ended up with something smoother and richer. It was branded and sold widely a few years later. New York bakeries and restaurants, including Junior’s in Brooklyn and Lindy’s in Manhattan, helped turn the dense, tall style into the standard that’s still called New York cheesecake today.
Cheesecake has many national versions. There is the lighter Italian ricotta cheesecake, the Japanese soufflé cheesecake, and the crustless Basque burnt cheesecake from San Sebastián in Spain, which is usually credited to a bar called La Viña. New York style is the richest of them, and the one most closely tied to a single ingredient: cream cheese.
