New York Cheesecake

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Ingredients

8 ounces (15 4 3/4 x 2 1/2-inch sheets of graham cracker) finely ground graham crackers or cookies such as chocolate or vanilla wafers
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
10 ounces sweet or sour cherries, pitted
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 cup water

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Preparation

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Step 1

Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and up the sides, stopping one inch shy of the top rim, of a buttered 9 1/2-inch (or 24 cm) springform pan. You can fill it right away but I like to pop mine into the freezer so it quickly sets while I prepare the filling.

Step 2

Preheat oven to 550°F.

Step 3

Beat together cream cheese, sugar, flour, and zest with an electric mixer until smooth. Add vanilla, then eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated. Scrape bowl down between additions.

Step 4

Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan (to catch drips). Pour filling into crust (springform pan will be completely full) and bake in baking pan in the middle of the oven for 12 minutes or until puffed. Watch your cake because some ovens will top-brown very quickly and if yours does too fast, turn the oven down as soon as you catch it.

Step 5

Reduce the temperature to 200°F and continue baking until cake is mostly firm (center will still be slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken), about one hour more.

Step 6

Run a knife around the top edge of the cake to loosen it and cool the cake completely in springform on a rack, then chill it, loosely covered, at least 6 hours.

Step 7

Place all cherry topping ingredients together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Once it is boiling, cook it for an additional one to two minutes then remove from heat. Cool completely.

Step 8

Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate.

Step 9

Spread topping over chilled cheesecake.

Chef’s notes

Adapted from Gourmet Magazine.

The changes I made to the original recipe were to one and three-fifths the crumb crust because I like those that go up the walls.

Significantly reducing the zest because I find the entire zest from two citrus fruits to be an absurdly high amount.

Fudging (unsuccessfully) with the baking time.

Adding a completely optional cherry topping that is not from a can.

Cheesecake keeps, covered and chilled, 2 weeks.

As some of the pictures might suggest, I really borked the baking of this cake. First, I was convinced that 550 degrees would singe my cake so I did the first step at 400, to see if you can get away with it.

What matters is that, in the end, you do not take the cake out before it is ready.

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New York Cheesecake

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