American Cheesecake or New York Cheesecake

How to make a New York Cheesecake .

Alone or with a cranberry sauce, it is a baked cheesecake , easy and famous where there are.

A dessert with roots in the big apple that has become one of the favorite desserts of Americans and half the world.

This American classic has the creamy, smooth consistency of cheese, the crispness of the cookie, and the sweet contrast of berries. A perfect ending to any meal.

On the blog you can find from Apple pie , the classic cheesecake , brownie , pancakes or pancakes , donuts , banana bread … Names that are sure to come to mind when you think of a delicious dessert.

Keep in mind that most of them arose from failed experiments. In the case of this recipe, its main ingredient, cream cheese , was the result of a farmer’s failure.

The cheesecake is perhaps in dessert recipes with cheese, one of the most common and perhaps one of the oldest in the world. Although the original recipe is with cream cheese, there are many variants that use cottage cheese and lemon to give it more texture and flavor. While others use eggs and yolk to give it more consistency.

The base is usually made of biscuit or shortcrust pastry, and as for the cover we have the classic one with blueberry jam, strawberry or raspberry jam, chocolate or even without topping.

The one that I present today will not disappoint you, you just have to follow the recipe step by step as I explain and respecting the ingredients. Nor even crumbs will be left.

New York Cheesecake Preparation 

Preparation of the biscuit base for our NY Cheesecake

1. Melt the butter (use the microwave, it is faster, on low temperature about 2 minutes).
2. With the mincer we crush the cookies. If you do not have, in a kitchen cloth we throw the 30 cookies and wrap them and then crush them with a spoon or something heavy. It will not be so fine but it serves the same.
3. Add the melted butter on top. The dough will be hot and will be very manageable.
4. Add the tablespoon of vanilla essence. We crush the walnuts and add to the dough.
5. We take the cookie mixture and distribute it on the base of a large detachable mold, 22 cm in diameter. Press against the bottom and on the sides with the help of a spoon or with your fingers.
6. We put it in the oven for about 10 minutes at about 180º C so that it hardens and the excess liquid evaporates a little.
7. We remove the mold and let cool to fill with the cream cheese.
8. We lower the oven temperature to 150º C and leave it that way while we prepare the cream. If we are going to prepare the cream later we must put the oven to preheat.
9. Elsa’s tip : “Next time try to put less cookies and add dried fruit well passed through the mortar (pecans, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts,…). I think you will not regret it ”

Preparation of the cream cheese for our NY Cheesecake

1. We beat the eggs and sugar until they whiten a little, it must have a frothy and somewhat whitish mixture.
2. Put the two cream cheese tubs in the same bowl.
3. Add the liquid cream, the Greek yogurt and the tablespoons of pastry wheat flour. If you are celiac (substitute the cookies for gluten-free ones and the flour for a suitable one, you will have a perfect gluten-free cake).
4. We beat until its complete dissolution, the mixture must be homogeneous and without any lump.

Baking and presentation of cheesecake

1. We pour on the base of cookies that will already be crisp and we put them back in the oven at 200º C for 10 minutes. Air up and down and central position of the oven. We don’t need to set the hot air function.
2. We put a little aluminum foil on top so that it does not brown too much, so it will not burn us.
3. After this time, we lower the temperature to 180º C and leave about 60 more minutes.
4. When that time has passed we turn off the oven and let it cool inside but with the door ajar.
5. In this way we achieve that all the hot air that has slightly curved the cake comes out little by little without sudden changes. Sometimes due to temperature issues, sometimes they cause cracks and make it not very presentable.
6. The inside of the cake, when moved, will look like an egg custard. Don’t worry, it will settle. Something similar happens to the La Viña cheese cake .
7. Once this time has passed, we leave the cheesecake in the oven for several hours.
8. Once the cake is at room temperature, we take it to the refrigerator until it is completely cold. It is best to prepare the cake overnight.
9. In the comments, many people tell me that it takes a little more time in your oven. It is easy to check with a fork, if it comes out almost dry we can turn off the oven. It will finish settling down in the cold weather in the fridge as I told you.
10. We put in the fridge and let cool in the fridge until the next day.

Preparation and assembly of the jam topping for the NY Cheesecake

1. If you have jam already made much better. Before I used to prepare a blackberry in the summer that was delicious but this time I used a mixture of raspberries and blueberries. The 2 very rich, choose the one you like the most.
2. We put in a saucepan the jam or jam and 2 tablespoons of water.
3. We heat gently until a syrup forms.
4. Remove from the heat and in the same container where the cheese cake is already cold, pour the syrup homogeneously. Since it is liquid it is quite easy.
5. And again in the fridge for a few hours, it must be very cold for tasting.

At the time of serving we can accompany it with whipped cream, our favorite ice cream or a good coffee or tea. Here you have a delicious cake at a good price and above all very simple.

I encourage you to try it at home. You can see all the step by step photos of this NY CheeseCake cheesecake  in this album.

Curiosities about the New York Cheesecake

• The first record that mentions the cheesecake comes from ancient Greece (Aegimus, πλακουντοπουκόν σύγγραμμα).
• The history of this cake begins with Marcus Porcius Caton, he wrote two recipes for religious use: libum and placenta (this second is the one that most closely resembles the current one) but it was William Lawrence of Chester (1872 New York) who brought this dessert to its world fame.
• He came up with a way to make a creamier cheese similar to French Neufchatel cheese, surely it sounds familiar to you by the name that James Kraft marketed it in 1912: “Philadelphia”.
• I just received an email from Mikel , a lover of this type of cake, he tells me that he wanted to share with me some comments about the recipe and of course, you are very welcome:

“I just wanted to share that in order to improve my cheesecake every day the recipe that I have read here I liked a lot and it has given me many things for mine. I would like to say that with wholegrain maria cookies the base is very rich and, for my taste, I prefer to discard the butter (a little is necessary, but very little) and with the two remaining leftovers, on the verge of snow, add them to the base. There is a very appetizing texture after baking, we remove a little fat and we take advantage of whites that if we are not cooking anything else would be lost. And finally I also add some oreo cookies to give a touch to the base. Thank you for the recipe. ”