CHEESECAKE

  I love cheesecake, but I’m awful picky about it. What The Factory (you know who I mean) mostly had going for it was a wide selection, but at the heart of it I find their too heavy, and lately, slightly gummy. On the other end are the ultra-fluffy ones which are just downright awful, as the texture has been achieved with a great deal of whipping of a base stretched by gummy binder. There’s a reason so many of the “lowfat” varieties share this characteristic. 

Accept this now: There are no half- measures with cheesecake. If you’re going to eat it, hold out for the good stuff and to hell with the calories. This recipe is creamy without being pudding, and has a respectable density without being a brick. The basic recipe is for a vanilla but you can make many variations from it. One favorite way to serve is with a wild blueberry topping on the side that can be poured elegantly over the top, or over a side serving of homelade whipped cream.

This recipe mixes up very quickly but then there’s a whole lot of sit around and wait. Give yourself a 3 hour window.

Equipment:

Food processor
Roasting pan
Springform pan, 9″
Heavy duty aluminum foil
Crust:

4 T butter, melted and cooled

7 oz animal crackers

1/4 C sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 325
2. Process animal crackers until finely ground. Add sugar and salt, pulse to combine.
3. Drizzle with melted butter and process until moistened (should hold together when pressed).
4. Press into bottom of pan and bake 18-20 min.
5. Remove from oven and cool 20 min.
6. Wipe out processor to begin mixing the filling.

Filling: 

2 8-oz packages of cream cheese, softened

1 C sour cream

2 C full fat greek yogurt
3 eggs
1 C sugar
1 T cornstarch
3 T lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 tsp salt
Vanilla Bean

1. Set oven to 350. Take 2 sheets of foil and wrap the outside of the pan to prevent the water bath from seeping in.
2. In a bowl, combine sour cream and yogurt. Set aside.
3. Process together cream cheese and sugar until very smooth (30 seconds maybe).
4. Add cornstarch and process.
5. Add eggs one at a time, processing until smooth and scraping down the sides.
6. Cut open the vanilla bean, scrape out every last beautiful seed you can, and add to mixture. Process. Stuff the now-empty seed pod in your sugar cannister.
7. Add lemon juice and salt, process.
8. Add sour cream-yogurt mixture, process until just combined.
9. Pour batter into your pan. Set the pan in the roasting pan and surround with approximately 1″ of very hot water.
10. Bake 45 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave cake in for 1 more hour.
11. Remove from oven to cool 1 more hour.
12. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill overnight. 
13. To unmold, run a sharp knife around the edge before releasing mold. Keep chilled until 30 min before serving.

Adapted from The Cake Bible, Rose Levy Berenbaum