New York Cheesecake: It's Easier Than You Think.

My wife, Dalton, has asked me a number of times to share one of my mother's cheesecake recipes here on the blog.  I have fond memories of eating these cheesecakes as a kid, and was excited to make this New York style cheesecake with Lola.  For the crust, you will need:

• 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
• 4 Tablespoons of melted butter
• 4 Tablespoons of sugar

Lola and I ran the graham crackers through a small food processor until the pieces are roughly the same size.

Next add the butter and sugar and mix well until the graham cracker crumbs start to ball up.  This is probably the easiest crust you can make!

Lola and I next used a spoon to evenly spread the graham cracker crust around the bottom of a spring form pan.  The key is to make sure you compress it enough so it cooks together well.

For the cheesecake filling, you will need:

• Four, 8-ounce packages of cream cheese or neufchatel (we used two and two)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 3 Tablespoons of flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 1 Tablespoon of vanilla

We added all of the ingredients to a larger food processor.  You could add everything but the cream cheese initially, but I have found that everything mixes well together.

Lola really likes to help empty the measuring cups of ingredients.  She is very serious about her job.

Lola and Juniper helped me mix it around until it was a consistent mixture.

Then you can just pour the mixture directly on the crust.

Lola wasn't nearly as impressed as I thought she would be with my big pour.

The Cheesecake cooks at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  I have had lots of issues over the years with cracking in the middle of the cake as it cools.  My mother taught me a trick.  You can put a pan of water on the rack under the cheesecake at the 30 minute mark.  Then let the cheesecake cool in the oven with the door cracked after the hour.  The pan of water helps the cheesecake cool slower and not crack.  Also, running a thin spatula or plastic knife around the edge of the spring form pan also helps to avoid cracking.

One classic New York cheesecake sauce is pre-made cherry pie filling.  My mother used to make a sauce with frozen berries.  The girls and I went berry picking the day before making the cheesecake at a local pick-your-own farm, Webb Ranch.  We had 1 pint of olallieberries (a type of blackberry) and a half-pint of both boysenberries and raspberries, so we decided to make a fresh berry sauce.  We put the two pints in a pot on the stove with 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of sugar.

We boiled and stirred the berries until all the berries had broken apart.  I then poured a cold water and corn starch mixture into the boiling berries until it noticeably thickened.  We removed from the heat, let it cool, and then put it in the fridge to thicken.

This was the end product of our fun cheesecake adventure.



I hope you enjoy this easy, delicious recipe.  It is frighteningly simple to make a delicious cheesecake.