My fiance's mom's birthday was not too long ago, and the two of us promised her we would make her dinner (she got to pick the menu) to celebrate one night. Her favorite dessert is cheesecake and, feeling pretty confident in my previous cheesecake attempts, I set off to find the perfect New York Cheesecake recipe. My previous cheesecake endeavors have involved "flavored" cheesecake (White Chocolate Raspberry and Pumpkin) and I was excited about making a nice plain jane one. Cheesecake is so delicious in and of itself that it really doesn't need much to make it special.
I just became a member of Cooks Illustrated and decided to try out their recipe for New York-Style Cheesecake. Their recipes never disappoint.
Everything was going great.....I licked the bowl (as usual) after putting the cheesecake into a waterbath in the oven....it was divine! Incredibly creamy, rich and velvety all at the same time. Deliciousness. I baked the cheesecake as directed and then placed it in the fridge for the afternoon.
Much to my dismay, the cheesecake never completely firmed up as it is supposed to. I checked the recipe again....what went wrong? Did I leave out an ingredient? Cook it at a too-low temp? Nope. I followed the recipe to a "T" :(
I only had an hour before everyone arrived for dinner, so I flew into damage control mode. I would love to be able to tell you that I pulled together several ingredients from Trey's pantry and whipped up a delicious dessert. Nope. I sent Trey to pick up a cheesecake at Publix AND a small Dairy Queen ice cream cake of course! I had to concentrate on making the actual dinner and was so grateful that Trey stepped in.
But wait, the story doesn't end here......after everyone left later that night I was putting left overs away in the fridge and noticed that everything in the fridge was warm. We checked the setting and somehow it had gotten turn down way too low......which is why the cheesecake never firmed up. Redemption!! It *wasn't* my fault!!
We left the cheesecake in the newly cooled fridge overnight, and low and behold when we woke up Sunday morning it was all nice and firm. Too bad we hadn't discovered this earlier the night before. The moral of the story is this: when something goes wrong don't immediate assume you yourself messed up....lots of environmental factors come into play. Environmental factors such as the temp of your fridge :)
Still, I thought I'd post the recipe since it's not what cause this cheesecake attempt to go awry. I'll make sure to make this again when it turns out pretty.
Just for kicks....Before we had discovered the fridge issue we simply too spoons to the firmer edge of the cheesecake and ate it as was....yum, yum.
New York Style Cheesecake - Cooks Illustrated
1 cup Graham cracker crumbs (roughly 8 whole crackers)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted, plus additional 1 tbsp melted butter for greasing pan
2 1/2 lbs cream cheese, cut into chunks and left to stand at room temp for 30-40 min
1/8 tsp table salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
6 large eggs
- For the crust: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar in medium bowl; add 5 tablespoons melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened. Brush bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan with most of remaining melted butter, making sure to leave enough to brush pan in step 3. Empty crumbs into springform pan and press evenly into pan bottom. Bake until fragrant and beginning to brown around edges, about 13 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling.
- For the cheesecake filling: Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese at medium-low speed to break up and soften slightly, about 1 minute. Scrape beater and bottom and sides of bowl well with rubber spatula; add salt and about half of sugar and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; beat in remaining sugar until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; add sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla, and beat at low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; add yolks and beat at medium-low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; add whole eggs two at a time, beating until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute, and scraping bowl between additions.
- Brush sides of springform pan with remaining melted butter. Set springform pan on rimmed baking sheet (to catch any spills if springform pan leaks). Pour filling into cooled crust and bake 10 minutes; without opening oven door, reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of cheesecake registers about 150 degrees, about 11/2 hours. Transfer cake to wire rack and cool 5 minutes; run paring knife between cake and side of springform pan. Cool until barely warm, 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours. (Cake can be refrigerated up to 4 days.)
- To unmold cheesecake, remove sides of pan. Slide thin metal spatula between crust and pan bottom to loosen, then slide cake onto serving plate. Let cheesecake stand at room temperature about 30 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.
