New York Style Cheesecake, the easy way

I have started baking about two or three weeks ago, since I started self-reviewing for my state boards, just to kill the boredom that gets through me after pages and pages of questions to answer. I have rummage through the Internet for basic recipes that a novice baker like me can easily follow.  One of those is my favorite – and I hope everybody’s favorite (can’t seem to fathom why there are those who doesn’t like cheese, other than those who are lactose intolerant, which we don’t have much here in our country, by the way). Today I have made the infamous New York Style Cheesecake or the ‘plain’ cheesecake from scratch. Here’s the recipe I’ve followed and I just tweaked it a bit (I didn’t mix in sour cream as directed). Don’t be afraid to experiment like I did as long as it doesn’t burn, you can go away with it!

New York Style Cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust

                ¼ cups unsalted butter, softened / melted 

                                (I added a few cubes of butter when I felt that the consistency of the crushed Graham crackers won’t form)

                1 – ½ cups of crushed Graham crackers 

                               (I only used 1 ¼ cups to the crust won’t be too thick and I am happy with the result)

                ¼ teaspoon ground Cinnamon

                      (This is optional and I added just  dash so it won’t overpower the filling)

Filling

                1 ½ cups granulated sugar

                     (You can use a little bit less than I did, used just 1 ¼ cups)

                1 cup Cream Cheese, softened

                ½ cup heavy cream 

                    (I used Nestle All Purpose Cream that has been chilled overnight, worked well)

                2 eggs

                ¼ cup all-purpose flour

                1 teaspoon vanilla

Crust Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine butter and graham cracker crumbs. Add cinnamon if desired. Press into bottom of pan (I used a 9" pan, ungreased) and freeze. 

Filling Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and cream cheese on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.

2. Blend in cream. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added.

3. Mix in flour and vanilla until smooth. Pour the filling batter over the crust.

4. Bake for one hour in preheated oven. Turn oven off and let cake cool in oven for about 5 hours.

5. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.   

        

I only used an oven toaster for this one (since it’s my first time to) so I had to layer it so it’ll be baked nicely to the core. So I baked it for 5-6 minutes each layer, making sure each layer top caramelizes a bit but not burnt. So feel free to experiment using your oven. I cooled it down for about 2 hours and didn’t have time to refrigerate it because my niece wants to taste it after lunch. Pretty good for my first time. I’d add more cream cheese next time though!