New York cheesecake: dense, satin-smooth, with no crack on top
A cream cheese cheesecake on a biscuit base, baked in a water bath at a low temperature. It comes out firm and silky like set custard, not fluffy like a Polish curd cheesecake. Three rules decide everything: ingredients at room temperature, the mixer on its lowest speed, and a night in the fridge before cutting. Do that and the top stays glassy smooth, without a single fissure.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Base 20 min
- Cheese batter 15 min
- Baking 70 min
- Cooling in the oven 90 min
- Overnight in the fridge 700 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneMake and pre-bake the base
Heat the oven to 180 °C. Blitz the biscuits to fine crumbs in a processor (or seal them in a bag and crush with a rolling pin). Mix with the melted butter, sugar and a pinch of salt; the mixture should look like wet sand and clump when squeezed. Tip into a 23 cm springform and press down firmly with the flat base of a glass, evenly across the bottom. Bake 10 minutes and leave to cool.
Ingredients: 200 g digestive or butter biscuits · 90 g butter · 1 tbsp sugar · 1 pinch salt
TipPre-baking the base is not fussiness: the butter sets into a dry, crisp layer that won't go soggy under the wet filling during a night in the fridge. An unbaked base falls apart under the knife.
Pressed with a glass, 10 minutes at 180 °CWrap the tin in foil
Wrap the cooled tin in two layers of wide heavy-duty foil, smoothing it up the outside walls above the rim. Turn the oven down to 160 °C and boil a kettle.
TipSpringform tins leak, even new ones. Two layers of 30 cm wide foil, with no creases across the base, are the only guarantee that the base won't soak up the bath water. With narrow foil, lay the sheets crosswise.
Two layers of foil, smooth up the sidesBeat the cream cheese on low
Beat the room-temperature cream cheese with the sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest and salt on the mixer's lowest speed for 3 minutes, until completely smooth. Stop once to scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl.
Ingredients: 900 g full-fat cream cheese · 200 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 200 g sour cream, 18 % · 2 tbsp plain flour · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs lemon, zest · ½ tsp salt
TipAir beaten into the batter is the main cause of a cracked cheesecake: the bubbles expand in the oven, the cake rises, then sinks and tears. Lowest speed, and nothing whipped to a foam. Cold cream cheese leaves lumps you will never beat out later.
Smooth, slow, no foamAdd the eggs, sour cream and flour
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing only 15 seconds after each, just until combined. Mix in the sour cream, then the sifted flour. The batter is smooth and falls in a thick ribbon. Pour onto the cooled base and tap the tin on the counter a few times to release bubbles.
One egg at a time, fifteen seconds eachSet up the water bath
Stand the tin in a large roasting pan, put the pan on the middle shelf and only then pour in boiling water to halfway up the springform. Filling it in place saves you carrying a sloshing pan across the kitchen.
Ingredients: 900 g full-fat cream cheese · 200 g sugar · 4 pcs eggs · 200 g sour cream, 18 % · 2 tbsp plain flour · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 1 pcs lemon, zest · ½ tsp salt
TipA water bath keeps the temperature around the tin from going above 100 °C and keeps the oven humid. The egg proteins then set slowly and evenly, which is what makes the cake creamy, flat and free of an overcooked ring at the edge.
Boiling water to half height, already in the ovenBake at 160 °C
Bake 60–70 minutes. It is done when the edges are set and matte and a circle about 5 cm across in the centre wobbles like jelly when you shake the tin. With a thermometer: 68 °C in the centre. Don't bake until fully firm, or it will be dry and grainy once chilled.
Edges set, centre wobblingCool slowly, chill overnight
Switch the oven off, prop the door open the width of a wooden spoon and leave the cake inside one hour. Lift out of the bath, remove the foil, run a knife around the walls of the tin and cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight, at least 8 hours. Cut with a knife dipped in boiling water and wiped between slices.
TipA sudden change of temperature shrinks the top faster than the centre and the cake splits. An hour in the cooling oven is the simplest insurance. Running a knife around the edge lets the cake settle instead of tearing at the sides.
Hot knife, clean cut
Before you start
With raspberry sauce
Simmer 200 g raspberries with 2 tablespoons of sugar and the juice of half a lemon for 5 minutes, push through a sieve and cool. A sharp sauce is compulsory here: it cuts the richness of the cheese.
Without a water bath
Put a tray of boiling water on the oven floor and bake the cake on a rack above it, 160 °C, 65 minutes. The result is a shade less perfect, but nothing can leak.
It cracked anyway
Too much air in the batter, or too high a temperature. Don't try to repair it: spread the top with sour cream beaten with a spoonful of sugar and chill. Nobody will know, and the tangy layer suits the cake perfectly.
