A New York classic you can make far from the Big Apple!
My wife loves cheesecake. I'm not sure I would go as far as to say she's a cheesecake fiend, but she's certainly close. I, however, am not as big of a fan (which is not to say I don't like them, just to be clear), so I haven't actually made very many of them in my time learning to bake and exploring historic recipes. I made one for her birthday based on Perfectly Preserved Pies from Fallout (which you can see on my Instagram), and I've made a very historic cheesecake that the Pilgrims might have enjoyed, but I'd never tried my hand at a very basic, classic New York style cheesecake before.
Well, now I have, and it was a lot easier and more fun than I expected it to be. Some of that might be because I once again turned to American Cake by Anne Byrd, my favorite cookbook of all time, for guidance, but I think between this and my attempt at Perfectly Preserved Pie have encouraged me to try out a few more cheesecakes down the line. Read on to see how it turned out!
Well, now I have, and it was a lot easier and more fun than I expected it to be. Some of that might be because I once again turned to American Cake by Anne Byrd, my favorite cookbook of all time, for guidance, but I think between this and my attempt at Perfectly Preserved Pie have encouraged me to try out a few more cheesecakes down the line. Read on to see how it turned out!
Cheesecake has a long, long history, some of which I already discussed in the very old fashioned cheesecake I made using a Plimoth Plantation recipe three whole years ago now. Cheesecakes, as American Cake explains, has always been popular with Jewish people because it was the perfect dessert for religious holidays like Shavuot. They originally were made with ricotta (like the Plimoth cheesecake) or other soft cheeses, but by the turn of the century, cream cheese had firmly entered the American market and was extremely popular with Jews. Soon, cream cheese companies were promoting more and more recipes featuring their product, including Philadelphia's "Philadelphia Cream Cake".
As cream cheese was popular in New York City, and just about every Jewish deli made their own cheesecakes, there's no one true originator of the New York style cheesecake we all know and love. A legend claims that Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway in New York City, tried an early version of New York cheesecake in a friend's home, and loved it so much, he recreated it for his restaurant with cream cheese, becoming the first establishment to sell the cream cheese based product to customers in the late 1920's. A competing restaurant - Lindy's - hired away the baker from Reuben, and Lindy's quickly became the most famous cheesecake maker in America. The Lindy's recipe for cheesecake, which Anne Byrne adapted for American Cake has been in circulation since the 1960's thanks to two different food writers who asked for the recipe.
As Rebecca is Jewish and a native New Yorker, she definitely would have had the chance to watch this drama unfold, and probably would have gotten to try a lot of really delicious cheesecakes over the course of her life. As the cream cheese based recipes became more popular, she might have learned to make it herself for a special treat, or adapted her mom or grandmother's recipes to use the new ingredient for a modern spin on a family favorite!
Of course, she could also just go to any number of delis or diners and get a slice without needing to turn on the oven. The possibilities are endless!
To make a Lindy's style cheesecake, you first need to bake the crust. Being a bit of a cheesecake newcomer, I was totally surprised to find out that originally, most New York style cheesecakes had cookie crusts instead of graham cracker, which is definitely the more common option these days. Using a food processor, combine 1/4 of a cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of cold butter until the mixture is nice and crumbly. Spread it along the bottom of an ungreased, unlined springform pan and bake it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned.
Let the crust cool completely, and then get to work on your filling, which should take long enough to let your crust cool off completely. You'll also want to increase the temperature of your oven to 500 degrees.
To make the filling, you need a whopping 2 1/2 pounds of cream cheese (that's 5 eight ounce packets!), 1 3/4 cups of sugar, 3 tablespoons of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest, 1 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat this until the cream cheese is nice and fluffy. After scraping down the bowl - seriously, make sure you do this! - add 5 large eggs and 2 egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, add 1/4 cup of heavy cream and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt, beat it a final time, and you've got your filling.
There was quite a lot of it, and I know cheesecakes don't rise too too much during the cooking process, but I was still nervous about filling my pan up to the top. I gave it a little bit of wiggle room, discovered I still had quite a lot of filling left over, and pulled out some ramekins to make tiny cheesecakes with the rest of the batter. I didn't get any photos of these, but I had enough to fill five relatively deep ramekins, so either my springform is smaller than average or this recipe makes quite a bit of extra filling. Keep that in mind when trying it yourself.
Cheesecakes often require some interesting techniques to make sure they don't crack or get weird lumps in the oven. This recipe doesn't call for a water bath, but it does require wrapping the pan with aluminum foil to make sure the sides don't burn.
Many cheesecakes also involve being cooked briefly at a very high temperature, and then for a very long time at a much lower temperature. This one is no exception, and it needs to stay in the oven at 500 degrees for about ten minutes, or until the top of the cheesecake has started to brown. Once that happens, you need to reduce the oven's temperature to 200 degrees and bake it for at least another hour. My oven, unsurprisingly, took significantly longer, but it did ultimately come out looking perfect.
Unfortunately, cheesecakes are often not really same day desserts. To make sure your filling sets up correctly, you want to let it cool on a wire rack. Then, cover it in plastic wrap and allow it to cool for at least eight hours, if not overnight. I never mess around with this and always chill overnight just in case, because I have had a few accidents with jello molds and didn't want to risk it after taunting my wife with her favorite dessert all Saturday.
Finally, after chilling it, the moment of truth: getting it out of the ring mold. After some wiggling with a knife and an anxious moment where we thought we were ripping big chunks off, the collar of the ring mold slid off, and we were able to start cutting slices!
Now, I might not be the best person to review this cheesecake because I'm not sure I've ever really had a truly authentic Lindy's cheesecake before, but I think the final product was pretty good. The filling was very lightly citrusy and tart while still being sweet, and the crust was honestly really tasty. I like graham cracker crusts a lot, but I was worried the cookie base would be a little boring or bland, and it really wasn't. Texture wise, this was a lot less dense than I thought it would be. Most of the commercial cheesecakes I've had have had a much more dense, almost fudge like consistency, and this was definitely on the fluffier side. Not a bad thing by any means, but not exactly what I was expecting when I first looked at the recipe and the pictures in the cookbook.
Jess, the more qualified of the two of us, really liked it and ate it for breakfast for several days after I baked it, so if that's not a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. She experimented with adding some fruit compote to a few of her slices, using up the rest of the blueberry compote I made for my carrot cake and some cherries in juice she brought home from our trip to New York. If you're a fruit and cheesecake person, this is definitely a good base recipe for that and seems to pair well with most jellies, compotes, or fresh fruits.
Overall, I think this can definitely be called a success, and I'm pleased it worked out. After all, five packets of cream cheese and seven eggs went into this, so having it taste gross would have been pretty disappointing!
As cream cheese was popular in New York City, and just about every Jewish deli made their own cheesecakes, there's no one true originator of the New York style cheesecake we all know and love. A legend claims that Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway in New York City, tried an early version of New York cheesecake in a friend's home, and loved it so much, he recreated it for his restaurant with cream cheese, becoming the first establishment to sell the cream cheese based product to customers in the late 1920's. A competing restaurant - Lindy's - hired away the baker from Reuben, and Lindy's quickly became the most famous cheesecake maker in America. The Lindy's recipe for cheesecake, which Anne Byrne adapted for American Cake has been in circulation since the 1960's thanks to two different food writers who asked for the recipe.
As Rebecca is Jewish and a native New Yorker, she definitely would have had the chance to watch this drama unfold, and probably would have gotten to try a lot of really delicious cheesecakes over the course of her life. As the cream cheese based recipes became more popular, she might have learned to make it herself for a special treat, or adapted her mom or grandmother's recipes to use the new ingredient for a modern spin on a family favorite!
Of course, she could also just go to any number of delis or diners and get a slice without needing to turn on the oven. The possibilities are endless!
To make a Lindy's style cheesecake, you first need to bake the crust. Being a bit of a cheesecake newcomer, I was totally surprised to find out that originally, most New York style cheesecakes had cookie crusts instead of graham cracker, which is definitely the more common option these days. Using a food processor, combine 1/4 of a cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of cold butter until the mixture is nice and crumbly. Spread it along the bottom of an ungreased, unlined springform pan and bake it in the oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned.
Let the crust cool completely, and then get to work on your filling, which should take long enough to let your crust cool off completely. You'll also want to increase the temperature of your oven to 500 degrees.
To make the filling, you need a whopping 2 1/2 pounds of cream cheese (that's 5 eight ounce packets!), 1 3/4 cups of sugar, 3 tablespoons of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon of orange zest, 1 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat this until the cream cheese is nice and fluffy. After scraping down the bowl - seriously, make sure you do this! - add 5 large eggs and 2 egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, add 1/4 cup of heavy cream and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt, beat it a final time, and you've got your filling.
There was quite a lot of it, and I know cheesecakes don't rise too too much during the cooking process, but I was still nervous about filling my pan up to the top. I gave it a little bit of wiggle room, discovered I still had quite a lot of filling left over, and pulled out some ramekins to make tiny cheesecakes with the rest of the batter. I didn't get any photos of these, but I had enough to fill five relatively deep ramekins, so either my springform is smaller than average or this recipe makes quite a bit of extra filling. Keep that in mind when trying it yourself.
Cheesecakes often require some interesting techniques to make sure they don't crack or get weird lumps in the oven. This recipe doesn't call for a water bath, but it does require wrapping the pan with aluminum foil to make sure the sides don't burn.
Many cheesecakes also involve being cooked briefly at a very high temperature, and then for a very long time at a much lower temperature. This one is no exception, and it needs to stay in the oven at 500 degrees for about ten minutes, or until the top of the cheesecake has started to brown. Once that happens, you need to reduce the oven's temperature to 200 degrees and bake it for at least another hour. My oven, unsurprisingly, took significantly longer, but it did ultimately come out looking perfect.
Finally, after chilling it, the moment of truth: getting it out of the ring mold. After some wiggling with a knife and an anxious moment where we thought we were ripping big chunks off, the collar of the ring mold slid off, and we were able to start cutting slices!
Jess, the more qualified of the two of us, really liked it and ate it for breakfast for several days after I baked it, so if that's not a ringing endorsement, I don't know what is. She experimented with adding some fruit compote to a few of her slices, using up the rest of the blueberry compote I made for my carrot cake and some cherries in juice she brought home from our trip to New York. If you're a fruit and cheesecake person, this is definitely a good base recipe for that and seems to pair well with most jellies, compotes, or fresh fruits.
Overall, I think this can definitely be called a success, and I'm pleased it worked out. After all, five packets of cream cheese and seven eggs went into this, so having it taste gross would have been pretty disappointing!
Hope you enjoyed!
While I don't like cheesecake, I can make several really good ones.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of anything referred to as Philadelphia Cream Cake though.
I get a kick out of knowing that many Italians (and many Europeans, by rumor), simply call all cream cheese Philadelphia because that's the type of cheese to them. I also think it's great that Philadelphia cream cheese exists because someone was trying to recreate a European cheese and failed. :)
Looks like your Lindy is quite a success!