New York Cheesecake

New York Cheesecake

from Ellen's kitchen, with thanks to Baking Illustrated

Notes:  I use a goldtouch leakproof cheesecake pan, that doesn't require a water bath.  Using this, I do the final bake for about 1 hour.  The recipe calls for final bake for 1.5 hours which was a bit too long for my oven.  Regardless, the internal temperature goal of the cake is 150 degrees.

Ingredients:

• Graham Cracker Crust:
• 5 tbs unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tbs unsalted butter, melted, for greasing pan
• 8 whole graham crackers (4 oz), processed into fine, even crumbs in food processor or crushed in Ziploc bag with rolling pin
• 1 tbs sugar
• Filling:
• 2 1/2 lbs cream cheese, cut into rough 1 inch chunks, at room temperature
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz) sugar
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 tsp juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 vanilla beans
• 2 large egg yolks plus 6 large eggs, at room temperature

For the crust:

• Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.  Brush bottom and sides of 9" springform pan with 1/2 tbs of melted unsalted butter.  Combine cracker crumbs and sugar in medium bowl; add 5 tbs melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened.   Press crumbs evenly into bottom of buttered springform pan.  Bake until fragrant and beginning to brown around edges, about 13 minutes.  Set aside to cool while making filling.

Filling:

• Increase oven temp to 500 degrees.  In bowl of standing mixer, beat cream cheese at medium-low to break up and soften, about 1 minute.  Scrape beater and bowl with rubber spatula; add salt and half of sugar.  Beat on medium-low for 1 minute until combined.  Scrape bowl, beat in remaining sugar for 1 minute.  Scrape bowl, add sour cream, lemon juice, and vanillas, beat 1 minute.  Scrape bowl and add egg yolks, beat 1 minute.  Scrape bowl, add reminaing eggs 2 at time, beating 1 minute after each addition, and scraping each time.

Brush:

• sides of springform pan with remaining 1/2 tbs melted butter.  Pour filling into cooled crust and bake 10 minutes.  Without opening door, decrease oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake until reaches 150 internal temperature, about 1 hr 10 minutes total.  Transfer to wire rack and cool until barely warm, about 2.5-3 hours.  Run paring knife around cake and springform pan sides.  Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.  

Unmold:

• cake by removing sides of pan.  Slide thin metal spatula between crust and bottom of pan to loosen, then slide onto serving plate.  Let stand at room temp about 30 minutes.