Cheesecake, New York Style

A crunchy gluten-free graham cracker crust, a smooth cream cheese filling, and a strawberry sauce on top!

Strawberry sauce is the perfect complement to the creamy cheesecake filling.

Here is one of my favorite desserts, cheesecake. Once you try this recipe, I hope it will be one of your favorites too.

What makes this cheesecake “New York style”? I suppose I could just as easily call it “American style”, because it resembles the kind a decent restaurant might serve anywhere in the U.S. I once ate a delicious slice of cheesecake in Barcelona, Spain—one of the most memorable cheesecakes I’ve ever had, actually. But it wasn’t New York style cheesecake. For one thing, it was made with goat cheese, not cream cheese.

If you keep cream cheese in your fridge, most likely it’s to spread on bagels, not mix into a cake. But when you mix cream cheese with sour cream, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and butter, it makes a wonderfully rich, smooth filling for your cake.

Another flavor that makes this cheesecake distinctly New York style is the crust of crushed graham crackers. You’d be hard-pressed to find graham crackers in Spain, or anywhere outside the U.S., because they have a unique American history—graham crackers were developed based on the dietary philosophy of the 19^th century preacher Sylvester Graham.

For the crust, I made my own gluten-free graham crackers. Here’s the link to the recipe, in case you missed it. I could have used store-bought gluten-free grahams, but it was fun making my own, and mine taste a lot better! To break the crackers into crumbs, I seal them in a plastic bag and hit them with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.

What else makes this cheesecake New York style? In my opinion, it should have a fruit sauce drizzled on top, my favorite being strawberry. If you’re one of those people who tops your cheesecake with fudge or caramel sauce, shame on you! (Just kidding, use whatever sauce you like! It’s your cheesecake. Maybe do a combination of fudge, caramel, and strawberry!)

One specialized piece of kitchen equipment you’ll need is an 8- or 9-inch springform pan, one of those that has a ring that tightens around the bottom of the pan with a clasp. If you have a springform pan that doesn’t leak at all, you are lucky, but if not, you may need to wrap a bit of foil around it to be sure you keep your oven clean. Also, I suggest lining the pan with a circle of parchment paper, which I’ve found prevents sticking and makes removing slices easier.

So it’s time to stop eating those GF graham crackers and start mixing—you’re going to need time to chill this cake!

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 cup gluten-free graham cracker crumbs (recipe for GF graham crackers)

• ¼ cup melted butter

• ¼ cup granulated sugar

Cheese filling:

• 1 ½ cups sour cream

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons melted butter

• 1 pound cream cheese, broken into pieces

Strawberry sauce:

• 1 pound bag of frozen strawberries, thawed (you can use fresh strawberries when they are in season, but you may need to add a half cup or so of water to dissolve the sugar)

• ¼ cup granulated sugar (or to taste)

Scroll down for the instructions

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 325 F (300 convection/fan)

• Mix the crumbs, melted butter, and sugar in a bowl, then press the mixture evenly across the bottom of the springform pan (lined with a circle of parchment paper)

• Use a blender to mix the the eggs, sugar, cream cheese, vanilla, and melted butter, then add the pieces of cream cheese and continue blending until the mixture is perfectly smooth

• Pour the filling into the pan and place it in the oven for 45 minutes

• While the cake is baking, place the strawberries and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer at medium heat until the strawberries are very soft and the sugar is dissolved, then use a blender to puree them into a smooth sauce

• Turn the broiler on low and broil for a few minutes, until the top of the cake turns a light brown (watch it carefully—I burned one of mine while testing this recipe!)

• Take the cake out to cool and, when it is cool, place it in the refrigerator for several hours to chill (I’ve eaten it after as little as 2 hours in the fridge, but you may want to leave it around 4 hours before serving)

• Serve cheesecake slices with a few spoonfuls of strawberry sauce drizzled over the top

  

  Go ahead and clobber those GF grahams with a rolling pin! You’re going to use what’s left for the crust.

  

  Mix your crumbs with sugar and butter for the crust.

Line the bottom of a springform pan with a circle of parchment paper to keep the crust from sticking. I rubbed a bit of soft butter on the pan to help the paper stick while I was forming the crust.

Press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the pan and pour the cheese mixture over it, then place it in the oven.

After 45 minutes baking in the oven, the cheesecake goes under the broiler to grown the top.