Hi Bold Bakers! A New York style baked cheesecake is a must for your repertoire and I have to say
that I think my baked cheesecake is five star, possibly better than the Cheesecake Factory,
but you guys are going to have to be the judge of that. As always, the recipe can be found on
my website. We're going to start out by making the crust. Here I have some crushed graham crackers.
You can use digestive biscuits, vanilla cookies, whatever you like. I have some melted butter and
I'm just going to mix these two ingredients together to make the crust. So mix it together
until it resembles wet sand. You know, some people add in sugar into their cookie crust.
I just don't see the point in that because your dessert, the filling you're putting on top is
already sweet. So you want to have something that's maybe not as sweet. So here's my spring
form pan and I'm just going to add in my cookie crust. What I personally like to do is go in with
my clean hand. It just means that you can just feel underneath your fingers like how thick it is
if it's nice and even. So there we go. Lovely. Here's what we're going to do. Pop this bad boy
into the fridge just for a few minutes while we make our filling. So to make our filling,
I'm going to use my electric stand mixer. You can also use an electric hand mixer. You just
want something that's going to whip up that filling really well. I get a lot of questions
about this and it is a Wolf Gourmet stand mixer. It's really great. So let's talk cream cheese.
I recommend using brick cream cheese when making cheesecakes because it's much firmer and not as
soft and it just makes for a better cheesecake. Also leave it at room temperature for like two
hours or so. It just makes it so much easier to whip up and it gets rid of any lumps. Into this,
I'm going to add in some sugar and then I'm going to turn my machine on to medium speed
and let this whip up really well. And like I said, get rid of any of those lumps.
So this mix is looking nice and loose. Here I have some lemon and I'm going to just grate in
some lemon zest. So this is a plain baked cheesecake, but it has a little bit of lemon,
which just adds lovely flavor and some lemon juice. Get that in there. And then of course,
my favorite vanilla extract. These two ingredients just give a lovely pump of flavor to this
cheesecake. And then while the machine is still going, I'm going to add in my eggs one by one.
Let's add them in, let them beat up and then add in the next one. If you want to turn your machine
on high speed for this so they combine, that's totally fine. Okay, so lastly, we're going to add
in a little bit of flour and this just helps to firm up your cheesecake. Give it a bit of a mix in
and there we go. Okay, perfect. This is ready to be poured onto our cookie crust.
So as you can see, this is a really big cheesecake and it is going to take some time to bake.
So we're going to pop this into the oven. So here's a little trick for you. I put a tray of
warm water just below my cheesecake. Now the reason I do this is because I don't bake my
cheesecake in a water bath. What I do is I put that little bit of tray in there and it just kind
of helps to regulate the temperature, not let it get too hot. And hopefully that will stop your
cheesecake from cracking. And if it cracks, it's not the end of the world. Okay, so come here to me.
When your cheesecake is done, you'll know it is because it will still have this lovely jiggle in
the middle. Do you see that? That is what you're looking for. That's how you know your cheesecake
is perfect. So here's what we're going to do. Let it set, let it chill, cool down in the tin.
Then what you want to do is put it in the fridge for a minimum of a few hours, but preferably
overnight. The longer you give it, the more it gets colder. It sets and then it's perfect to cut.
You can serve your cheesecake as is, or I'm going to put a few cherries on top of mine.
Look at that. Kevin, get in here. You're going to love this. I've been waiting for this all day,
that is a legit New York style cheesecake. Get the Cheesecake Factory. This is amazing. It's rich,
it's creamy. It's like a cream cheese cloud. One cloud that I want to dive straight into.
Well done, Jim. So I want to know if you guys think this recipe is better than the
Cheesecake Factory. And make sure to share your photos with us when you make it. Yep. And we'll
see you back here again real soon. Bye guys. Oh, so delicious. So light and airy. It is.
I love the crust too.
