Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake
My all-time favourite dessert is cheesecake just plain and simple cheesecake! I won’t turn down a flavoured, loaded cheesecake, but I love a plain, tall and creamy cheesecake. This recipe for Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake is by far my favourite!
I am celebrating my new and updated blog and the best way to celebrate is with my favourite dessert Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake! After being on blogger since the start of my blogging days I decided to make the bold move over to wordpress. To say this caused me some anxiety is an understatement. I am not the most tech savvy person, something my family tells me all the time. Their only help is to say “just google it”. So stick with me through this huge learning curve and many wonky mistakes. Please don’t be afraid to drop me a note if things don’t quite look right.
This is an incredible cheesecake recipe, tall, creamy and smooth. I made this recipe without a crust, but if you prefer a simple graham crust will work great. I love my cheesecake plain but if you like serve it with berries and whipped cream, caramel or even chocolate sauce. My recipe for 5 Minutes Strawberry Sauce is amazing with Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake! One very important thing when making cheesecake is to have all the ingredients at room temperature or you will have lumps in your cheesecake!! Also be sure to use a 10 inch springform pan. This cake rising quite a bit while baking and will spill over in a small cake pan.
Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 32 ounces cream cheese (4 packages) room temperature
- 5 large eggs room temperature
- 2 cups sour cream room temperature
- 8 tablespoon butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 vanilla beans can substitute 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Tightly wrap 2 layers of aluminum foil around the outside of a 10 inch springform pan covering bottom and sides.
- Generously coat inside of pan with butter.
- Preheat oven to 300º F.
- Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.
- Add eggs one at a time until blended.
- Add sour cream and mix until smooth.
- Add sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and lemon juice, beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Pour into springform pan and place in a roasting pan large enough to prevent sides from touching.
- Place into oven and carefully pour boiling water into roasting pan to reach halfway up sides of springform pan. (be careful not to splash any water onto cake)
- Bake for 2 hours, or until cake is lightly browned on top. My oven is a convection oven, so bake time in regular oven may be longer.
- Remove from water bath (bain-marie), remove foil and cool completely at room temperature before unlatching and removing rim.
- Cover and refrigerate until well chilled (best to leave chill overnight). Cake must be well chilled to set properly.
- Serve plain or with berries and whipped cream or even caramel sauce.
Notes
* be sure to use 10 inch springform pan or build up sides of smaller cake pan with parchment paper. Cake will raise while baking and will spill over in smaller cake pan. Recipe was adapted from Jim Fobel’s Old-Fashioned Baking Book
Nutrition
My recipe for 5 Minute Strawberry Sauce tastes amazing with this cheesecake!
Enjoy another tasty cheesecake recipe with a brownie crust Brownie Cheesecake Bites!
It has been almost a year since I miraculously found this recipe online and let me tell you, I have not made any other cheesecake recipe but this one. I have gone to holiday at friends house for thanksgiving, family Christmas in TX, and currently in quarantine in Nashville. I made this recipe at each location and many times in between at home and for events at work, and in many types of oven (convection, gas, electric, tabletop oven), which has helped me gauge the temperatures and water bath methods more precisely. I will say for those making it for the 1st time, if the water bath scares you, you can put a baking dish/pan (I’ve used lasagna pans and turkey roasting pans) with already hot to boiling water in the lower oven rack. Put the pan before you start preheating the oven so that you don’t have to maneuver around a burning hot metal rack which makes it more likely you will splash water while you are being careful, and the steam/moisture in the oven will *almost* ensure no cracks.
As far as the temperature and timing, 200F for 1 hr and 30 mins to 2 hrs has worked best on non-convection ovens (but keep an eye for rise and color, have had to adjust if rising too quickly by the 1 hr 30 min mark), and 300 for convection ovens, but check for rise and color at 1 hr and 30 mins mark. I always let it cool in the oven once its done (otherwise it has deflate too quickly for me and made it a bit too dense), and then transfer it to the fridge overnight before serving. I rushed it one time and cut it after letting it cool a bit and putting in the fridge for a few hrs and it was not so solid.
Every single time I’ve made this recipe it comes so creamy and rich yet still dense, but not too dense. I made it recently with lite cream cheese and sour cream due to covid-19 shortage of regular ingredients and didn’t notice much of a difference but the density/creaminess. I guess the higher fat content makes it a bit smoother.
Laureen, thank you again for your site and great recipes you have posted over here. I keep on referring back to this site time and time again and link it to friends when they ask about this recipe they so love. During this quarantine, baking has been keeping me sane and I’ve made this recipe multiple times already with fruit swirls, graham cracker crust, and plain as well. Can’t recommend this recipe enough. Wish i could give it more stars. Stay safe in these trying times
What a lovely comment. I just came online looking for a cheesecake recipe and your comment has sold me on this one, Ernesto. You seem very kind and helpful and your family is very lucky to have you baking cheesecakes (and lots of other things, I assume!) for them. Thank you for the time you’ve taken to leave such kind and lovely words for all to see and thank you as well to Laureen for a recipe that inspires such joy.
Stay safe, stay healthy!
You are both too kind, its people like you that make all the hard work I put into my blog worth it. Take good care.
Just read this comment, I have to say I’m sold and buying the ingredients tomorrow!! Thank you for all the tips!
I made this dry delicious
Had a friend who made this and I plan to make it too. Just super excited that it uses corn starch instead of flour. That makes it gluten free! This makes this celiac so happy! Can’t wait to make this for myself!
Wonderful Crystal, enjoy!
I made it! It tastes amazing but I had an issue with baking it, but it still came out good. Read on! It was issue free mixing and getting it into pan. I tried my best to foil wrap the pan before putting Cale mix into it. But water from the bath still got into the foil. I baked it for two hour and it puffed up nicely! However taking it out of the water bath, and setting it on a cooling rack, it collapsed after a few minutes sitting on the rack. I was very gentle taking it out of the roasting pan, only touching sides of springform pan.
I even sacrificed my oven mitts into the water bath!
Cake has a raised edge to it now vs the uniform level top in the photo. Still tasty though!
Water did leak in and noticed that when it was pretty much room temp and I took the ring of the pan off, the bottom cane across wet and slimy feeling. Was heartbroken but put cake into fridge overnight to set. Dreamed about amazing cheesecake from others all night while mine was a gross puddle of goo, and than I woke up.
I cut a slice and it was still good. Bottom was a bit softer and top was nice and dense, it overall, very creamy.
I tried to read troubleshooting ideas for next time. One lady said she didn’t water bath any more. She just set a roasting pan full of boiling water under the cake in the oven, another suggested roasting bags as a fix. I’ll try that next.
Any idea of what I did wrong for the cake to collapse in the middle, leaving edges raised up a bit?
Thank you!
First of all, I love this recipe. I made it for Thanksgiving and again for Christmas and someone at the party that I don’t even know said “oh thank GOD you came, I was wondering when the Cheesecake Girl would get here!” After dinner when I finally started serving it, I heard remarks such as “this is the part I’ve been waiting for!” I was flattered but also understand the feeling – this cheesecake is so so good!
The first time I made it, I accidentally poured some of the boiling water into the springform pan while trying to do the water bath (whoopsie), so I tried to scoop as much water out as I could with a shot glass, then added some extra corn starch, mixed it up as best I could and prayed for the best (all while it was still sitting on the oven rack!) – it came out fantastic. Both times I made it I used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract to make it more of a vanilla bean cheesecake and made a Nilla Wafer crust, then served it with raspberries on top. A huge hit.
I would love to know if you have ever used this cheesecake recipe as a “base” and made something other than a New York cheesecake? I wonder how it would fair if I used this as my base cheesecake and maybe added some dulce de leche and swirled that in to make it a dulce de leche cheesecake with a chocolate crust, or some extra lemon and lemon zest to make a lemon cheesecake. I’d love to know if you’ve ever done anything else with it – Mother’s Day is coming up and I’d love to show up with a fresh take on this very loved recipe. <3
Hi Kayla, so glad you enjoyed my cheesecake recipe. Vanilla bean paste is a great idea. I have only made this cheesecake as per recipe, but I think adding extra lemon would taste great or even topping with a lemon curd once its baked and cooled. Not sure how dulce de leche sauce would bake in, but if you do try let me know how it turns out.
I did indeed make the cheesechake and swirled in dulce de leche paired with an Oreo cookie crust. It turned the cheesecake a very light tan color and it was phenomenal. The whole thing was gone within an hour or two!
Sounds yummy Kayla.
Hii! I’m trying the recipe tomorrow and Im so excited!! But I was wondering, do you think I could use greek yogurt instead of sour cream? No health reasons lol I just ran out of sour cream
Hi Enif, I have only ever used sour cream in this cheesecake recipe.
Hi Laureen!
My spring form pan is about 9 1/4″. Would you recommend I only pour in 3/4 of the mixture into the pan?
Hi Carrie, it may overflow. You could build the sides of pan up with parchment paper.
Hi there! I wanted to make this yummy cheesecake but I am have a 9 inch springform pan 🙁 will this recipe overflow if I use my 9inch? Thanks!
Hi Jenny, it may overflow. You could build the sides of pan up with parchment paper.
I came across this awesome recipe and I have gotten up the courage to try it but I think I need a few more pointers. I will be using a conventional oven and a 10 inch springform pan I want to cook it a little while then turn the oven off and crack the over door for an hour to let it finish cooking and cool down. I noticed that most of the times and temps given (usually 2 hrs & 15 minutes or 2hrs & 30 minutes at 300 degrees) is with the oven on for the entire cooking process. What temp and what cook time do you guys suggest if I want to turn the oven off at some point and crack open the oven door to let it continue cooking and cooling for an additional hour?
Hi Jeff, I’m excited you are trying my recipe. I am not going to be much help to you regarding adapting to accommodate the open oven technique as I have never done this and don’t have an answer for you. I would always want to test something before I could recommend methods. sorry
It came out perfect. Very creamy and delicious! It melts in your mouth! Thank you!!
Thank you Ana!
Best cheesecake I have ever tasted.
Thank you so very much Marissa.
This is the best cheese cheesecake I have ever had or made. I made one change thought I made with a graham cracker crust.
Can this be made with graham cracker crust
Absolutely!
So delicious! I’ve always been scared of cheesecakes, I always thought them to be fussy. But this was so easy and UNBELIEVABLY delicious. As good as I’ve ever had in any restaurant. I made a cherry sauce to go with mine and it was a hit, I wish I could post a picture! So glad I came across this recipie, thank you!
Wonderful Elizabeth, so happy you enjoyed the recipe.
Hi I haven’t made this yet but I was wondering if I could use a 9 inch springform pan because I don’t have another! Thank you in advance 🙂
You could, but build up the sides with parchment paper or it may overflow the pan.
Was wondering how much of the contents would change proportionately if I was to use a larger 12 inch springform pan ?
Without testing I can’t really help you out with this question David, sorry.
My mother and I made this once and it turned out perfect. Now I am making it a second time and I got the cream cheeses from Costco and I put in 4 of the 500g ones! I only realized when pouring it in that there was so much extra mix! Anyway, can’t do anything about it now so in she goes and I saved half to maybe try and correct it by adding more egg, more sugar and more of everything else. I guess we will see! I don’t know what I was thinking.
I’ve had many oopses with recipes, part of baking lol. Hope it still turned out for you Andrea.
Hi Laureen, this was my first try at a cheesecake and I am so grateful that I came across your recipe. It is absolutely so rich and creamy it just melts in your mouth. I was a little skeptical of putting the boiling water in the pan next to the springform pan so I put a pan underneath the springform . After reading reviews I will give the aluminum foil around springform a try next time. I also added a graham cracker crust to my first cheesecake. I plan on adding chocolate swirl to this the next time I make it. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. It is amazing.
Thank you very much Chuck, so glad you enjoyed the recipe and took the time to leave a comment.
Baking two small ones now! Can’t find a roasting pan for the larger one. Could I bake without a water bath?
Hi Jeffrey, using a water bath is a superior method for baking cheesecake, although you can bake without it. The cheesecake is more susceptible to cracking on the top.
I am wanting to try this recipe to surprise my husband for our 15th anniversary! He loves cheesecake! How important is it to use the aluminum foil? I hate using it on my food and am wondering if I can bake it without the foil? Thanks for your help!
Hi Colleen, the aluminum foil goes around the pan to keep water while baking in the water bath. It does not touch the cake.
Hello,
I want to make this, but would like to add a graham cracker crust. I saw somewhere in your notes that a Crist could be added. I’m not much of a baker and I have no idea how to go about that 🙂 Any suggestions/recipe? Do I add to the bottom of pan and bake it all together? Thanks!
Amy, here’s a great link to making a graham crust for the cheesecake. https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/graham-cracker-crust-recipe/
Hello! I only have an 8 inch spring form pan. How can I change the recipe to fit it? Thanks
Taylor, I have not ever adjusted the recipe to accommodate a smaller pan, so without testing I’m not much help to you. You could try baking extra batter in paper lined cupcake pans. They would require less baking time than the cake pan needs.
How much does it typically rise do you think?
Has anyone tried substituting the sugar with another sweetener to make it more diabetic friendly?
Thank you for any input!
I just made this cheesecake for someone’s birthday and they require low-sugar / carb desserts. I wanted to make it with Splenda, but I knew it would alter the bake in some way. Instead of substituting all the sugar, I went with half and half — 3/4 cup Splenda and 3/4 cup sugar. I read online that the substitute can cause custards to bake firmer/faster, so I applied that logic and watched the bake closely. What I gathered by the result: the cheesecake actually baked about 40 minutes faster than the 2hr bake time listed for this recipe. I have a convection oven and never opened the door. It was actually pretty well browned just after an hour of bake time. So, watch for the browning and whether or not you have the slight jiggle toward the center that lets you know it’s just about right in creaminess. My internal temp reached just above 150°, which is where cheesecake should reach. As for texture and taste, I won’t know until tomorrow 😉
P.S. Make sure you have a taller springform pan, as this recipe rises pretty high and you’ll need that extra bit. I’m only assuming the sweetener substitute is what caused a much faster bake / browning. If I had left it the full 2hrs — or even another 10 min — it most definitely would have been sadly overcooked.
Yes. I fully substitute it with Swerve or Mink Fruit every time I make it. It’s delicious! I sometimes add lime or coffee and add an additional 30-45 minutes to the cook time, depending on how much additional liquid. I also add a bit of Xanthum Gum instead of corn starch,
I hope this helps!
Am I missing g something there is no flour in receipe
Correct Karen, no flour. Cornstarch is used.
I just made this the other day, and it’s one of the BEST cheesecakes I’ve ever had!!! I made a few changes based on what I had on hand: I used two Tbsps of flour (I had no cornstarch,) Truvia instead of pure sugar, and I had only 1 cup of sour cream in the fridge. It was still AMAZING!!!!!
The bake time was definitlely shorter, only 1 1/2 hours in my oven. Had I left it in the full two hours, it would have burned😔So please watch it closely if you are using a diet sweetener. I highly recommend this cheesecake!!!!
Karen, I used flour, it was perfectly fine!!!
Amazing cheesecake. I made it and it turned out perfect! Amazing recipe! Loved it so much so tasty! ❤️
thank you kindly Liv.
2nd round of baking this cheesecake. It is bookmarked and my official favorite!!! It’d Amazing! I love the browned top, and creaminess. Just perfect. I am trying crustless this time around. I know my Dad will enjoy this for Father’s Day!!
Thank you Hanna, I’m sure your Dad will love it. Can you do me a fav and rate the recipe. Helps me rank in google better for people to find the recipe.
This recipe is amazing – its not difficult and so worth it! Making my second one for Father’s Day!
I’ve made this recipe multiple times but sugar free and with a touch of Xanthum Gum. Soooo good!
For one, I added about a cup of fresh lime juice and cooked an extra 1/2 hour. That was great.
Thank you for this recipe. It’s great for Keto!
thanks Tracy for the tips!