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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!

Slice of crustless, plain cheesecake on decorative plate.

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.

Whole cheesecake with golden brown top, made without a crust.

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.

Slice of plain crustless cheesecake on decorative plate with whole cheesecake in background.
Slice of crustless, plain cheesecake on decorative plate.

Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake

Laureen King
My favourite dessert is cheesecake and this recipe makes an amazing tall and creamy New York cheesecake with no crust.
4.26 from 2487 votes
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 20 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12
Calories 538 kcal

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

* because this cheesecake is crustless, I don’t remove it from the lower part of the cake pan.
* 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

Calories: 538kcalCarbohydrates: 30gProtein: 8gFat: 43gSaturated Fat: 24gCholesterol: 211mgSodium: 374mgPotassium: 190mgSugar: 28gVitamin A: 1620IUVitamin C: 0.5mgCalcium: 132mgIron: 0.8mg
Keyword New York Cheesecake, Tall and Creamy New York Cheesecake, cheesecake
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

My recipe for 5 Minute Strawberry Sauce tastes amazing with this cheesecake!

Glass jar filled with homemade strawberry sauce. Wooden spoon scooping sauce out of jar.
slice of creamy New York Cheesecake on a plate

Enjoy another tasty cheesecake recipe with a brownie crust Brownie Cheesecake Bites!

Slice of crustless, plain cheesecake on decorative plate.

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1,399 Comments

  1. 4 stars
    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?

  2. 5 stars
    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

    1. 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.

      1. 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!

      2. 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

  3. 5 stars
    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!

    1. 5 stars
      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!

  4. 5 stars
    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

    1. 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!

    2. Just read this comment, I have to say I’m sold and buying the ingredients tomorrow!! Thank you for all the tips!

4.26 from 2487 votes (2,166 ratings without comment)

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