No, cheesecake wasn’t invented in New York. That’s a common belief, with menus everywhere offering “New York Cheesecake,” and Big Apple delis serving skyscraper slabs of the stuff.
Cheesecake dates back to the ancient Greeks, who made it with honey and yeast. By the 1700s, European bakers were using eggs, but it still wasn’t the cheesecake we know and love. That had to wait till 1872, when cream cheese was invented. Bakers discovered that this was the ideal ingredient, and really went to town … the town being New York.
Gotham is still the star of the cheesecake world, but our recipe comes from a Santa Fe coffeehouse called Three Cities of Spain. It closed years ago, but its cheesecake lives on.
Ingredients
Crust
- 2 cups finely ground graham crackers
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
Filling
- 2 8oz. packages cream cheese
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup sugar
Topping:
- 1 pint sour cream
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place graham crackers in a Ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin, or use a food processor. Mix with sugar and melted butter. Pack tightly on the bottom and along the sides of a 10” springform pan. (A flat-bottomed mug is useful for this.)
Bake for 15 minutes, until light golden brown. Set aside.
Filling
Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, then add vanilla and sugar and beat at low speed until well mixed. Scrape sides of bowl as you go along. Put the springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan (to catch drips). Pour in the filling.
Bake on the middle oven shelf for 45 minutes, or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly. Let stand in the baking pan on a rack for 5 minutes. Leave the oven on.
Topping
Stir together the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Spoon topping onto cake and spread gently, smoothing evenly. Bake cake with topping for 10 minutes.
After removing the cake from the oven, run a knife around the top edge to loosen it from the pan, and cool completely in the pan on the rack. The cake will continue to set as it cools. Chill, loosely covered, for at least 6 hours. Remove the side from the pan and transfer cake to a plate, leaving the pan bottom attached. Bring to room temperature before serving.