By Eric Kim, The New York Times
What puts the New York in a New York cheesecake?
Most ardent New Yorkers might say a dreamily smooth and creamy cheesecake layer that’s rich and firm yet somehow light, with some kind of sweet bottom crust. Others might list a set of ingredients: heavy cream, maybe even lemon.
But the answer, ultimately, may be cream cheese — specifically, Philadelphia-brand cream cheese.
Like many New Yorkers, cheesecake came from somewhere else, only to undergo a bit of a transformation in the city. As Gil Marks writes in the “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food,” German immigrants brought the käsekuchen (“cheese cake”) to the United States in the mid-19th century, but those early cakes had a cottage cheese base and a pastry crust.
While cheesecake was adapting to its surroundings, cream cheese was on its own journey, though one that never strayed far from the Big Apple. The story goes that, in 1872, William A. Lawrence, a dairyman in Chester, New York, started manufacturing what he called “cream cheese,” a creamier version of Neufchâtel, a crumbly French cheese. Hoping to link his creation to the fine dairy being produced out of Philadelphia at the time, he named it after the city, though the brand’s production has remained in New York state to this day.
Simply put, Philadelphia-brand cream cheese has always been a New York creation.
Five decades later — in the 1930s — Jewish bakers and deli owners in the city started substituting cream cheese for cottage cheese, making the cake a lot creamier. For many bakers still, it’s what makes New York cheesecake New York.
But for Bonnie Ponte and Holly Maloney, the sisters who own Eileen’s Special Cheesecake in NoLIta, it’s not just the cream cheese — it’s love (even if the Food and Drug Administration may not consider it an ingredient). Their mother, Eileen Avezzano, first moved to New York from Philadelphia at age 18, following a dream of becoming a Rockette. But, alas, she was too short: “At the time,” Maloney said, “they didn’t take 5’2” Rockettes.”
When her mother died, Avezzano started baking cheesecakes, selling them at a friend’s Queens deli and eventually opening her shop in 1975. When Avezzano died in 2018, her daughters picked up where she left off. Today, her cheesecakes are undoubtedly some of the most highly regarded in New York, with tourists flocking to the small shop for a taste.
Eileen’s standard version employs a graham cracker crust, which the sisters consider traditional, but even they agree it’s the one place where “you can have fun” and still end up with a New York cheesecake.
Take, for instance, the cheesecake at Junior’s Restaurant & Bakery. A thin bedding of ethereal spongecake, flavored with a whisper of lemon extract, beneath a dreamily smooth cream cheese layer, it puts the cake in cheesecake. And getting to the recipe — arguably one of the world’s most well-known New York-style cheesecakes — was no small feat. Before opening the Downtown Brooklyn flagship in 1950, founder Harry Rosen spent months tasting cheesecakes all over New York City to create his recipe with baker Eigel Petersen.
Alan Rosen, Harry’s grandson who now owns Junior’s, shared the recipe, adapted here for home ovens. The flavors are balanced, anchored by vanilla, and the resulting texture, thanks to a water bath and patience, as wispy as a cloud. Though Junior’s cheesecakes are classically blond, and sometimes light golden, this one has a deeper hue on top, which is not only OK but delicious, Rosen said, signaling burnished sugar and a good bake.
Rosen’s recipe calls for four packages of cream cheese, the first smartly creamed with cornstarch for stability before the last three are beaten in.
You can guess which brand he prefers.
Junior’s Cheesecake
By Eric Kim
In 1950, the year Junior’s opened on Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, founder Harry Rosen spent months with Danish-born baker Eigel Petersen developing what would become one of the most well-known New York-style cheesecakes in the country. This recipe puts the cake in cheesecake: A soft, thin bedding of ethereal sponge cake, flavored with a whisper of lemon extract, supports the light but dense, dreamily smooth cream cheese layer. Alan Rosen, Harry Rosen’s grandson and now the owner, shared the restaurant’s recipe, which has been adapted here for home ovens. Though Junior’s cheesecakes are classically blonde, sometimes light golden, this one gains a deeper hue on top, which is not only okay but delicious, Rosen said. — Eric Kim
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes, plus 6 hours’ cooling and chilling
Ingredients
For the Sponge Cake Layer:
- 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, for greasing pan
- 2 large eggs, yolks and whites separated
- 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon pure lemon extract
- 1/4 cup/32 grams all-purpose or cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
For the Cream Cheese Filling:
- 4 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 2/3 cups/333 grams sugar
- 1/4 cup/30 grams cornstarch
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup/177 milliliters heavy cream
Preparation
1. Make the sponge cake layer: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with the butter, leaving the sides ungreased. Wrap the outside of the bottom and sides of the pan with foil to prevent water from seeping into the cheesecake as it cooks in a water bath.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and the extracts, and keep whisking until the mixture is pale yellow and a little more voluminous. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt. Switch to a flexible spatula, and stir just until the white flecks disappear.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons sugar and keep whisking until soft peaks form. Add one-third of the whites to the bowl with the yolks and stir until fully incorporated. Add the rest of the whites, then gently fold together by dragging the spatula under and over the mixture, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you go, until mostly homogenous. A few white streaks are fine.
4. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread to the edges, then tap on the counter, once or twice, to pop any large bubbles throughout the cake.
5. Bake until set and matte in the center but still blonde, about 10 minutes. Cool slightly on a wire rack.
6. Heat at least a liter of water to a boil, ideally in a kettle.
7. Make the cream cheese filling: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, cream together 1 package cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and the cornstarch until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Use a flexible spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining 3 packages cream cheese, the remaining 1 1/3 cups sugar and the vanilla, and beat until smooth, another minute or so.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, beating and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition, until smooth. On low speed, gradually pour in the heavy cream and beat just until smooth. (Be careful not to overmix the filling; too much air could result in cracks later.) Pour the filling over the cake layer in the springform pan.
9. Place the springform pan in a large roasting pan. Place the roasting pan in the oven. Pour enough hot water from the kettle into the roasting pan to come 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan, ensuring no water gets into the cream cheese filling.
10. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until browned and slightly wobbly in the center if you shake the pan, 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 1/2 hours. If the water completely evaporates before the cheesecake is done, add more hot water.
11. Take the cheesecake out of the water bath and set aside to cool on a wire rack for 1 hour, then cover with foil and transfer to the refrigerator to set, at least 4 hours or overnight.
12. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and release the sides. To get clean slices, cut the cheesecake while it’s cold with a hot knife, wiping the blade clean between cuts. Serve cold or, for a fluffy texture, serve at room temperature. A wrapped cheesecake can be refrigerated for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.