Chef Mik's Just West of New York Cheesecake

Cheesecake's have been with us longer then the written record can recall, a kind of forerunner to cheese and cheese cake was enjoyed by the Greeks and the Romans, the Vikings loved it in their day some 1100 years ago, and in Sweden they eat cheesecake (ostkaka) much the way they did back then to this very day, but it wasn’t until the discovery of cream cheese in the late 1800’s which was originally an attempt to recreate a French cheese known as Neufchatel that the cheesecake people know here in the States was born, and it wasn’t until the early 1900 hundreds that it was perfected

Here at FoodPerfected we prepare a whole host of cheesecakes such as “New York Cheesecake” , Cheesecakes with fruit, Swedish style and a whole bunch more, we also offer fromage tortas, to name but a few

On a personal note I first learned to make “New York” style cheesecake back in Sweden in school, and they were much fancier then they are here toped with an aspic no less!! But there is just no substituting the real deal, that said if you do not have gram crackers any digestive cake will do just fine...

Shopping List

Gram cracker crumbs

Sugar

Cream cheese

Sour cream or crème fraîche

Eggs

Butter

Unbleached all purpose flour

Lemon

Hazelnuts

Vanilla extract or puree

Cinnamon and/or nutmeg

My Mad Method

For crust: combine 200g gram cracker crumbs, 50g sugar, 125g butter (melted), 50g hazelnuts (crumbled not flour), 1ts cinnamon, 1/2ts nutmeg  

If you like a thick crust double recipe

Work into a nice crumbly-buttery mix

Grease a spring form add the crumb mix and work evenly through out cover and place in fridge so butter hardens somewhat

Cream together 800g cream cheese and 200g sugar

Add 5 eggs one at a time, when you add the last egg also add 150g crème fraîche, and 1 tsp vanilla

Add 1 TBSP lemon zest, 1 tsp lemon juice

Add 2-3 TBSP flour (sifted)

Mix thoroughly but do not overwork or the cake may crack when baked

Pore batter into the crust, place in a 175c for 20 minutes, reduce temp to 125c and bake for 80 minutes, when done the cake should be slightly lose in center, times may very

Meanwhile mix together 5 dl crème fraîche, 2 TBS sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 tsp lemon peal, when the cake comes is ready spread over surface of the cake return to oven and bake a15-20 minutes longer, times may very

When the cake is done let rest, then refrigerate over night for best results

Ready to serve!!

Ready to eat!