As I write this, I am in Florida with my New York friends and family who happily left the Big Apple years ago for the palm trees, winters at the beach and — let’s face it — the comfortable property tax rate.
Fortunately, there are enough transported New Yorkers down here (although we call ourselves New Yawkas) that the dining scene has for me all the comforts of home: New York bagels, New York pizza, New York delis…yada, yada, yada.
One of my favorites is 3 G’s in Delray Beach, a New York style schmaltz-fest of a deli offering the best of what we miss from our ancestral home: overflowing corned beef sandwiches, stuffed cabbage, potato knishes, kasha varnishkas (groats with bowties – you’re just gonna have to trust me on this one), New York black-and-white cookies and, of course, real New York cheesecake.
Lots of cheesecake recipes parade around pretending to be real New York cheesecake, but if it has sour cream in the list of ingredients, it’s an imposter. Real New York cheesecake is quite dense (critics say “heavy”), richer and creamier than others you’ve tasted. If you almost have to flick it off your upper palate, you’ve got the real thing.
Cheesecakes are actually a form of custard, combining eggs, cheese, sugar and a host of extras over some sort of crust.
According to food historian Gil Marks writing for toriavey.com, the ancient Greeks made the first cheesecakes by pounding fresh cheese smooth with flour and honey and cooking the mixture on an earthenware griddle.
By the late medieval period in Europe, a pastry base had been added. The cooks of King Richard II compiled the first English cookbook, “The Forme of Cury” (c. 1390), which included two cheese tart recipes, and for the next five centuries, almost every English cookbook included at least one cheesecake recipe.
The British brought the cheesecake to America, and the rest is history. The invention of cream cheese in 1872 by William A. Lawrence, a dairyman in Chester, New York, offered a creamier option to curd cheese, but it wasn’t until the 1930s that cheesecake made from cream cheese went mainstream.
Some claim my recipe came from Lindy’s, the famous New York restaurant and Broadway hangout immortalized as Mindy’s in “Guys and Dolls.” (Sadly, this landmark, which opened in 1921, closed its doors in 2018.) Is it really their recipe? Who knows and who cares? I’ve even won two cooking contests with it. (Well, in truth, one was at my friend Joanne’s house party, where I gleefully beat out her husband, Gerry, and the other was an office party, but still…)
I have greatly simplified the traditional crust preparation — there’s really no need to roll it out, the only daunting process in the original recipe. I usually whip the leftover heavy cream with a tablespoon of sugar and pipe it around the cake for even more dazzle.
Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.
“LINDY’S” CHEESECAKE
From “Cooking Jewish” (Workman) by Judy Bart Kancigor; the yield is 12 generous servings
Note: “At room temperature” means at room temperature!
Ingredients:
• Butter, for greasing pan
FOR COOKIE CRUST
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Yolk of 1 large egg
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
FOR CAKE
• 5 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature
• Yolks of 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup heavy (whipping) cream, at room temperature
Mthod:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan. Separate sides from bottom of pan.
2. Crust: Combine all crust ingredients in food processor; process until mixture forms a ball. Press one third of dough evenly over bottom of pan. Bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove bottom crust from oven and set aside on wire rack. Press remaining two thirds of dough evenly over sides of springform, reaching about three fourths of the way up. Reattach sides to crust-lined bottom. Place pan in refrigerator.
3. Raise oven temperature to 500 degrees.
4. Cake: Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, both zests, and vanilla with electric mixer on high speed, just to blend. Reduce speed to medium and beat in eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well and scraping bowl well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add cream, beating just until combined.
5. Scrape batter into prepared crust and bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees and bake 1 hour. Let cheesecake cool in pan set on wire rack.
6. Refrigerate, covered, overnight. Remove from refrigerator at least 10 minutes before serving. Remove springform sides and serve.
FOR GLAZED STRAWBERRIES
Ingredients:
• 1 1/2 to 2 pints fresh strawberries
• 1/2 cup apricot jam
• 2 tablespoons brandy or water
Method:
Rinse and hull berries, and thoroughly pat dry; set aside. Combine jam and brandy in small, heavy saucepan over medium heat, and heat until preserves melt. Force mixture through a sieve, and set aside to cool. When cheesecake has completely cooled, arrange strawberries in concentric circles on top, beginning at outside edge. Brush glaze over berries.
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