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A Slice of Heaven
Exploring Cheesecake's Luscious Lineage
By Linda Morel
“The first thing I ever baked was a cheesecake,” says Ann Amernick, co-owner and executive pastry chef at Washington, D.C.’s Palena restaurant. “Just married and living in an attic apartment with a bad oven, I went crazy baking. I borrowed an old cheesecake recipe of my mother’s from Family Circle. It was more like a pie, decorated with candied violets and angelica, which you sliced to look like green leaves.”
A devout cheesecake lover, she presents her favorite cheesecake recipes, giving the genre a unique spin, in her new cookbook, The Art of the Dessert, (John Wiley & Sons).
Dorie Greenspan is a kindred spirit, because her latest cookbook, Baking: From my home to yours (Houghton Mifflin) features an entire chapter on cheesecakes.
“I made my first cheesecake shortly after I got married,” she says. “Coming from a Craig Claiborne recipe, it was baked in a water bath and had no crust. It was just marvelous.”
Greenspan says she didn’t really like cheesecake until she started baking them and realized they practically guarantee great results. “It’s so satisfying making something everyone will love.”
She says the best thing about cheesecakes is their versatility. “Once you have a basic recipe down, you can play around with flavor and form. Cheesecakes allow people to be creative.”
In Baking, Greenspan goes to town with this concept, showing readers how to customize cheesecakes. Next to her basic cheesecake recipe, there’s a page called “Playing Around,” which lists four crust variations and seven flavored cheese fillings.
 Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte From Baking: From My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin)
by Dorie Greenspan
Crust:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2
sticks unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and chilled
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Filling:
1/3 cup thick berry or cherry jam
9 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
8 ounces (1 cup) cottage cheese at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground cinnamon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
2 large eggs, preferably at room temperature
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting (optional)
Getting ready: Butter a 9-inch springform pan, dust the inside with flour, and tap out the excess. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
To make the crust: Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse just to blend. Toss in the pieces of butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir the egg yolks and vanilla together with a fork, and, still pulsing the machine, add them and continue to pulse until the dough comes together in clumps and curds—restrain yourself, and don’t allow the dough to form a ball.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface. If you want to roll the dough, gather it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about 20 minutes before rolling. (I like to roll this, and all sweet crusts, between sheets of plastic wrap.) Or simply press the dough into the pan. The dough should come about 1 1/2 inches up the sides of the springform. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Fit a piece of buttered aluminum foil against the crust, covering it completely. Fill the crust lightly with rice, dried beans or pie weights and slide the pan into the oven. Bake the crust for 20 minutes, then carefully remove the foil and weights and bake for another 5 minutes or so—you don’t want the crust to get too brown. Transfer to a rack to cool while you make the filling. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
To make the filling: Stir the jam and spread it over the bottom of the crust—it’s okay to do this while the crust is still warm.
Put the cream cheese and cottage cheese into the food processor and process, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times, for 2 minutes, until you’ve got a smooth, satiny mix. Add the sugar, salt and spices and process for another 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the eggs and process, scraping the bowl as needed for a final minute. Pour the filling over the jam.
Bake the cake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until the filling is uniformly puffed and no longer jiggly. Gently transfer the springform pan to a cooling rack and allow the torte to cool to room temperature, during which time the filling will collapse into a thin, elegant layer.
Run a blunt knife between the crust and the sides of the pan, then open and remove the sides of the springform. If the sides of the crust extend above the filling and you don’t like this look, very gently saw off the excess crust using a serrated knife. Chill the torte slightly or thoroughly before serving and dust with confectioner’s sugar. Yield: 8 servings.
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Although New Yorkers might contend that their city boasts the world’s best cheesecakes, recipes hail from many countries. Historical records indicate that cheesecakes originated in ancient Greece, where they were probably served during the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C.
“Cheesecakes have a long and luscious lineage in Europe,” says Greenspan. “In Germany and Austria, they’re made with the native equivalents of cottage, pot or farmer cheeses. In Italy, ricotta is the cheese of choice.”
Rabbi, chef and historian Gil Marks explains in his book, The World of Jewish Desserts (Simon and Schuster), that our Ashkenazi ancestors relied on local curd cheeses for the cheesecakes they
prepared.
New York cheesecakes burst on the scene during the 1930s at Reuben’s and Lindy’s, the legendary Broadway delicatessens that revolutionized the recipes many Jews brought with them from the Old Country. The delis’ owners were Eastern European Jews who knew that extravagantly creamy cheesecakes would attract patrons.
To produce velvety texture, they dropped the curd cheeses of their youth in favor of cream cheese, developed in America in the 1870s. They added heavy cream, eggs and extra yolks to recipes, along with a hint of lemon. Building cheesecakes like skyscrapers, they baked them in extra-tall springform pans, five to six inches high.
 Born in the U.S.A.
Cream cheese had been around for decades when Jewish deli owners began to use it to create what we call New York cheesecake, explains Ericka Gettman, senior brand manager of Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Using cream and whole milk, dairy farmers in Chester, N.Y., developed this rich white cheese in 1872. In 1880, A. L. Reynolds began distributing cream cheese in tin-foil wrappers. Although he was from New York, he marketed his cheese as Philadelphia Brand. At the end of the 19th century, premium foods were associated with that city and were often referred to as “Philadelphia quality.” Eventually, the Philadelphia Brand was purchased by Kraft, which now displays about 200 cheesecake recipes on its Web site.
Kraft also eventually purchased the Breakstone’s Company, a New York dairy brand founded in the 1880s by Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. Isaac Breakstone developed his own cream cheese in the 1920s and began mass-marketing it to New York Jews. According to Rabbi Gil Marks, that was the cream cheese that they began “shmearing on bagels and substituting for curd cheese in their cakes.”
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“All of the original Jewish-style delis served cheesecake,” says Nancy Weinberger, director of marketing for Junior’s, the famed cheesecake emporium in Brooklyn. “Harry Rosen, who opened Junior’s, knew if you’re going to be a good Jewish deli, you’ve got to have a great cheesecake.” Rosen collaborated with a baker who tinkered with recipes until they invented one that made Brooklyn as famous for Junior’s cheesecakes as it was for the Dodgers.
Name any flavor, and Junior’s probably has a cheesecake to match. “We’re always creating new flavors for our mail-order business,” says Weinberger. (Junior’s kosher cheesecakes are available at juniorscheesecake.com or by calling 1-800-9JUNIOR.)
Traditional cheesecakes were demure, with a touch of vanilla or lemon. When did flamboyant flavors become trendy?
Greenspan thinks Miss Grimble, a bakery once located on Madison Avenue in Manhattan had something to do with it. “A Miss Grimble cheesecake had fruit on the bottom. It was an elegant cake, about one inch high, almost like a torte. Ironically, it was similar to my Hidden Berry Cheesecake recipe.” She dates the emergence of Miss Grimble pastries (now available at missgrimble.com; call 718-665-2253 to order) to the late 1970s, about the same time Craig Claiborne introduced his marble cheesecake.
“Black-and-white cheesecakes baked with chocolate morsels became popular in the late sixties and early seventies,” says Amernick. “Do you remember Hello Dollies?” Baked in rectangular pans, they were cheesecakes made with sweetened condensed milk, walnuts, chocolate chips and coconut.
 Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cheesecake Courtesy of Kraft Foods from www.kraftfoods.com
18 Oreo cookies, crushed, about 1 1/2 cups
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Breakstone’s or Knudsen sour cream
3 eggs
12 squares Baker’s semisweet baking chocolate
1/2 cup whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, if using a 9-inch silver springform pan (or to 325 degrees if using a 9-inch dark nonstick springform pan). Combine Oreo crumbs and butter. Press firmly into bottom of the pan.
Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, just until blended. Chop 8 of the squares of chocolate; stir into batter. Pour batter over crust.
Bake 45 to 50 minutes, or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around side of pan to loosen cake. Cool completely.
Chop remaining 4 squares of chocolate. Bring cream to simmer in small saucepan on low heat. Remove from heat. Add chocolate. Stir until completely melted. Cool slightly. Pour over cheesecake. Refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight. Remove sides of pan before serving. Refrigerate leftover cheesecake. Yield: 16 servings.
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“The Cheesecake Factory has taken variety to new heights,” she adds. “All these flavors are what people like. I think it’s fine. But I prefer a pure New York-style cheesecake.”
Playing a supporting role, cheesecake crusts range from graham cracker to gingersnap, tart dough to sponge cake (Junior’s signature). Or, the cheesecake can have no crust at all. When shipped, graham cracker crusts often become soggy; Junior’s sponge-cake crusts rate highly in surveys.
Both Amernick and Greenspan use Philadelphia Cream Cheese in their baking, as does Junior’s, which purchases it in 20-pound blocks and goes through 500 tons of the product a year.
“I don’t believe in using light ingredients,” says Greenspan, explaining that you never get the right results. “If you’re controlling your weight, eat half a piece of cheesecake, or just one bite.”
People fret over cheesecakes that crack, she says. That problem is often solved during baking by placing the pan in a larger pan of water. “But cracks don’t bother me. A cracked top says, ‘This is homemade. Boy, this is going to be good.’”
 Tall and Creamy Cheesecake: A Basic Recipe From Baking:
From My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin) by Dorie Greenspan
Crust:
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
Cheesecake Filling:
2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sour cream or heavy cream, or a combination of the two
To make the crust:
Butter a 9-inch springform pan—choose one that has sides that are 2 3/4 inches high—and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil.
Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. Turn the ingredients into the springform pan and use your fingers to pat an even layer of crumbs over the bottom of the pan and about halfway up the sides. Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven. (The crust can be covered and frozen up to two months.)
Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and place the springform on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees.
To make the cheesecake:
Put a kettle of water on to boil. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until soft and creamy, about 4 minutes. With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat for another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs, one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition—you want a well-aerated batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the sour cream and/or heavy cream.
Put the foil-wrapped springform in a roasting pan that is large enough to hold the pan with some space around it. Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that there is nothing left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the springform pan. The batter will reach the rim of the pan. Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into it to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan.
Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top should be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon. Allow the cheesecake to luxuriate in its water bath for another hour.
After 1 hour, carefully pull the setup from the oven, lift the springform pan from the roaster—be careful, there may be some hot water in the aluminum foil—and remove the foil. Let the cheesecake come to room temperature on a cooling rack.
When the cake is cool, cover the top lightly and refrigerate for at least 4 hours; overnight is better. At serving time, remove the sides of the springform pan and set the cake on a serving platter. Yield: 16 servings.
In her book, Dorie Greenspan provides a number of creative riffs on the crust and filling, such as the ones below:
Gingersnap Crust: Replace the graham cracker crumbs with gingersnap cookie crumbs.
Lemon Cheesecake: Add the grated zest of 2 lemons, the juice of 1 lemon, and 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract to the batter.
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Cheesecakes never let you down, Amernick believes. “If you under-bake them, they’ll become liquid and hard to slice. They’ll never set, even when cold.” But they’ll taste delicious. She suggests covering a loose cake with fresh fruit sprinkled with sugar. The results will be more like pudding.
“On the other hand, if you overcook the cake, you won’t ruin it. If it collapses or looks funny, it will taste fine. Doctor up flaws with whipped cream.”
She recommends her Sour Cream Blueberry Pie recipe, which is easy to prepare. “If you buy a graham cracker crust, it takes two seconds to achieve sensational results.”
“The best thing about cheesecakes is they’re mistake-proof,” says Amernick. “No matter what you do, you can’t ruin a cheesecake.”
 Sour Cream Blueberry Pie Courtesy of Ann Amernick, author of The Art of the Dessert (John Wiley & Sons)
Crust:
Store-bought graham cracker pie crust in aluminum pan
Filling:
1 (12-ounce) jar best-quality red currant jelly
2 pints blueberries, plus additional for serving
2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place jelly in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until jelly has completely melted and has slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
Rinse and drain the berries in a colander. Pick them over to remove any stems or small leaves, then place in a bowl. Pour the jelly over the berries, mixing well. Spoon the berry mixture into the graham cracker crust.
Combine the sour cream, brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl and spoon over the berries.
Bake for 5 minutes, just to set the crust. Cool on a rack for 20 minutes, or until barely warm. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until very cold. Yield: 8 servings.
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>> More Cheesecake recipes
Manhattan-based freelance writer Linda Morel writes about holiday food for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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