Perfect cheesecake recipe takes the cake

With American’s predilection towards easy and inexpensive, it’s difficult to comprehend just how cheesecake became a family gathering staple. Yet, from Brooklyn splurges at Junior’s Restaurant to Midwestern family reunions, there are few desserts that elicit as strong a sigh of delight — and sense of home — as this finicky, cheese-based custard.

That delectable indulgence doesn’t come easily. From top-notch chefs to down-home cooks, everyone agrees: If there’s one thing to keep in abundant supply when baking a cheesecake, it’s patience.

“It’s not something you just decide to do in the evening,” says Michelle Melcher, who won the blue ribbon for baked cheesecake at this year’s Iowa State Fair, which hosts the largest state-fair food competition in the country. In fact, for best results, you’ll want to start a couple days in advance, since cheesecake’s texture and flavors deepen as it sits.

Once you set out to make the cake, you’ll actually need several hours before you open the oven, says George Geary, author of “125 Best Cheesecake Recipes.”

“The biggest thing is room temperature of the ingredients,” says Geary, former pastry chef for Disney Corp. That means setting out the eggs and cream cheese at least three hours before you start; other dairy can be set out closer to production.

When buying your supplies, go for the best you can afford. “You can’t cheat on these ingredients, because that’s all that’s in there,” says Jolene Worthington of Chicago-based Eli’s Cheesecake, which includes sour cream in the batter, a hallmark of “Chicago-style” cakes. (New York-style cakes, the other heavy hitters in the U.S., use heavy cream instead, for a denser cake.) 

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Purists try to avoid industrial cream cheeses, which frequently rely on gums for thickening, but home cooks’ best bet is to make sure they’re using cream cheese from just one source. “Gums are really important to commercial cream cheese,  but you never know which cream cheese uses which kind or combination,” counsels Worthington. Mixing and matching brands can result in a batter dry in one spot and creamy in another.

While you let the eggs and cheese come to room temperature, take advantage of your downtime to pre-bake the crust, a step that helps ensure it will be crisp. While professionals swear by crusts made from scratch, home cooks can get by with crumbled shortbread cookies or graham crackers. The crust should cool before you add the batter.

Your goal for the batter is simple: Smooth, thick and velvety.  Lumps generally come from the cheese, so spend plenty of time beating it smooth — and add the sugar in gradually. “Sugar liquefies and it makes the mix too runny,” says Alan Rosen, third-generation owner of Junior’s Restaurant in Brooklyn. “So don’t put all the sugar in at once.” The same goes for eggs, which you should add one by one, beating the batter just until each egg has been incorporated.  Use a slow mixer speed, and don’t overmix — too much air in the batter will make it crack as it cools.

Once you’ve poured the finished batter into the cooled crust, make sure your oven is at the right temperature. Trusting your oven dial is a gamble — even it it’s off just 25 degrees , it can make a big difference — so invest in an oven thermometer. There are several schools of thought when it comes to the baking, and all of them — from water baths to high-heat — focus on avoiding cracks in the top.

Your best bet? “Rely on your recipe and your oven,” says Melcher. You can’t use a toothpick to test if the cake is done, so it’s all about eyeballing it. When the edges are dry, but the center is just slightly more jiggly than Jell-o, it’s done.

As you let the cake cool, you may want to diverge from the experts, who sometimes obsess over avoiding the cracks. While it might pay off to let the cake cool gradually — turn the oven off, crack the door and wait for it to come to room temperature — nobody will notice the cracks if you’ve gotten the texture and flavor right.

Remember, what makes a great cheesecake, says Rosen, isn’t flawless presentation. “Dense, rich, moist,” says Rosen. “Those would be the words.”