After sharing The Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe, It is only fair to share my most favorite Cheesecake recipe of all times. This recipe is slightly adapted from The Culinary Institute of America’s baking book and it is simply the Perfect Cheesecake recipe.

I can simply say that this is actually a fail-proof recipe, I have been making it since I was in culinary school and it has always been a hit. For sure there are so many recipes out there. However, the beauty of this recipe is not only that it has never failed me, but that it is just not super sweet, but also very creamy while being firm.

Prior to writing the recipe, I have been to one of the best cheesecake shops in town. Not only in town, but the shop has so many shops all around the world. To my disappointment, every single flavor I tried was a huge let down, as it was way too sweet or heavy in a way that makes it less enjoyable.

Let’s get that baked!

Anyhow, let’s start baking that Perfect cheesecake.
First of all start by preparing the base. It consists of crushed digestive biscuits, brown sugar, and butter. Firstly, melt the butter and add it to the biscuits and sugar. We then make sure that the base is well mixed and press it in an 18 cm cake pan, that is already covered with parchment paper.
My choice to go for the digestive biscuits instead of the usual graham crackers is crucial in this recipe. First of, they are less sweeter and denser. But also, they have no added cinnamon. Although I like cinnamon, I don’t think it tastes good in a classic cheesecake and it is slightly overpowering. If you’ve never used digestive biscuits for the cheesecake base, give it a try. It makes a huge difference.

In a stand mixer and using a paddle attachment combine the cream cheese and 3/4 of the sugar and salt. Mix on medium speed till the mixture is smooth for around 3 minutes.
Whisk the eggs and egg yolks with the rest of sugar till foamy. Combine the eggs mixture with the cream cheese mixture.

Finally add the heavy cream and vanilla and mix till fully incorporated. Add the mixture on top of the base.

Bake In a hot water bath at 160 C till the center is set, around 2 hours. Cool, the cake completely in the pan.
To get the perfect cheesecake, you have to allow it to cool in the fridge and serve cold.

Baker’s Notes:

• The original recipe calls for less batter, but I prefer my Cheesecake to be high in volume so I added more batter, and due to that had to increase the baking time.
• The original recipe calls for graham crackers, but I opted for digestive biscuits.
• If you decided you want a low volume cake, you can use a 20 cm cake tin. In this case, you will have to reduce the baking time to 1.5 hour.
• Before adding the mixture to the pan, run it through a sieve just to make sure you don’t have any cheese lumps.
• To avoid the lumps, make sure your cheese is at room temperature before mixing.
• The cheesecake usually falls down after baking for 2 reasons:
  • Heat change (or heat shock), it happens if the hot cake was placed directly in a cool place. The cake usually should be left in the oven after baking with the oven door ajar for 30 minutes, to make sure the cake won’t get a temperature shock.
  • Line the sides of the tin with baking paper that goes at least 3-5 cm higher than the edges. Many people don’t really know that the cheesecake usually would rise above the tin and would fall back down, as it would have no sides to hold on to.

Print Pin

The Perfect Cheesecake

Course Dessert

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours

Servings 8 people

Author Khaled

Equipment

• 18 cm cake pan

Ingredients

for the base

• 200 g Digestive biscuits
• 30 g Light brown sugar
• 50 g Butter melted

for the cream cheese batter

• 1200 g Cream cheese room temperature
• 340 g Sugar
• 4 g Salt
• 280 g Eggs
• 30 g Egg yolk
• 150 ml Heavy cream
• 15 ml vanilla extract

Instructions

• Lightly butter the cake pan and line with parchment paper.
• Melt the butter, add to the crushed biscuits and brown
  sugar, and mix.
• Press the crust evenly in the bottom of the pan.
• Combine cream cheese, 3/4 sugar and salt and mix on a medium speed with the paddle attachment until smooth around 3 minutes.
• Whisk the egg and egg yolk and rest of sugar together, until foamy . Add the eggs to the cream cheese mixture in 4 additions.
• Add heavy cream and vanilla and mix till fully incorporated.
• Bake in hot water bath at 160°C until the center of the cake is set, about 2 hours.
• Cool completely in the pan. Wrap with plastic and place in fridge.