New York Cheesecake -- The Kitchen That Has Always Been Mine

Week 494, and the apples arriving, the squash at the farm stand, the light turning golden, the kitchen shifting to soups and stews. I am 68 years old and the days have a rhythm now — the morning writing, the afternoon visits to Cedarhurst, the evening cooking, the weekly blog post — and the rhythm is the structure, and the structure is the sanity, and the sanity is required because the rest of it, the losing and the loving and the carrying, requires a sane woman at the helm, and I am sane, mostly, except when I cry in the car in the Cedarhurst parking lot, which is not insanity but its opposite: the specific, targeted release of emotion in a contained space, which is the most rational thing I do all week.

New Year's Eve; book year reflection; brisket as always. These are the facts of the week, the data points, the things I would put in a report if I were writing a report, which I am not — I am writing a life, and the life includes the facts but is not limited to them, because the life also includes the way the kitchen smells at six in the morning when the coffee is brewing and the challah is rising and the house is quiet and the quiet is both the grief and the peace, simultaneously, and the simultaneous is the condition, the permanent condition of a woman who is 68 and alone and not alone, who is a grandmother and a wife and a writer and a cook and a caregiver and all of these things at once, always at once, braided together like the challah.

I made brisket this week — because it was what the week needed, because the week always needs something and the something is always food, and the food is always the answer, and the answer is always the kitchen, and the kitchen is always mine, and the mine-ness of the kitchen is the one thing that has not changed in sixty-seven years of living, from Sylvia's kitchen on the Grand Concourse to this kitchen in Oceanside where I stand every morning and every evening and many of the hours in between, making the food that is the chain, that is the love, that is the thing I do when I don't know what else to do, which is always, and especially now.

I brought food to Marvin at the usual time. The visit was what visits are now — quiet, steady, the feeding by hand when necessary, the reading aloud always, the holding of the hand that may or may not know it is being held but that is warm and alive and present, which is the definition of love in this particular year: warm and alive and present. He ate what I brought. He received what I gave. The receiving is the relationship. The receiving is the vow. In sickness and in health, in recognition and in forgetting, in the recliner and in the kitchen, the receiving is the marriage, and the marriage continues, one container at a time, one visit at a time, one day at a time, at two o'clock, every day, because the chain does not break.

The brisket was the week’s anchor — it always is — but a New Year’s table in this house has never ended with the main course, and so after the brisket was packed and delivered and the quiet of the evening settled back in, I made this cheesecake, the same dense, unapologetic New York cheesecake that has been in this rotation since the Grand Concourse days, because some recipes are not just recipes but coordinates, fixed points that tell you where you are and who you come from. Sylvia made hers in a springform pan she still has somewhere. I make mine in mine. The chain holds.

New York Cheesecake

Prep Time: 30 minutes | Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Total Time: 5 hours 45 minutes (includes chilling) | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• For the crust:
• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full crackers)
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• For the filling:
• 4 packages (8 oz each) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup heavy cream, at room temperature

Instructions

1. Prepare the pan. Preheat oven to 325°F. Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan tightly with two layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil to prevent water seeping in during the water bath. Lightly grease the inside of the pan.
2. Make the crust. Stir together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Add the melted butter and mix until the crumbs are evenly moistened and hold together when pressed. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool slightly.
3. Beat the cream cheese. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed for about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides frequently, until completely smooth with no lumps.
4. Add sugar and flavorings. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in the sugar and cornstarch until just incorporated. Add the vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice and mix briefly to combine. Do not overbeat.
5. Add eggs. Add the eggs one at a time on low speed, mixing just until each disappears into the batter. Scrape the bowl between additions. Do not beat air into the batter — this keeps the top from cracking.
6. Finish the batter. Add the sour cream and heavy cream on low speed and mix only until the batter is smooth and uniform. Pour the batter over the cooled crust and smooth the top with a spatula.
7. Bake in a water bath. Place the foil-wrapped springform pan inside a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot tap water into the roasting pan to come 1 inch up the sides of the springform. Bake at 325°F for 70–80 minutes, until the edges are set but the center 2–3 inches still jiggles gently when nudged.
8. Cool gradually. Turn off the oven, crack the door open about 1 inch, and let the cheesecake rest in the oven for 1 hour. This gradual cooling prevents sinking and cracking. Remove from the water bath, discard the foil, and run a thin knife around the edge of the pan.
9. Chill completely. Let the cheesecake cool to room temperature on a wire rack, then cover loosely and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, before releasing the springform and slicing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 530 | Protein: 9g | Fat: 38g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 380mg