Desserts · Cheesecakes

New York cheesecake

Name: New York cheesecake
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 100 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 14 crackers graham crackers, crushed fine; 6 tbsp butter, melted; 4 blocks cream cheese, at room temperature; 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar; 4 egg; 1/2 cup sour cream; 2 tsp vanilla extract; juice of 1/2 lemon

The empire state of desserts: a graham crust under a dense, tangy cream-cheese custard baked low and slow. One of the world's most-searched cakes, measured slice by slice.

Time: 100 min (25 prep + 75 cook)
Servings: 12
Per serving: 507 kcal
Protein: 8 g

Ingredients

Crust

14 crackers graham crackers, crushed fine200 g
6 tbsp butter, melted85 g

Filling

4 blocks cream cheese, at room temperature900 g
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar250 g
4 egg200 g
1/2 cup sour cream120 g
2 tsp vanilla extract10 g
juice of 1/2 lemon15 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Press the crumb-butter mixture into a 23 cm (9-inch) springform and bake 10 minutes at 175°C.
Beat the room-temperature cream cheese and sugar until perfectly smooth *before* any eggs go in — lumps never blend out later.
Add the eggs one at a time on low speed, then the sour cream, vanilla and lemon. Low and slow: whipped-in air is what cracks cheesecakes.
Bake at 160°C for 60–70 minutes until the edges are set and the middle still wobbles like jelly. Turn the oven off, crack the door, and leave it an hour — the slow cool-down prevents the crater. Chill overnight. Overnight. Yes.

Why do cheesecakes crack?

Every cheesecake failure is a temperature failure: cold cheese makes lumps, high heat makes cracks, a rushed chill makes soup. The recipe is easy; the patience is the skill.

Alternative

Greek yogurt cheesecakethe Greek yogurt rebuild30

Why this score

engineered against fullness

Concentrated sugar, with little protein or fiber to slow it down; dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

6% of kcal

41% water

1 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

47%

18%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 6083 kcal goes into the pot, 1780 g of ingredients comes out as ~1700 g of food → 358 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 358
Protein: (6%); 6 g
Fat: (64%); 26 g
Carbohydrates: (30%); 27 g
of which sugar: 18 g
Fiber: <1 g
Sodium: 307 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More desserts

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.