Pagliacci’s New York Cheesecake–Made and photographed this year in St. Paul

I don’t double blog.  Or if I do, I do it rarely.

This cake, however, belongs on both blogs.  I’ve made it for Dave’s birthday since l984 and for lots of other occasions since.  In different reincarnations.  Chocolate, pumpkin, toffee, cranberry compote.  You get the idea.

Pagliacci’s New York Cheesecake

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups graham wafer crumbs (I prefer vanilla wafer crumbs)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling

• 40 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (5 8oz packages; I use low-fat.)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 3/4 cups sugar    (I like a 1 1/4 cups)
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup whipping cream

1.  Preheat oven to 500º.  Make sure your oven is clean before you start!
2.  Beat cream cheese with electric mixer in large bowl until very smooth. Blend in lemon juice and vanilla. Sift sugar, flour and salt together and gradually beat into cheese. Beat until creamy, smooth and light, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs and yolks one at a time. Blend in cream. Pour into crust.  Place filled pan on a  baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil.  
3.  Bake 12 minutes.
4.  Reduce oven temperature to 200º. Continue baking until tester inserted in centre comes out clean. The original recipe said for 45 minutes but I find it takes much longer–an hour and a half or more.  Keep testing. (You can also set the oven at 300 and it’s less time–perhaps only 65 minutes.  I think the 200 might have been a typo??)
5.  Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan. Cool cake completely and refrigerate at least 24 hours before serving.

Note:  In July, 2016 Dave and I took a week-long Alaskan cruise and our last night was in Victoria, British Columbia. You know where we went for dinner:

The meal was lovely, the service attentive, and the cheesecake divine. Dave said it wasn’t as good as mine. But he would say that, wouldn’t he?