New York Cheesecake

There are oodles of cheesecake recipes out there, but this one is my own special blend. It’s a combination of several well-liked recipes I found online, adapted to be safe for my family’s myriad food limitations. The results got rave reviews!

Please note, this recipe is wheat-free, but not technically gluten-free, since the cookies used in the crust contain barley. To make it gluten-free, use gluten-free graham crackers (FYI, most contain soy) or skip the crust entirely. The Healthy Times Organic Maple Arrowroot Cookies I used are wheat-free/dairy-free/soy-free and are found in the baby/toddler food aisle at Smart & Final or Whole Foods. They are a surprisingly perfect substitute for graham cracker taste in cheesecake crust, but without the wheat!

Ingredients

  • 1 full box Healthy Times Organic Maple Arrowroot Cookies
  • 2 Tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 packages (8 oz. each) regular cream cheese at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 3/8 cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain (nonfat is fine)
  • 3/4 Tbsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp. corn starch
  • Extra butter for greasing the pan

Equipment

  • Food processor, blender, or Ziploc bag & rolling pin for crushing cookies
  • Glass pie pan
  • Large mixing bowl
  • Electric mixer or stand mixer

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease pie pan and set aside.
  2. Crush the cookies to crumbs using a food processor, blender, or rolling pin and a Ziploc bag.
  3. Mix cookie crumbs with 2 Tbsp. melted butter until evenly distributed. Press into bottom of the pie pan. Don’t worry about building the sides of the crust like a pie; New York cheesecake just has graham cracker crust on the bottom.
  4. Bake the crust at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. It should smell good but probably won’t change color much.
  5. While the crust is baking, use the electric mixer to blend the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. One at a time, add milk, then eggs, then yogurt, vanilla and corn starch. Mix only until blended evenly.
  6. Pour cheesecake mix into pie pan. Make sure there’s some room for it to rise without overflowing. (It will rise during baking, then collapse while cooling.)
  7. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Let cool at room temperature, then in the refrigerator. Serve cold.

Source

Adapted from Chantal’s New York Cheesecake on AllRecipes.com, with inspiration also from Cooking for Engineers and Baking Bites.