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
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease pie pan and set aside.
- Crush the cookies to crumbs using a food processor, blender, or rolling pin and a Ziploc bag.
- 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.
- Bake the crust at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. It should smell good but probably won’t change color much.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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.