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Briana Thomas

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New York Style Cheesecake

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NY Style Cheesecake

Originally posted November 24, 2014.  Recipe most recently edited July 8, 2016.

I’ve found that cheesecakes are some of the best healthy desserts to take to a party because a) they’re pretty normal-tasting if you’re careful with your sweetener, and b) they’re just one of those desserts that are perceived as fancy and party-worthy even if they’re plain and simple.  Don’t be afraid to make a cheesecake, folks!  They’re really not that hard, and the directions for this one are quite simple.  It turns out delicious, too.

NY Style Cheesecake

My Grandma Yoder is the legendary cheesecake maker of the family, and it’s her recipe that we have used for years.  In the church cookbook, the recipe is actually called “Dream Cheese Cake,” with good reason.  This is the stuff that dreams are made of.

NY Style Cheesecake

Dense, rich, and velvety, this cheesecake is sublime; and it’s perfect for special occasions!  I adapted my grandma’s recipe when I needed a birthday cake for my friend Emily (don’t worry-I was prepared to quickly whip something else up in case this cheesecake didn’t turn out), and we enjoyed it while sitting in Cracker Barrel.  I even gave our waitress some, and she gave it profuse compliments.  Not like I really expected her to say it was gross, even if it was, but…

NY Style Cheesecake

This cheesecake…I made it last November (when I first posted it) for my friend Emily’s birthday.  I healthified my Grandma Yoder’s legendary “Dream Cheese Cake” recipe and it turned out great.  There were still a few things I wanted to tweak, though.  Last fall when I made this cheesecake, it cracked majorly on the top because I didn’t know I was supposed to let my ingredients set out at room temperature.  This time – let’s just say that this is the most structurally perfect cheesecake I have ever seen, if I do say so myself, and I couldn’t believe that I had made something so pretty.  My stuff doesn’t usually turn out this perfectly.  My mom is the one who makes perfect cheesecakes, not me.  Probably because she follows directions.  I don’t even follow my own directions, much less someone else’s.  And that’s the reason I’m also simplifying the recipe directions from how I wrote them originally.  Because I didn’t follow them and the cheesecake turned out wonderfully.

NY Style Cheesecake

Not only is this cheesecake beautiful, but it also happens to be one of the best-tasting (read: normal) healthy/sugar free desserts I have ever made.  I would definitely serve this to company, or at a party, or to a waitress at Cracker Barrel.

NY Style Cheesecake

In the “Notes” section of the recipe, I’ve included instructions to how I made the chocolate decorations for the cheesecake as well as the recipe for the blueberry sauce I made to top the cheesecake.  The blueberry sauce is definitely my favorite topping, but you could also do homemade sweetened whipped cream and chocolate syrup (Hershey’s brand sells a sugar-free chocolate syrup that’s sweetened mostly with erythritol, or you could make your own from scratch).

New York Style Cheesecake   New York Style Cheesecake

You can pin this recipe from my THM Desserts board here.

Click here to see my mini cheesecakes recipe that can also be doubled and baked in a 9×13″ pan.  It’s not as fluffy as this New York style cheesecake, but it’s a little simpler.

Question of the day: do you have any cheesecake flavors you’d like me to healthify?

New York Style Cheesecake

You can find this recipe in my cookbook, Necessary Food.

Necessary Food: Traditional Favorites Made Healthy - low-glycemic cookbook by Briana Thomas

 

5.0 from 3 reviews
New York Style Cheesecake
 
Author:
Serves: 12-14
Print
 
THM:S, Sugar free, Low-carb, Gluten/nut free (allergy info not including suggested toppings) | Make the day before serving and refrigerate overnight for best results. Be sure to leave your ingredients out overnight to warm up to room temperature before making the cheesecake.
Ingredients
Crust:
Cheesecake:
  • 6 eggs, room temperature, separated
  • 20 oz. cream cheese, room temperature (I use 8 ounces of full-fat cream cheese and 12 ounces of reduced-fat cream cheese; if you use all reduced-fat cream cheese, your cheesecake is more likely to crack on top.)
  • 3 T oat fiber (use gluten free if necessary)
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 2 T THM Super Sweet Blend
  • 1 T THM Gentle Sweet (or more, to taste)*
  • 1 pint full-fat sour cream, room temperature**
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • -
  • 1 tsp. cream of tartar
Suggested Toppings:
  • Blueberry sauce (see recipe in Notes section), chocolate decorations (see Notes section), real whipped cream sweetened with a low-glycemic sweetener of choice, FF Reddi-Whip, chopped pecans, sugar-free chocolate syrup, sugar-free maple-flavored syrup
Instructions
  1. Bring all ingredients to room temperature.
  2. To make the crust, whisk the dry ingredients together, then add the butter and Greek yogurt and mix well. Press into the bottom of a greased 10-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 6 minutes. Set aside.
  3. For the cheesecake, separate your eggs. Beat the cream cheese and egg yolks together until smooth. Add the oat fiber, salt, and sweetener and beat until smooth. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract and beat again.
  4. Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
  5. Fold the egg whites into the cream cheese mixture gently. Pour the mixture onto your prebaked crust and smooth the top. Wrap the pan in a large piece of tinfoil so water cannot leak in and place the springform pan in a larger pan filled with ½-1 inch of water. Bake this at 325 degrees F for 1 hr. and 5 minutes or until set. Turn the oven off, open the door, and leave the cheesecake in there for 10 minutes. Take the cheesecake out and let it cool completely on a wire rack before refrigerating overnight. Serve and enjoy! Yields 12-14 servings
Notes
*I chose the sweeteners I have listed here for the perfect combination of sugar-like sweetness and economy. THM Gentle Sweet does a great job of sweetening desserts and tasting like sugar, but I like to pair it with a more concentrated sweetener like THM Super Sweet Blend to make it stretch. I don't recommend sweetening this cheesecake with pure stevia. Feel free to use whatever low glycemic sweetener you prefer, to taste. The amounts I have listed here produce a cheesecake that is not overly sweet. I don't like my cheesecake to be sickly sweet; I think the Europeans have it right.
**I like to use full fat sour cream, not Greek yogurt, in most of my cheesecake recipes for optimum creaminess.
To make a blueberry sauce, I brought 1 cup frozen blueberries, 2 cups of water, and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a boil. I whisked in ½ tsp. of glucomannan, simmered for a few minutes, took the pan off the heat, and added 6 doonks of THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder, a dash of salt, and some vanilla flavoring. Refrigerate to thicken and enjoy on your cheesecake!
To make chocolate decorations, I slowly melted 2 oz. unsweetened baker's chocolate and 1 T butter in the microwave on "defrost", stirring often. Once it was all melted, I added 3 doonks of THM Pure Stevia Extract Powder. I put the chocolate in a plastic bag and let it sit on the counter a few minutes so it firmed up just a little. Then I cut a small hole in the tip of the bag and piped my decorations onto a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet. I froze the decorations until firm, then placed them on the cheesecake (which I kept refrigerated). This makes a pretty dark chocolate.
This recipe was printed after the update made on July 8, 2016.

Briana’s Baking Mix recipe

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Comments

  1. I am ready to make this cheesecake as it looks delicious! Has anyone made this cheesecake and froze it? I would like to make it ahead for company and freeze it to save last minute baking. If not good frozen, , how long will it keep in the refrigerator?
    Thank You

    Reply

    • I would make it and refrigerate it. 🙂 It will freeze OK, but the texture won’t be quite as nice when thawed. Cheesecakes keep great in the fridge for quite a few days…in fact, they get even better as they age!

      Reply

  2. This looks so delicious! Is there anything i can use in place of oat fiber? I don’t have any on hand.

    Reply

    • Oat fiber is a really unique fine, dry flour so there aren’t a lot of great substitutes for it. I know some people use psyllium husks in its place, but I’ve never tried that. If you don’t have it, I recommend leaving it out of the cheesecake part (it’s just meant to help it set up a little firmer) and adding extra baking mix in the crust in its place. The texture won’t be quite as nice, but it should still be good. 🙂

      If you want to get some oat fiber, I recommend this brand. Not all brands taste good, but this one has a really light color and taste. (affiliate link) https://www.briana-thomas.com/recommends/oat-fiber/

      Reply

  3. Briana,
    I have made this cheesecake several times and my family loves it. Ummm…and so do I, very much.
    I was wondering can I add lemon to this and some lemon zest to change it up? Or use other extracts to give it other flavors without changing the recipe to much. I love the texture of this cheesecake.
    Thanks so much for all you do for us that have no real cooking talents.

    Reply

  4. I made this for Valentines, but was a bit disappointed in the flavor – I can distinctly taste the oat fiber (a somewhat bitter taste) both in the crust and the cheesecake. Am I supposed to taste the oat fiber, or Do I have a bad batch of oat fiber? It is the first I’ve ever bought (NuNaturals brand), so I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste/smell like… If we put enough Fat Free Reddi Whip on it, the flavor of the oat fiber is less noticeable…. Could it be made without the oatfiber?

    Other than this problem with the oat fiber, the cheesecake turned out amazing – texture and all was so nice.

    Reply

    • I’m afraid it’s the oat fiber! I’ve tried NuNaturals brand too and it tastes like Play-doh to me! The oat fiber I use (LifeSource brand) is very light in color and taste; there’s a huge difference. 🙁 We get ours from Netrition (affiliate link) >> https://www.briana-thomas.com/recommends/oat-fiber/

      I’m sorry the flavor wasn’t good! That’s very disappointing.

      Reply

      • Thanks for your help! I will definitely try LifeSource brand oat fiber and see if that makes a difference. I think I’m going to have to try the recipe again! More cheesecake 🙂 Meanwhile, I’m still eating some for breakfast (with reddi whip, and coffee on the side!:)

        All of your other recipes I’ve tried have been great. Thanks for the great resources – it’s a help on my THM journey. Also, I so appreciate your clear testimony for the Lord.

        Reply

  5. Can I get a copy of your original recipe posted in 2014? I liked it and want to make it again. It used more readily available ingredients that I can find at the store.

    Reply

  6. Just wanted to tell you that I made this cheesecake for our family’s Easter lunch. Everyone loved it. I have never baked a cheesecake like this before so I was a bit apprehensive but your directions were easy to follow and i followed your advice in the notes. I will add that I only had THM baking mix so I used 5T (all I had left) and added some chopped pecans in the crust. It had a nice flavor. I made the berry sauce using a bag of mixed frozen berries, 1T of lemon juice and used pyure in the whole baking process. When the sauce had reduced some, I pushed it through a sieve to remove the seeds for my picky eaters. but I was thrilled that it turned out just like your picture! Thanks so much!

    Reply

    • Hmm…I’ve never used a 9-inch pan, so I don’t know if this recipe would fit in one or not. If it does, it would be thicker so you’ll probably need to increase the baking time.

      Reply

  8. This is my project for tomorrow! Briana, anything I can sub for the 3T oat fiber? I can only find the brand locally that tastes like sawdust, and costs an arm and a kidney.

    Reply

    • You could try just leaving it out. It’s there for added stability, but I don’t think the results of leaving it out would be too disastrous. 😉 I prefer LifeSource brand oat fiber from Netrition.com.

      Reply

  9. Hey Briana I just made your cheesecake last night, or shall I say early this morning like 2 am lol. Any who, I didn’t realize I needed 8 eggs and only left out 6 not 8 and forgot to leave the sour cream out as well and the cake this morning is kinda crumbly and sticks to the knife. Could it be because of those other two eggs and sour cream that made it do that? It’s got an awesome taste BTW and I used 1 1/2 tsp Pyure sweetener in the crust and about 1 1/2 – 2 tsp of it in the cake itself.

    Reply

    • Did you leave the two eggs and sour cream out, or just add them in cold? I’m assuming you just added them in cold. I’m afraid I’m not sure what to tell you about it being crumbly because it’s never done that for me. The only thing I could guess would be that you maybe baked it too long?

      Reply

  10. Good morning Briana. I would love to make this for a friend’s birthday but I don’t have the Pure Stevia Extract. I will order but it won’t be here in time. Will it make a huge difference if I don’t use it? I have trivia and Gentle Sweet.
    Thank you!
    Toni

    Reply

  12. Hi Briana,
    I love your desserts and planned to make the NY style cheesecake today. I am still waiting for my oat fiber to be delivered. Can I substitute something else or omit that ingredient?
    Thank you so much for sharing your love and gift of cooking!
    Blessings!
    Cari

    Reply

  13. Do you leave all the ingredients out over night? Sour cream too? Thanks!! And I would LOVE to see an apple strudel cheesecake this fall! 🙂

    Reply

    • Yes, all the ingredients need to be at room temperature, including the sour cream. 🙂 Thanks for the suggestion!

      Reply

  14. I fixed your cheesecake for Mother’s Day and it was delicious! I didn’t have oat fiber but substituted whey protein and it turned out great. Thank you 🙂
    My oldest DD was be interested in eating more healthy and I get encouragement on my THM journey. She really enjoys reading your blog and trying out new yummy recipes. Thank you for being a blessing and encouragement!

    Reply

  15. Hi Briana!

    I know you don’t seem to be a big fan of making recommendations for things you haven’t tried…but I could use your help with this one. We can’t have almonds in the house (major allergy). Any thoughts on what flour would work well for the crust? Depending on what you suggest, would more/less liquid be needed? I’m hoping to make this for dessert on Sunday!

    Thanks,
    Joy

    Reply

    • Haha…you know me pretty well. 😉 The crust takes half almond flour, half coconut flour. You could use all coconut flour but not use a full cup (because coconut flour soaks up a lot of liquid). I’ve found that things made solely with coconut flour can be crumbly, so personally I would probably replace the almond flour with oat flour. It would add a few carbs per serving but stay well within S limits, and I think oat flour is fairly comparable to almond flour in the amount of liquid it soaks up. Hope it turns out well!

      Reply

    • I’ve heard that psyllium husk is very similar to oat fiber and can often be used interchangeably with it. I’ve never tried it. I’ve also heard that some people use protein powder as a substitute for oat fiber sometimes, but I don’t know if that would work in this recipe or not. If you don’t have psyllium husk, I would probably just omit the oat fiber. The cheesecake just might not set up as firmly. I highly recommend ordering some oat fiber; it has a very fine texture similar to white flour and I like to use it to thicken things.

      Reply

  18. Cheesecake Factory makes a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake with a chocolate crust. It is very rich and pure dense chocolate heaven. Pretty please THM a chocolate cheesecake! Ps. I love your ice creams!

    Reply

  19. Oh my, I remember I had a favorite cheesecake recipe at Claim Jumper that came into their bakery every Autumn…pumpkin cheesecake. If you could make a healthified (and preferably delicious) version of that, I would personally drive to wherever-it-is-you-live and pat you on the back.

    Reply

      • I would love a THM-ified pumpkin cheesecake! I make one every year for my grandson’s birthday (at his request), and it would be great to have one that is healthier. His mom is a THM-er, and he asks her to make a regular cheesecake. I will suggest to her that she use this New York Style Cheesecake recipe. Healthy “birthday cake” for the whole family!!

        By the way, how could I get a copy of your church cookbook? I find that they are the best for my style of cooking (Amish/Mennonite background). You could email me the info. Thanks!

        Reply

        • I’ll keep that in mind, Norma!
          As for the cookbook, most of the ones we use are quite old and I don’t know where you could get any copies. My church doesn’t have a cookbook; these are from the church my mom attended growing up. I’m sure you could find similar Amish/Mennonite style cookbooks on Amazon.

          Reply

      • I am just seeing this, came over from Gwens’ Nest. I was going to suggest pumpkin, but I see a lot of others beat me to it. Did you ever do a pumpkin recipe? Pumpkin is my very favorite and yesterday as I was cleaning out my pantry I found five cans of it, so…yeah, pumpkin cheesecake recipe, pleeeeeeze? THANK YOU!

        Reply

        • I haven’t worked with the pumpkin cheesecake yet (maybe this fall!), but I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to tweak this recipe with it. I’ll put that one on my list for Thanksgiving recipes.

          Reply

  20. Thank you so much for this recipe! I wanted to make something special for the DH’s birthday and this was perfect. I’m not to confident yet with using sugar substitutes and I was a little too conservative, but once we put some sweetened berries on top it was perfect. Thank you for making it easy!

    Reply

  21. Do you know how using a 9in glass pie plate change the ingredient amounts and baking time? I don’t have a springform pan and I’m not a very experienced baker.

    Reply

    • Easiest solution: buy a spring-form pan. 😛 A pie plate isn’t really an idea substitute.
      This would be way too much batter for a 9-inch pie plate, but I’m not sure exactly how much too much. I’m guessing 1/4-1/3 batch might work? That might even be a little bit much. You’d probably need at least a half batch of the crust. Without the correct pan, this is going to take quite a bit of experimentation which probably isn’t great if you’re not an experienced baker.

      Reply

    • I realize this was posted a long time ago, but thought I would throw out making this into mini cheesecakes, using paper or silicone liners and a muffin tin would probably work better than a pie plate. 🙂

      Reply

  23. Just got done with Thanksgiving dinner where I served your cheesecake and it was a hit with everyone! No one believed it was sugar free. Thank you so much!

    Reply