During my catering days, restaurant-style cheesecake was one of the most popular desserts. I devised a formula and had a menu with over a hundred flavors of cheesecake that I offered. Those cheesecakes were good, and my clients and their guests loved them, but they weren’t as good as a plain cheesecake that I tasted on a trip to New York at Nathan’s in the late 60s. After searching for many years, I finally found a comparable cheesecake recipe in a magazine, and have been making it with a few improvements for years. It is more involved than my catering cheesecakes, and I make the following Not Your Ordinary Restaurant Cheesecake only on special occasions and for special guests. It can be topped with sweetened sour cream and/or any fruit filling that is in season. You won’t want to waste a bit, and it freezes well.

This cheesecake is well worth the prohibitive cost of the ingredients, the monumental amount of calories and fat grams, and extra time needed to put it together. It is truly fit for royalty.

24 Servings

Crust:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 cup butter
2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:
4 8 oz. packages cream cheese
6 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups sour cream
6 tablespoons flour
7 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 325°. Spray a 10" tube pan (Angel Food Cake Pan with removable bottom) with non-stick spray.
2. Crust: Mix the flour, sugar, and lemon peel in a mixing bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles cornmeal; add the egg yolks and vanilla/
3. Pat 1/4 of the mixture over the bottom of the pan; pat the remaining up the sides.
4. Filling: Measure the cream cheese, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and salt into the bowl of a food processor; process until smooth.
5. Add the sour cream and flour and process, scraping the sides, until smooth.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form; fold the cream cheese mixture into the egg whites.
7. Pour the mixture into the crust-lined tube pan and bake one hour 20 minutes. Do not remove from the oven. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for one hour.
8. Chill well before removing from the pan.

Amount Per Serving
Calories 392 Calories from Fat 251
Percent Total Calories From: Fat 64% Protein 7% Carb. 29%

Nutrient Amount per Serving
Total Fat 28 g
Saturated Fat 15 g
Cholesterol 140 mg
Sodium 246 mg
Total Carbohydrate 28 g
Dietary Fiber 0 g
Sugars 17 g
Protein 7 g

Vitamin A 21% Vitamin C 1% Calcium 0% Iron 5%