The World’s Best Cheesecake
With its smooth, creamy center, buttery graham cracker crust, and a touch of tangy lemon, this truly is the Best Cheesecake in the world.
By Yankee Magazine|Jul 14 2022|
World's Best Cheesecake
Photo Credit: Aimee TuckerYour grandmother will have to forgive us, but this truly is the best cheesecake recipe in the world. It’s wonderful with toppings like chocolate or fresh fruit, but will also stand out just on its own. With a smooth, creamy center that doesn’t crack, a buttery walnut and graham cracker crust, and a touch of tangy lemon, this recipe is fit for the blue ribbon at any event. So whether it’s a special holiday or just family night at home, you can brag that your recipe is the World’s Best Cheesecake.
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Yield:
10 to 12 servings
Crust
Ingredients
2 cups crushed graham crackers
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1/4 cup crushed walnuts
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine ingredients and press evenly across bottom and sides of a 10-inch springform pan.
Filling
Ingredients
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Combine cream cheese and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. Beat in the lemon juice. Pour filling over crust, and bake for 45 minutes without opening the oven door. Remove cheesecake and reduce heat to 300 degrees F.
Topping
Ingredients
1 pint sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Mix ingredients and spread over cheesecake. Return to oven and bake for 15 minutes longer. Cool on rack for several hours, then refrigerate overnight. Serve plain or topped with fresh fruit.
This is a wonderful cheesecake, and have been making it for years. It’s got a creamy texture to it. I believe I first saw it in the Almanac back in the 80’s as Mrs. Trebilcocks Cheesecake. I use this as a base recipe, and use many different ingredients; you can do anything you want with this. Wonderful!My favorite is one I make for Christmas with chocolate swirl and raspberry liquor, and chocolate wafer crumb crust.
This is a great cheesecake, and yes, the recipe was in an OFA from the 80s. Virginia Trebilcock’s recipe with a wonderful history of cheesecake, including my favorite line to the effect that “one slice equals the annual caloric eqivalent of a small country”!! But worth it! It’s a favorite with my friends and family–something my children will remember me by! NOTE–I add an extra tablespoon of lemon juice over what the recipe calls for.
This cheesecake is the favorite of my family and I’ve been making it since I received the edition of The Old Farmer’s Almanac it was printed in. I live in Norway and have tried the recipe on my Norwegian friends and finally had to give them the recipe, too! It’s really good and easy to make!
I love cheesecake too, but I must say Marsipankake og Bløtekake is still my favorite over cheesecake any day. Har det!!!!!!!
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This was the best tasting cheesecake I ever made. It didn’t crack like most do! The lemon juice gave it a nice, fresh flavor. Also loved the walnuts in the crust. My family raved about this recipe.
My grandmother has made this recipe since she saw it in the magazine. She still has the original clipping. It is a staple at every family gathering, any time of year. A winner that will be passed down! (She says to make sure you follow the directions and beat each egg separately!)
I searched specifically THE BEST CHEESECAKES on the web, and i found it! EVERYONE that’s tasted it just wants more! I did end up using about 5 to 6 tablespoons of lemon juice for a tad of tangyness and it is most delicious even without fruit. The ONLY reason I call on fruit is for presentation – taste is great!!!!
I finally bought a springform pan last week just so I could make my own cheesecakes. This was the first recipe I tried and the flavor was fantastic, so was the texture at least where it cooked fully … I’ll need to cook mine a bit longer than 45 minutes next time as it was still quite runny in the center after setting in the fridge all night. I’ll be using this recipe again without a doubt.
Ever since I found this cheesecake recipe in a Farmer’s Almanac years ago, I have been making several every Christmas and for my daughter’s birthday (her choice of cake). No other compares. It remains a family favorite.
This Cheesecake is easy but the best Cheesecake ever!i mixed everything together I guess I missed putting in sour cream ingredients separate.Came out phenomenal anyway!topped it with a pecans heavy cream and light brown sugar and rum syrup !Yum devoured it for Christmas!
For the filling is it a half cup of sugar or 1and a half cup of sugar.? Also any suggestions for removing the springform pan? When is the best time to remove it???? Thank you can’t wait to make this for Thanksgiving dinner… sounds delicious!!!
This cheesecake, I’m sure, is very good, however, nothing in my mind beats lindy’s cheesecake recipe from their restaurants in new york, which was published in the February 1956 issue of family circle magazine, along with other famous restaurants cheesecake recipes. My mother kept this issue her entire life and my sister threw out everything I would have wanted and has been very difficult about everything else, as well. This recipe is for strawberry glaze and strawberries on the top. Lindy’s also sold pineapple topping, I believe. There was a famous restaurant in Boston, Steuben’s, that had the same recipe for their cheesecake and we used to go there to buy their cheesecake to bring home. I’m making this today. This recipe has lemon rind in the cookie crust and lemon and orange rinds in the filling, which really gives it a nice flavor. I got local strawberries for it, which makes it really nice.
Simply the best ever. I clipped the original article and have it nestled in my baking scrapbook.
You cannot tell from the photo here, but when you are finished with this recipe there will be a small white disk of ‘French sour cream’ on top of your cake. That is what the third step of the recipe is about. I am pretty sure that when this recipe appeared in Yankee there was a photo without fruit on top that made this all clearer. I usually omit this step. After 45 minutes of baking I pull the cake out, turn the oven down to 300 and put the timer to 15 minutes and finish baking it. Then I let it cool in the pan a few hours and then (leaving it in the pan) I cover it with tin foil and put it in the fridge. We never eat it until the next day when everything has a chance to solidify and the ingredients acquaint themselves. If you follow this method, I promise you will not have a issue getting the side of the pan off of the cake. You may want to run a thin, sharp knife around the inside edge of the pan but I find you don’t even need to do that.
If your top is cracking it could be that your oven is too hot and needs calibration.
I have made this cake with the French sour cream top as instructed, but I tend to prefer it plain or with just fruit on top. It is a beautiful cake when covered with cherries. Today I made it with pineapple since that was the request.
I have made many, many different cheesecakes over the years but I always come back to this one. It is the cake that everyone requests to eat and everyone asks for the recipe. I always oblige. Why is it so good? No fillers. Use good ingredients and this cake just can’t be beat. And no water bath baking method. That still surprises me for how evenly this cake bakes.
You can get the cardboard underlayment from your grocery bake shop if you ask. This is especially helpful if you are, like me, a proud owner of a springform pan with decades of good patina on it and refuse to leave your pan when you go home. :).
But, rest assured, there rarely are leftovers of this cake.
I just did a major kitchen renovation and this was the first thing I baked in my new wall ovens. How evenly baked this cake comes out of the oven is a true test of the appliance and the cake.
This recipe is a real keeper. And I love my new ovens.
Enjoy!
I put parchment paper on the bottom and around the sides of the spring form pan and when you remove the side it looks like a bakery cake, all nice and smooth
Patty B’s restaurant in Dover NH makes a fabulous cheesecake. The best I have ever had.
This is my first time making cheese cake,by request Iam going for it.i looked up best cheesecake,red the reviews,and picked up the ingredients.now I am realizing I do not have a spring pan or electric mixer. Time to see if my mother taught me anything when I was young,based on the ingredients if I don’t kill it in the oven I am sure it will be great!
My mother found this recipe in the 1980’s. I think it had been reprinted in Ohio Magazine. It is the absolute best recipe I’ve ever used! I misplaced my copy and was thrilled to find it again online. I’d love to find more of Virginia Trebilock’s recipes if this is any indicator. When I realized I’ve been making this for over 35 years, I figured I’ve probably made it at least 50 times. Great plain or topped with fruit or hot fudge and whipped cream.
Lynn, this recipe sounds so great, but not sure what they mean by “crushed” walnuts. When you make yours do you make the walnuts similar in texture to your crushed graham crackers? Thanks.
The recipe was in the 1989 Farmer’s Almanac along with an interesting history of cheesecake. That almanac is one highlight of my cookbook collection.
If you don’t have a springform pan, can another type pan be used?
I use the largest graham cracker crust for a luscious cheese cake. It filled to the top, but came out perfect. I used my judgement about how long to bake.
I’ve been making this since 1989. I got the recipe in the Kansas City, Missouri newspaper.