The pastry chef at the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, Doron Groner, shares his classic Israeli cheesecake recipe.
This recipe includes baking up fresh cookies that will be crumbled to make the crust, you can skip this step and use tea biscuits or graham crackers, about 1-2 cups crumbs instead.
For the filling, the ideal cheese is a fromage blanc with 8% fat, but a low fat cream cheese will work well too.
Classic New York/Israeli Cheesecake
Servings
2 Servings
Ingredients
- 200 grams 7 ounces butter, melted plus 60 grams (5 tablespoons) butter, melted
- 300 grams 10½ ounces all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- 1.3 kg 2¾ pounds gevina levana or low fat cream cheese
- 900 grams 2 pounds sour cream
- 450 grams 1 pound 3½ cups powdered sugar
- 8 eggs
- 80 grams ½ cup potato starch
- Pinch of lemon zest
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 500 grams sour cream
- 500 grams powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Crust
- In a bowl, combine 200 grams melted butter, flour, and eggs. Mix until a dough is formed. Spread the dough on a cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cool, this step can be made a few days head. When cool, grind the cookies in a food processor until crumbly.
- Add the remaining 4 tablespoons melted butter and mix until a uniform mixture is created. Press into 2 (11-inch) springform pans and set aside.
- Filling
- In a large bowl whisk the cheese and sour cream together until smooth.
- Add powdered sugar and mix until fully incorporated.
- Add eggs and potato starch, lemon zest, and vanilla extract. Mix well. Pour into prepared 11-inch springform pans.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 340℉/170℃ and then reduce heat to 280℉/140℃ for 40 minutes.
- Topping
- In a bowl with whisk blend the sour cream and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Spread on to the cakes and bake for 7 minutes more at a 300℉/150℃.
- Cool and store in fridge until ready to serve.
The quantities overall are quite large and it actually makes 2 (11-inch) cakes, I just updated that, so it should be right.
800 grams potato starch seems like a lot… is that a mistake?