Light and Airy Cheesecake

Cheesecake – a divine cake – how many times have I reminisced over, thought about, and made cheesecake - at least 5 documented here on this blog.  I love cheesecake and I am always willing to try a new version of cheesecake for different flavor profiles to textures.  This time I wanted a light and airy cheesecake that was tall, creamy and so light that it defied its principal ingredient, cream cheese.  This cheesecake not only met my requirements but exceeded them.  It is light and airy but maintains the classic flavor of cheesecake.

If light and creamy doesn't inspire, you may be interested in my other versions of cheesecake:

   Marble Cheesecake

   Manhattan Cheesecake   

   Pumpkin Cheesecake  

   Cheesecake Bars

Light and Creamy Cream Cheese Cheesecake

16 servings,

Crust

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

½ stick (4 tablespoons) butter, melted

Butter a 9-inch spring form pan and wrap the bottom of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil.

Stir the crumbs, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl (I crush in the food processor).

Pour over the melted butter and stir until all of the dry ingredients are uniformly moist. Empty the ingredients into the buttered spring form pan and pat an even layer of crumbs along the bottom of the pan using a flat bottomed measuring cup going about halfway up the sides.

Put the pan in the freezer while you preheat the oven.

Center a rack in the oven, preheat the oven to 350°F and place the spring form on a baking sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes.

Set the crust aside to cool on a rack while you make the cheesecake.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.

Cheesecake

2 pounds (four 8-ounce boxes) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/3 cups heavy cream

Put a kettle of water on to boil.

Working in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese at medium speed until it is soft and creamy about 4 minutes.

With the mixer running, add the sugar and salt and continue to beat another 4 minutes or so, until the cream cheese is light.

Beat in the vanilla.

Add the eggs one by one, beating for a full minute after each addition to aerate batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the heavy cream.

Put the foil-wrapped spring form pan in a roaster pan.

Give the batter a few stirs with a rubber spatula, just to make sure that nothing has been left unmixed at the bottom of the bowl, and scrape the batter into the spring form pan. The batter will reach the brim of the pan.

Put the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough boiling water into the roaster to come halfway up the sides of the spring form pan.

Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, at which point the top will be browned (and perhaps cracked) and may have risen just a little above the rim of the pan. Turn off the oven's heat and prop the oven door open with a wooden spoon.

Let the cheesecake stand in the water bath for another hour.

Remove pan from oven without upsetting water too much.

Remove foil carefully.

Place cheesecake on wire rack until at room temperature.

Cover the top loosely with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan,