Fluffy Cheesecake started as an excuse to use up some cream cheese. Plus, I was curious to see what would happen when folding whipped egg whites into a cheesecake. Little did I know this would become one of our favorite cheesecake recipes. It’s only a fluffy cheesecake in comparison to dense, thick, New York style, but fluffy is the word people sometimes use to describe this texture so I’m sticking with it for now.
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Only 2 packages of Cream Cheese vs 5!
Along with the light yet rich texture, what I love about this recipe is it only calls for 2 packs of cream cheese. Classic New York Style Cheesecake usually has 5 packs of cream cheese, but in Fluffy Cheesecake a good amount of sour cream along with the beaten egg whites makes up for the missing cream cheese. This makes the cheesecake slightly less expensive — or at least when cream cheese is not on sale!
Fluffy Cheesecake Baking Time
The first time I made this cheesecake, I baked it at 300 for an hour then let it sit in the “off” oven for an hour. It did have a big crack which I had to cover with fruit topping. Even though it was delicious, I started experimenting with different bake times and came up with one that was practically crack-free. The new cheesecake bake time is 300 for 30 minutes, 250 for 30 minutes, 1 hour in the “off” oven with the door closed and 30 minutes in the oven with the door ajar.
Here’s what the cheesecake should look like with the new bake times.
Fluffy Cheesecake Cherry Topping
While covering cracks shouldn’t be a huge issue here, you may want a delicious cherry topping. My family likes canned cherry topping so I sometimes spoon a little of that over the top, but when I’m feeling more ambitious I make homemade cherry topping using Trader Joe’s (or Aldi brand) dark Morello Cherries.
More Recipe Notes
A reader notified me that her cheesecake did not cook through using the temps and times in the recipe. That is, 300 for 30 minutes, 250 for 30 minutes, door closed (oven off) for an hour and a final 30 minutes in the off-oven with the door open. I tested the cheesecake again in yet a new oven using those same times and temps and the cheesecake was fluffy and fully cooked. If this recipe doesn’t work for you using 300 and 250 for the first hour, you could try using 300 for the first hour, as it may just have to do with different ovens and how they hold their heat.
Fluffy Cheesecake
Ingredients
Crust:
- 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Filling:
- 2 packages 8 oz each of cream cheese (softened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 large egg yolks
- 2 cups 16 oz sour cream, room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 5 large egg whites
- Topping is optional — We like canned cherry pie filling so I usually just throw that on. Plain sweetened whipped cream would be good too.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Rub a 9 inch springform pan all over with butter.
- Mix together crust ingredients and press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the pan. Set it on a baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Let cool.
- Reduce oven heat to 300 degrees F.
- With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
- Add yolks, sour cream, vanilla, and lemon juice; mix until smooth.
- Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, and fold into mixture. Pour over crust and smooth the top.
- Set on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 300 degrees F.
- Reduce heat to 250 degrees F. and continue baking for another 30 minutes.
- Turn off heat, and let cake remain 1 hr longer with door closed. Open door and let cake remain at least 1/2 hour longer.
- Let cool at room temperature, then chill overnight or for at least 8 hours. Top with pie filling if desired.
Anna
Glad it worked for you, Patrick! With all the weird times and temps, I’m always concerned about the variables in oven behavior.
Patrick McClave
What a wonderful cheesecake. I’ve been bored with my go to Philadelphia New York recipe. In search of a lighter affair I’m so happy to have found your recipe.
No cracks, great flavor, excellent crust. Thanks so much for indulging my sweet tooth.
Anna
Melissa, thanks!! I’m glad you can make this one without any cracks.
Melissa
This has become my go to cheesecake recipe. My family loves it and so dies my husband. I always have to make two to satisfy the multitudes and its delicious with or without topping. If the baking instictions are provided it should work out perfectly. Mine have had no cracks at all. Problems might come from anything like your own to the oven youre using ( my baby is a gas stove so it cooks and bakes heavenly) also I think John is looking for a not fluffy cake. So I think he’s looking at the wrong recipe
Anna
Hi Angela,
I think the mango pulp would make the cheesecake gritty and would ruin the consistency. Your best best would probably be to make the cheesecake as directed but make a topping with mango pulp.
Angela
If I want to add mango pulp to this recipe do I need to make any alterations to other ingredients?
Anna
I’m going to count this as a good review ;).
Christopher L Jones
I varied slightly substituting sour cream for a product I bake with regularly since finding it last year called Marscopone made by Vermont Creamery. I’m not sure if this changed the outcome but I followed everything else to the letter and had no crack when the cake was finished. it was fluffier than my normal recipe but didnt rise as much as i hoped it would was completely devoured (less a slice left for the old man) by the heathan savages I call my family before I even arrived home from work this evening. After completing a full interrogation of all the usual suspects involved only two solid facts were gathered. FACT 1. This was by far my best cheesecake to date. And Fact 2. The wworld renound masterminds that go by the name of I don’t know and wasn’t me led yet another full on ghost assault of our kitchen and before anyone could see what happened disappeared into the night prompting everyone in their wake to become out of control cheesecake felons.
John
Anna,
It wasn’t THAT bad..lol. The 10-inch pan would have made the diff between good and great. I’ll make your recipe again.
Anna
John, I’m really sorry it didn’t work out for you. Maybe you should try the New York Style Cheesecake — the one with 5 packs of cream cheese and extra egg yolks. Let me know when you find one you love!
John
Well, all worked out. It was good, not great, but certainly not a disaster either. It was well enjoyed. I’m putting it down to using a new recipe for the first time..lol. It was very fluffy, tasted great, but just a little tricky slicing. Too tall and too light can be a problem. A 10 inch pan would have helped greatly. But all in all, a very yummy cheesecake.
John
I was happy with it when I put in the fridge. Will see what the morrow brings. It’s a lot of cake for a 9 inch pan.
Anna
It should be pretty wobbly, so let it cool and report back! You probably won’t really know until it’s been in the refrigerator for 12 hours.
John
Hey Anna
How firm should the cake be at the end of baking? I’m used to the center being wobbly at the end, but this one seems especially so. Does it firm up during cooling? Am I just being impatient?..lol
Anna
Good luck, John!! Don’t worry about the egg whites because even if they deflate a bit they’ll still add some bulk to the cake. They won’t dry it out. The best tip I can give you is to make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. My biggest downfall is I forget to let the cream cheese soften up enough and if any of the other ingredients are the least bit cold, it lumps up. Lumps usually smooth out as the cake bakes, but I think seeing little lumps of cream cheese motivates me to beat the batter too much and beating the batter definitely contributes to cracks.
John
I’ve been scouring cheesecake recipes for the last few days. Yours is the one I’m going with. I’ll be doing a key lime version.
I saw that cornstarch is good for preventing cracks too, but I’m a little leery of trying it given the egg whites.
I’ll let you know how I how it goes…lol
Anna
Hello John,
I use water baths all the time for other recipes, but for this one I purposely avoid it because I want more fluff and less creaminess. Then again, a water bath might help. I think the baking times and temps would have to be completely re-jiggered. Honestly, the crack doesn’t bother me much because I always cover it up with fruit.
John
Have you tried baking your cheesecake in a water bath? Or just set a pan of hot water on the rack below? This usually defeats the cracking issue for me.
Anna
Hi Kristen,
I’m glad it worked for you! After all the cheesecakes I’ve tried over the years I feel like I should put this one on the top of the list since it’s so reliable. The other thing I like about it is it’s a little less expensive (or I perceive it to be!) since it only calls for 2 packs of cream cheese and sour cream is always on sale.
Kristen Daugherty
This cheesecake is amazing! I followed the recipe and it is very fluffy, creamy, and I didn’t have any cracks at all! It looked beautiful and tastes amazing as well! I would definitely recommend this if you are even thinking about making it because it was pretty easy and turned out great! The great thing about this cheesecake is that it isn’t dense like most other baked cheesecakes. Love it!!!
Anna
Thanks for posting the review! I’m so happy this cheesecake is working out for everyone.
Folee
Dont like heavy cheesecake. This was nice & fluffy. The way my family likes it. Will only make this one from now on.
Anna
Hooray! Mercedes, that’s great news. This has also become one of my favorites even though the last time I had a small crack.
Mercedes
Turned out so good with no cracks!!!!! We were making dinner also, so ended up leaving it in a closed oven for about an hour and a half and not ONE SIGN OF A CRACK ANYWHERE!!! Now for the taste test!!!! Best one I’ve ever made so far!!! I’m mad you can’t leave a picture comment!!!
Annette
I made this the other day. It was awesome. Since what I had was the smallest ready cookie graham, I made half recipe but added a little bit more sugar. It was super fluffy, super easy to cut. Maybe a little messy because of the fluffiness but let me tell you it is really good. This recipe is a keeper.
Anna
Katrina, mine cracked too. Glad you tried it! It will probably be even better on Day 2.
Katrina
Well, darn (but it’s not that big of deal), the cheesecake baked, no splitting, during the last little bit of the hour in the oven it split. Strange. Oh well, this one will be covered with cherries, too. It does seem “fluffier”/not as dense.
Katrina
I’m going to make this for my son’s 18th birthday tomorrow. I have a huge thing of sour cream to use, so that sold me. 😉
Sonya
Yummy!!! I just made a bunch of cheesecakes this past weekend – first comparing my recipes for New York Cheesecake (I made 2) to an Icebox Cheesecake, and then comparing pumpkin cheesecakes (2 cakes, 1 bar recipe, and a pie/cheesecake recipe). The funny thing is that I don’t think I could ever get tired of cheesecake! PS Our personal favorites from the recipes I tested were the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook’s New York Cheesecake and the Cook’s Illustrated Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake.
Anna
Fluffy is probably not the best descriptor, but that’s the classification I kept running across in my searches. Maybe “airy” would be a better way to describe it? Or maybe just “lighter? My favorite is still the New York style, but the family really liked this one. There are just so many ways to make cheesecake.
Sue
The cheesecake looks wonderful but I’m not sure how I feel about fluffy cheesecake. I love your New York style cheesecake.