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fluffy cheesecake
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Fluffy Cheesecake

Fluffy Cheesecake made with stiffly beaten egg whites.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword fluffy cheesecake
Prep Time 12 hours
Cook Time 2 hours 30 minutes
Total Time 14 hours 30 minutes
Servings 16 people
Author Anna
Cost 5

Ingredients

Crust:

  • 1 ¾ cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
  • teaspoon salt

Filling:

  • 2 8 oz packages cream cheese, softened (228 grams)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 2 cups sour cream, room temperature (16 oz volume package)
  • 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ 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. Do not open the door!
  • Reduce heat to 250 degrees F. and continue baking for another 30 minutes. Again, do not open the door.
  • Turn off heat, and let cake remain 1 hr longer with door closed. Open door and let cake remain at least ½ hour longer. Alternatively, if you don't see any cracks and want to err on the side of it being more baked than keep the door closed for that last half hour.
  • Let cool at room temperature, then chill overnight or for at least 8 hours. Top with pie filling if desired.

Notes

This recipe is adapted from one I found on a bulletin board. It was posted by Adam and endorsed by two other people. I changed the crust, but stayed true to the rest of the recipe. Adam said the slow cooling was supposed to prevent cracking. My cheesecake had a huge crack, but I'd planned on covering it with cherry topping anyway so I wasn't concerned. Update: Using 300 and 250 resulted in a much smaller crack.  The old bake time and temp was 300 degrees for one full hour, one hour in the off-oven with the door closed and ½ hour in the oven with the door open.  Cool at room temperature and then chill overnight. Also, do not open the door at any point so that the oven will retain heat.
Do not use light sour cream or any light ingredients.