The Best Homemade Cheesecake – get the secret for the lightest and fluffiest cheesecake ever! Graham cracker crust, cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice. Super easy to make and everyone raves about it! Once you taste it you will know why!
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Pin This RecipeHomemade Cheesecake with No Water Bath
I’ve been making this cheesecake for years. The recipe came from a parent when my Mom taught school. This is truly The Best Homemade Cheesecake recipe on the planet! Chicken Legs says this is the best dessert that I make. He said other desserts I’ve made are good, but this is the absolute best!
What makes this cheesecake so great? It has a super light and fluffy texture. How does it get that way? The egg yolks are beaten in with the cream cheese and then the whipped egg whites are folded into the batter. That makes all the difference.
How to Make The Best Homemade Cheesecake
This dessert is easy to make with only a few simple ingredients. In a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Pour graham cracker mixture into a springform pan. Using a measuring cup or bottom of a glass, press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Wrap the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil and set aside.
Place cream cheese in the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add sugar and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg yolks, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Mix well.
In a large bowl, beat egg whites with a hand mixer on high speed until stiff and creamy. Carefully fold the egg whites into the cheesecake batter. Pour batter into the crust. Bake cheesecake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven and keep the oven door closed. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for an hour. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and cool it on a wire rack. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and freeze for several hours before serving.
Helpful Tips & Frequently Asked Questions
- For best results have your ingredients at room temperature before making the cheesecake.
- You can use any cookie crumbs for the crust.
- Chocolate cookies, biscoff cookies, or gingersnaps are all delicious.
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer.
- Do I have to freeze the cheesecake? It is best to freeze the cheesecake, but you can refrigerate the cheesecake overnight before serving if you don’t want to freeze it.
- It is VERY IMPORTANT to thoroughly chill the cake before serving. If you do not freeze or refrigerate the cake it will be too soft.
- The cheesecake needs to chill to properly set up.
- Take the cheesecake out of the freezer 30 minutes to an hour before serving.
- You can thaw the cake on the countertop or overnight in the refrigerator.
- Run a knife around the edge of the springform pan to help release the cake and prevent cracks.
- The cheesecake will keep up to 3 months in the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
How to Seve The Best Cheesecake Recipe
This classic cheesecake recipe is our absolute favorite dessert! My family and friends request this for cookouts, birthdays, and holidays. It tastes amazing! Top your slice with some fresh whipped cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, or cherry pie filling. We usually just eat it plain. Either way, this is sure to become your favorite cheesecake recipe!
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The Best Homemade Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Crust
- 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 5 Tbsp sugar
- ⅓ cup melted butter
Filling
- 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1½ cups sugar
- 4 eggs separated
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325ºF.
Crust
- Combine all ingredients and press against sides and bottom of 9-inch springform pan. (I use a measuring cup to do this – works great!)
Filling
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy.
- Add sugar, 4 egg yolks, lemon juice and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
- In another bowl, beat 4 egg whites until stiff and creamy. Fold egg whites into cream cheese mixture. Pour into crust in the springform pan.
- Bake for 35 minutes. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour with the door closed.
- Remove the cake from the oven and cool. Wrap the pan with plastic wrap and aluminum foil and freeze for several hours, up to 3 months, before serving.
- Remove from freezer and remove from pan before allowing the cheesecake to thaw.
Notes:
- Do I have to freeze the cheesecake? It is best to freeze the cheesecake, but you can refrigerate the cheesecake overnight before serving if you don’t want to freeze it.
- It is VERY IMPORTANT to thoroughly chill the cake before serving. If you do not freeze or refrigerate the cake it will be too soft.
- The cheesecake needs to chill to properly set up.
- Take the cheesecake out of the freezer 30 minutes to an hour before serving.
- You can thaw the cake on the countertop or overnight in the refrigerator.
- Run a knife around the edge of the springform pan to help release the cake and prevent cracks.
- The cheesecake will keep up to 3 months in the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap and aluminum foil.
- For best results have your ingredients at room temperature before making the cheesecake.
- You can use any cookie crumbs for the crust.
- Chocolate cookies, biscoff cookies, or gingersnaps are all delicious.
- If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Steph
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I love this cake and have made it several times. Have you ever done a chocolate version? I need to make a chocolate cheesecake and don't wanna do the whole water bath thing. I just don't want to add the chocolate if it will compromise the texture and lightness. Have you ever tried it?
Is it just me, or does this recipe make more than fits into one pan? My 9.5 inch glass pan definitely doesn't whole the entire mix.
The recipe is not for a pie plate. It is made to go in a springform pan. They are not the same.
Do I need to allow it to cool before I place it in the freezer?
Should I cover it with something before I place it in the freezer also ?
I cover it with plastic wrap and aluminum foil. I do let it cool before freeze.
Best recipe ever!!! I've looked too long for a good cheesecake recipe. I love that it is super fluffy and tastes light. Thanks for sharing 🙂
this is the one I always make also
Has anyone ever used a pre made graham cracker crust? I disn't have any graham crackers but has thowse. It made 2 and it is resting in the oven now. So we shall see.
This is by far the best cheesecake I've ever had. I made it last night for dessert today. Absolutely delicious!
Can you use a 10 in pan instead? If so how long would you bake it?
Hi! At what temperature do you have to bake the cheese cake for 35 minutes?
325 F
I really loved your recipe. I made this cheesecake last night it is very simple, but yet very tasty. Since I couldn't try it last night I had to have it for breakfast. Definitely I'll keep this recipe handy for when I get friends coming over the house. Thank you so much for sharing it.
Well I made this cheesecake last night. Actually, I was searching for a good recipe to top off some brownies so I used this as my cheesecake layer for a 9×13" pan. I was happy to find the recipe came out to equal twice as much cheesecake as there was brownie. I am pregnant and have become very picky about my brownie to cheesecake ratio. However, my only complaint is when I pulled them out this morning to be cut up, I ended up ingesting somewhere upwards of 1,000 calories in cheesecake alone before I had even touched my first cup of coffee. This left me with heartburn and that unique sense of diet failure. I immediately cut up what was left into bars and threw them into a storage container in the freezer, hoping nobody would notice a quarter of the pan was somehow missing. We all know the pregnant lady is an immediate suspect. But I have a feeling once they get a taste I will have their complete understanding. The cheesecake was fluffy and creamy without being too dense. I did keep a pan of water on the bottom rack during baking and didn't end up having any cracks. I'm excited to give this recipe a try in an actual cheesecake pan! The fact that it is such an easy recipe is probably not a good thing. I have a love/hate relationship with super yummy things where the ingredients come together in less than 20 minutes. But regardless, now that I have it, I will certainly be making it again soon! Also, to address the "cracking" issue. The best thing I have found to prevent cracking with cheesecake is to keep the oven closed as to avoid temp changes. Keep the light on and give the door a jiggle or open ever so slightly and allow it to kind of slam closed to test the "wobbly" factor of the cake. When it looks right, just turn the oven off and leave it. Keep a water bath under it and allow it to cool for at least 2 hours in the oven before opening the door.
Hi! Any substitution for sugar?
I love cheesecake and this looks so simple! Definitely gonna try this!
This was an awesome recipe! My family loved it! Definitely a great cheesecake
This recipe is awesome. I made it for a family dinner and my father in law asked for the leftovers to be left for him. I followed it exactly and was a little nervous because I never baked a cheese cake before. It was perfect and everyone loved it. I topped it with a strawberry glaze made from jam. Thanks for this. Will be making it again, soon.
i forgot to separate the eggs. hope is ok. the cake looks amazing regardless. ty for a nice and easy recipe stephanie. the next time i will separate and fold as recipe. that should be very soon.. ria
How long can I leave it in the freezer before serving ? and how long does it take to thaw ?
It should keep in the freezer up to a month. It will take several hours to thaw. I usually leave it in the fridge all day and it is thawed by the evening.
I think 35 minutes was too much to mine. It became a little brown on top. Waiting the last one hour of oven and the others five hours of freeze to try!!! At least, it smeels very good! Thanks for share.
This happened to me once . I had UT too close to the oven rack top.