The cheesecake at Hilton has been famous for at least two to three decades, yet the recipe has always been an open secret.
I learned how to make the New York cheesecake with a bake teacher when I was a teenager. I have since lost all my teenage recipe (sob!), but I kind of remember there is condensed milk in there.
I was not really the most happy with the recipe, though it worked.
And then, I chanced upon this recipe. The Hilton cheesecake recipe. It is the best recipe for a New York cheesecake. Even to this day, Hilton’s cake is still able to rank tops vis-a-vis other more advant garde bakers and cakes.
It is a very rich cake. Almost every time I make a cake out of 1 kg of cheese, it takes a whole week to finish, while if I bake the same-sized Japanese cheese cake using 1/4 of the cheese, it finishes in two days.
So, this is an expensive cake to make. I can always remember this. I used to find the cheapest cream cheese to do this. But now, I think it is better to make a small cake then to make a big cake out of cheap cheese.
Keep this recipe. It has got a lot of Singapore history, though it was created by an American chef for Hilton Hotel, Singapore. And if you are lazy, just pop over and have a slice.
Remember the ingredients in there, so it is always worth every cent. 🙂
Hilton Cheesecake
Ingredients
Sugar Base
- 240 g Plain Flour or biscuit flour
- 120 g Butter
- 60 g Sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 egg
Cheesecake
- 1 kg Philadephia cream cheese - room temperature
- Grind of 1 lemon and 1 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 280 g caster sugar
- 150 g sour cream
- 90 g cream at 35% fat
- 6 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 180C.
Sugar Dough base
- Put every except the egg into a blender, and blend until it resembles bread crumbs.
- Add the egg into the blender and stop when the mixture comes to a dough.
- Roll the dough out to cover a 20cm round cake tin.
- Poke a few holes in the pastry so that it does not fluff up while baking.
- Bake on the top shelf for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Once at room temperature, remove and refrigerate.
- Meanwhile, make the cheesecake.
Cheesecake
- Cream the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla essence at medium speed (not high!) until the paste is smooth (Thermomix #1, 4 minutes)
- Add the sour cream and mix till smooth. (Thermomix #2, 30 seconds)
- Add the eggs one at a time, do not overbeat at this time. (Thermomox #2, 2 minutes)
- Beat in the cream. (Thermomix #2, 30seconds)
- Pour the cream cheese mixture into the same mold used to bake the sugar base. Remember to oil the cake tin well.
- Put the cake into a baine marie with water covering beyond the middle of the cake tin.
- Bake for 180C on the lowest shelf possible for 11/2 hours.
- When done, remove cake from the bain marie, and keep the door ajar until cake is cooled.
- Transfer the cake to the refrigerator.
Assemble
- When the cheesecake is cooled, place it on top of the sugar base.
