Foodie Lessons Learned: New York Cheesecake recipe from Cook's Illustrated

I've been making variations on the 2002 Cook's Illustrated New York Cheesecake recipe* for quite a while. The recent Cook's Illustrated magazine (Jan. / Feb. 2015 issue, yes, the 2015 issue) put forth an update, which I like very much ! I've made three cheesecakes with a variation of the two recipes already (in less than three weeks - FUN !).

The hybrid uses the OLD recipe mostly, except for two departures. One is the crust is changed to add flour, etc., to the OLD graham cracker crust to make it more pastry like. This is to help ensure that the wet cheesecake batter doesn't make the crust soggy over time. I like this concept, but I just didn't want to change that piece of my go-to recipe right at Christmas (under pressure to produce). ;-0

SO, the other piece that has changed how I do cheesecakes is the upside-down process. Formerly, the baking in the oven started out at 500 degrees F for a short period to brown the top of the cheesecake, then the temperature was turned down to 200. The identified problem was the variation in the time it took various ovens to go from 500 to 200 - many NEW ovens, being better insulated, took much longer, resulting in dry / burnt cheesecakes.

The NEW process starts with the 200 degree oven (pre-heated), and takes the cheesecake to 165 F (use the lower rack). Fine, if you have a thermometer. They approximate 3 to 3-1/2 hours, if you're not measuring the temp (The one that I did yesterday took 3 hrs. and 9 minutes to come to temp, and that was with batter out of the fridge that I made the night before.)

AFTER you take the now-set cheesecake out, and change the rack to the top, change the temp to 500. When it reaches 500, put the cheesecake BACK in for from 4 to 10 minutes (yesterday's was in for 5 minutes). Note the two attached pictures. The uglier of the two is an earlier effort, where the top got black and spotted. This was from longer in the oven AND not rotating the cheesecake by 180 degrees at the estimated half-way mark. The less ugly of the two is from yesterday. SO, NEXT TIME, I'm actually going to try 450 degrees instead, rotate it halfway, and watch closely. I'm looking for consistent nut-brown top, but, HEY, there's always whipped cream for the top. OH, and I toasted macadamia nuts, cooled them, and put them in the graham cracker crust and it was really good. :-)