Perfectly Creamy High Altitude Vanilla Cheesecake

The best high altitude vanilla cheesecake recipe, with a perfectly creamy filling, flavored with real vanilla bean.

All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.

5 from 10 votes

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1 30

Cooling Time 8

Total Time 9 45

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings10

2 cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 9 oz / 17 full graham cracker "sheets")
2 tbsp granulated sugar
¾ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
½ cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 300 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Bring some water to a boil.
Lightly spray the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with a 3-inch depth with non-stick baking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper.
You'll need a 9-inch round cake pan with a 3-inch depth to set the springform pan inside of, to act as a barrier and to keep the water from leaking into the cheesecake.
If you don't have a 9-inch round cake pan, wrap the bottom and sides of the springform pan with several layers of wide, heavy duty aluminum foil. The foil needs to be wide enough to reach all the way up to the top edge of the springform pan on all sides, to prevent water from leaking in and ruining the crust.
You'll also need a large roasting pan, to set the other pans inside of.

In a bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, sugar and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until evenly moistened.
Dump the crumbs into the prepared springform pan. Press the crumbs in a firm, even layer against the bottom and up the sides of the pan, nearly to the top. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine the sugar with the vanilla bean seeds scraped from a vanilla bean. Use your fingers to rub the vanilla into the sugar, until fragrant.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the vanilla sugar with the softened cream cheese for 3 minutes, on medium speed. Scrape the bowl down.
Beat in the eggs on medium low speed, one at a time, mixing each for 10 seconds before adding the next. Scrape the bowl down and make sure the mixture is perfectly smooth, with no lumps of cream cheese.
Add the cream, and mix just until smooth and combined.
Pour the batter into the crust in your springform pan. Lightly tap the pan against the counter, then use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles that rise to the surface.
Set the springform pan inside the cake pan, then set both pans inside the roasting pan.
Add boiling water to the roasting pan, so that it comes halfway up the side of the cake pan. Take care not to pour any water into the cake pan or the cheesecake.

Bake the cheesecake on the center oven rack for 80 minutes. Resist the urge to open the oven door to check on the cheesecake until it's baked for at least an hour. At around 80 minutes, the top of the cheesecake should look more matte than shiny, and if you give the pan a slight shake, the edges should appear to be set while the center will still be wobbly.
Turn the oven off, close the oven door again, and leave the cheesecake in the steamy oven for another 60 minutes to gradually cool down and finish baking.
Take the cheesecake out of the oven, remove the pan from the water bath, and set it on a cooling rack. The center of the cheesecake will still be a bit wobbly. Please see this YouTube Short video that I created to see exactly what my cheesecake looked like at this point.
Take a sharp knife and run it around the sides of the pan to loosen the crust from the pan. It's important to do this, because as the cheesecake cools, it can shrink a little. Loosening the crust from the pan will help to prevent the cheesecake from cracking as it cools and shrinks.
Let the cheesecake cool at room temperature for 2 hours.

Now set the cheesecake in the refrigerator to let it chill for 5-6 hours before serving.
Since cheesecake needs so long to cool and chill, you should bake it first thing in the morning, if you're planning on serving it that same evening. Otherwise, you can bake it in the afternoon/evening, then let it chill overnight.

Loosen the collar from the pan to unmold the cheesecake from the pan. If you lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper, it should be easy to slide a cake lifter or spatula gently between the paper and the pan, in order to transfer the cheesecake to a serving plate.
Serve the cheesecake with your favorite toppings, on the side, or right on top.

Keyword Baked Cheesecake, Cheesecake, High Altitude, Mile High, Vanilla Bean

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