Aunt Joan’s Cheesecake
This is the best cheesecake I have ever had. The memories of my Aunt Joan is filled with each bite! One evening in August of 2015, I was going through one of my mom’s old Slovak cookbooks she let me borrow the last time I visited her in New Jersey. I mostly went through the several loose papers with handwritten recipes and notes. I found one with my handwriting for cheesecake.
Cheesecake (in Slovak: tvarohová torta)
The style of printing was the way I used to quickly print notes using a mix of upper and lower case letters in the same word. My handwriting was really poor so certain letters I would capitalize because the lower case letters would resemble that of a different letter or even a number. I figure I was about 19 or 20 years old. Only problem, I never made a cheesecake at the age I had to have written down this recipe.
After reading it line by line it hit me – it hit me! This had to be my Aunt Joan’s cheesecake recipe. She must have dictated it to me. It just had to be her recipe. So I decided to make it and it turned out exactly the way I remembered her making it. You know – the kind you NEED a glass of ice cold milk to wash it down.
She knew how much I loved her cheesecakes and this recipe brought back so many memories. There were a couple of side notes of her comments that I wrote down. The comments were next to a couple of the ingredients that she made sure I would include in the recipe. One comment was for the sugar amount.
Aunt Joan had type 2 diabetes so she adjusted the recipe when she made it for herself or my Uncle George. When she made cheesecake, Aunt Joan would often also bake a 2nd one so when I came over to visit there was a hefty slice and a tall glass of ice-cold glass of milk waiting for me. So for me, she must have wanted to be sure that I wrote down her original recipe the way I always remembered it. I miss Aunt Joan a lot but now I have a recipe of her’s and with each bite of this cheesecake my mind is filled with memories of her.
I hope that you enjoy the making of this cheesecake recipe as much as I remembered eating it when my Aunt Joan made it – with a BIG glass of milk to go with it.


- 1 cup Graham cracker crumbs - coarse to medium fine
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- ¼ cup Butter - melted but not hot
- 2 ½ lbs. Cream Cheese - room temp (but not too soft)
- 1 Pt Sour cream
- 1 ½ cups Sugar
- 3 Lg eggs
- 1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- ½ tsp each of lemon and orange zest (optional)
- ¼ lb Butter - melted but not hot
- 2 Tbsp Flour - shifted to breakup chunks
- In a medium sized bowl combine all the dry ingredients.
- Dribble the butter over the top of the crumbs and mix well so that the butter become uniformly distributed.
- Spray the bottom and sides of a spring form pan with vegetable oil or baking spray - you can also line the bottom of the pan with a round piece of parchment cut to fit.
- Add the crumbs to the center of the spring form pan.
- Using a large spoon or the flat bottom of a measuring cup, firmly press the crumbs to distribute an even layer and no more than ¼" to ½" up the sides.
- Set aside in a cool area of your kitchen or an adjacent room to harden. You can also place it in the freezer for about 10-15 mins.
- Preheat oven to 325°F
- In a large mixing bowl, (this is important) combine the cream cheese and sugar
- Blend well together until smooth - a hand mixer on low is perfect for this or you can use a heavy duty wooden spoon - Don't over mix.
- Blend into the cream cheese and sugar base the sour cream, vanilla extract, butter and the (optional) citrus zest.
- Incorporate the flour into the batter a 1/3 at a time.
- Add 1 egg at a time as you blend them into the mixture. You don't need to wait in between to add each egg.
- Mix until all ingredients are smooth and uniform but, again, do not over mix.
- Pour the cake mixture into the chilled spring form pan
- Place the cake pan on a cookie or baking tray with raised sides and put into the pre-heated oven.
- After closing the oven door reduce the temperature to 275°F
- Bake at 275°F for 1½ to 2 hrs or until the middle no longer "jiggles" and top is slightly brown.
- Turned off the oven but DO NOT fully open the door... yet.
- Open the oven door only slightly ajar (cracked open about an inch the most), leaving the cake inside for about 1 to 2 hrs to slowly cool.
- Chill in the fridge for at least a full day (minimum of 12 hrs) or longer.
- Important - the cream cheese and sugar needs to be blended well to remove any clumps before proceeding but do not over mix.
- Over-mixing will incorporate too much air into the batter and will cause cracking.
- Leaving the cheesecake in the oven to cool for the 1-2 hrs will allow the cake to slowly cool which will eliminate or reduce cracking of the cake.
- You can use a kitchen towel or pot-holder to prevent the door from closing thereby allowing the inch opening.to remain.
- To remove bottom of the spring form pan, place a griddle on a stove burner and heat until the griddle is very warm but not hot enough to burn.
- Turn off burner and briefly place cake with the bottom onto the griddle surface for a minute or two to soften the butter.
- Place a plate over the top of the cheesecake and flip the cake over with the plate now as the bottom. Using a flat knife, place between the cheesecake and the spring form pan bottom and slowly and carefully pop the bottom off of the cheesecake.
- Now, with a different plate or serving tray, place this onto the now freed bottom of the cheesecake.
- Flip over together and remove the original plate.
- Your cake is now ready for serving.
ďakujem
Wonderful thank you !
Gene has made this cake and can vow for it’s authentic flavor and texture. Gene, when you see my cousin Paul be sure to show him the blog link where there is a picture of his mom.
Maria… You won’t be disappointed… From the time my aunt passed away until just last year I longed for her cheese cake. Like the story on my blog (click the link above) my mom sent me 2 of her old cookbooks with other pieces of papers of notes. That was when I found a recipe in my HS penmanship of my aunt’s cheese cake. I remembered watching her as she made it from memory and I wrote down every ingredient and step she took. When I tasted this cake the first time I made it after finding the recipe I teared up remembering my aunt and how special she was to me.
I will have to try making it…
I recommend it… one of the best cheese cakes I ever had
Nice tribute to Joan and that branch of your family
I’ll save it and show it to Paul the next time he’s down…
BTW it’s a Jersey Cheese Cake
Jersey Cheese Cake…. I like that!
Of course it’s the best cheesecake you ever had Johnny. It’s a NEW YORK cheesecake.
Weren’t you born in Perth Amboy before moving to Long Island? LOL
No I was born in Queens, New York, one of the 5 boroughs. Spent a lot of time in Brooklyn and Manhattan as a teenager and young adult.
Oh.. Ok.
I thought I had the best cheesecake recipe until one of my daughter’s friend’s grandmother made one. She is Slovac so I’m hoping this is the same recipe. She won’t share hers…..
Hey John
making this today…need to know
what size spring form to use…
when to put the sour cream in
And usually you run a knife around the edge after it’s baked
I don’t know exactly when to do this…after it’s refrigerated ? or before ?
We don’t care for Graham crust…so I’m making it with vanilla wafers and a hint of nutmeg
In the ingredients should say 3 large eggs. I guess I wasn’t so good with the proof reading on the back-end. No excuses but I was having problems with the site and rushed. Nancy, thank you for pointing out the omission. Sometimes more pairs of eyes is helpful! (y)
wow holy shit does that bring back memories….who is she holding ?
I believe that is my brother Dennis’ son Kevin. The picture was taken in 1989…. er.. developed in 1989. The location is definitely in my brother’s backyard. Aunt Joan was always such a happy person and loved her nephews and nieces so much.
I need to dig up more pictures of my aunt.
a tid bit…. I don’t know where George( her son) got this from but as long as I knew him he always put ice cream in his coffee….no ice cream in the house he would go out and get some ….funny how one memory triggers another
Sounds wonderful…I have never baked a cheesecake & would love to try it…#5 in the recipe said to add eggs 1 @ a time but I did not see an amount of eggs…how many? Thanks for sharing your aunt’s recipe…?