Has anyone tried philadelphia neufchatel cream cheese?
Why was your experience bad with this?
What was outcome of the recipe you did not like?
Good to know that.
In that case regular Philly Cream Cheese it is then.
What are some of your favorite recipes with Philadelphia Cream Cheese?
Share some.
Cheesecake’s not supposed to be low fat 
You could substitute Neufcatel, but I’d rather just eat a smaller slice of rich, creamy cheesecake:
Rich New York Cheesecake
12 Servings…
Ingredients:
1 1/2 c sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 c light brown sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
40 oz cream cheese
1 3/4 c granulated sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp orange zest
6 large eggs
1/4 c heavy cream
Preheat oven to 400 F.
In medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, egg yolk and butter into a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill about 10 minutes, then roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch in thickness and 11 inches in diameter. Press along and up the sides of a 9 inch spring form pan.
Place crust in oven and bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool.
Increase oven temperature to 475 F.
Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until well blended. Add flour and continue beating until smooth. Stir in orange and lemon zest, then eggs, one by one, beating on low speed after each addition. Last, blend in heavy cream. Pour filling over crust.
Bake 20 minutes then reduce heat to 200 F and continue baking for 55 to 65 minutes or until center is almost set. Run a thin knife or metal spatula along the rim of the pan to loosen cake.
Cool. Cover; refrigerate 4 hours to overnight. Remove cheesecake from pan.
Cover and refrigerate any leftover dessert.
Kitchenwitch-- would you mind sharing your cheesecake recipe??? 
I have tried to make cheesecake several times, but evertime I do it’s just a disaster. Okay, maybe not a disaster, but certianly a disappointment. I’d LOVE a good, foolproof recipe. Cheesecake’s just too work-intensive to make it okay that it turns out badly. 
-Karen
I am an America’s Test Kitchen fan and the following are from them.
Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake
What you need:
Crust
• 1 1/4 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons of butter or margarine, melted
Filling:
• 11 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup of cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons of coffee liqueur ( optional)
• 3 large eggs
What you do:
- Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan.
- To make the crust, in a large bowl, combine the crumbs and sugar. Mix in the melted butter. Press the mixture evenly onto the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees.
- To make the filling, in a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. beat in the cocoa powder until blended. Beat in the coffee liqueur. beat in the eggs. Pour over the crust and bake for 1 hour, or until firm. Cool slightly. Cover with waxed paper and chill for at least 3 hours. Remove the side of the pan before serving.
Baking notes: This cheesecake can be prepared and refrigerated up to 48 hours in advance of serving.
New York Cheesecake
Restraint is key for the perfect New York-style cheesecake.
We all know that the only true cheesecake, the one with unimpeachable credentials is the New York cheesecake. It is a subtle orchestration of different textures made sublime by a rare and welcome exercise in restraint. It should be a tall, bronze-skinned, and dense affair. At the core, it should be cool, thick, smooth, satiny, and creamy. Radiating outward, it goes gradually from velvet to suede, then, finally, around the edges, it becomes cake-like and fine-pored. The flavor should be pure and minimalist, sweet and tangy, and rich to boot.
In the Equipment Corner, we test kitchen timers, and at the Science Desk we answer the age-old question: Why do cheesecakes crack? Finally, in the Tasting Lab we try supermarket cheesecakes to see if any even come close to homemade.
New York–Style Cheesecake
makes one 9-inch cheesecake, serving 12 to 16
For the crust, chocolate wafers (Nabisco Famous) can be substituted for graham crackers; you will need about 14 wafers. The flavor and texture of the cheesecake is best if the cake is allowed to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving. When cutting the cake, have a pitcher of hot tap water nearby; dipping the blade of the knife into the water and wiping it clean with a kitchen towel after each cut helps make neat slices.
graham cracker crust
1 cup (4 ounces) graham cracker crumbs
(8 whole crackers, broken into rough pieces
and processed in food processor until
uniformly fine)
1 tablespoon sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus additional 1 tablespoon melted butter for greasing pan
cheesecake filling
21/2 pounds cream cheese, cut into rough 1-inch chunks and left to stand at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes
1/8 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups (101/2 ounces) sugar
1/3 cup (21/2 ounces) sour cream
2 teaspoons juice from 1 lemon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks plus 6 large whole eggs
- For the crust: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar in medium bowl; add 5 tablespoons melted butter and toss with fork until evenly moistened. Brush bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan with most of remaining melted butter, making sure to leave enough butter to brush pan in step 3. Empty crumbs into springform pan and press evenly into pan bottom . Bake until fragrant and beginning to brown around edges, about 13 minutes. Cool on wire rack while making filling.
- For the cheesecake filling: Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese at medium-low speed to break up and soften slightly, about 1 minute. Scrape beater and bottom and sides of bowl well with rubber spatula; add salt and about half of sugar and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; beat in remaining sugar until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; add sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla, and beat at low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; add yolks and beat at medium-low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl; add whole eggs two at a time, beating until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute, and scraping bowl between additions.
- Brush sides of springform pan with remaining melted butter. Set springform pan on rimmed baking sheet (to catch any spills if springform pan leaks). Pour filling into cooled crust and bake 10 minutes; without opening oven door, reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees and continue to bake until instant-read thermometer inserted into center of cheesecake registers about 150 degrees, about 11/2 hours. Transfer cake to wire rack and run paring knife between cake and side of springform pan. Cool until barely warm, 21/2 to 3 hours. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours. (Cake can be refrigerated up to 4 days.)
- To unmold cheesecake, remove sides of pan. Slide thin metal spatula between crust and pan bottom to loosen, then slide cake onto serving plate. Let cheesecake stand at room temperature about 30 minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.
Is a Water Bath Worth the Trouble?
A water bath is commonly called for in the baking of cheesecakes and custards. The theory is that a water bath moderates the temperature around the perimeter of the pan, preventing overcooking at the edges. To figure out exactly what’s happening, we prepared two identical cheesecakes and baked one directly on the oven rack and the other in a water bath. Both were removed from the oven when their centers reached 147 degrees. The cake that had been baked in a water bath was even-colored and smooth; the other cake was browned and cracked. A quick comparison of the temperature at the edges of the cakes confirmed what we suspected. Upon removal from the oven, the cake that had had the benefit of a water bath was 184 degrees at the edge, whereas the cake baked without the water bath had climbed to 213 degrees.
Why was the cheesecake baked in a water bath 30 degrees cooler at the edges than the cake baked without a water bath? Although in both cases the oven had been set to 325 degrees, a water bath can never exceed 212 degrees, as this is the temperature at which water converts to steam. Why was the cheesecake baked in a water bath even and smooth while the other was browned and cracked? More than half of the water in the bath had evaporated, resulting in quite a humid oven. The increased water content of the air in the oven served to keep the top of the cake moist and prevent cracking. Costing just five minutes worth of work, the water bath protected the edges of the cake by keeping the temperature low and protected the top of the cake through added humidity.
Cookies for Crumb Crust (ATK)
Lions and tigers and bears? Oh, my!
After rejecting graham crackers in favor of something more delicate, I decided to try shortbread cookies in my crust. Walkers Shortbread, Nabisco’s Lorna Doones, and Keebler Sandies all produced crusts that were dense and chewy, with a toffee-like flavor that was too rich and sweet. Next I took a fellow test cook’s suggestion and used digestive biscuits to make the crust. Although this crust was too sweet and a little gritty (these biscuits contain whole wheat flour), the dryness of the biscuit produced the best-textured crust to complement my creamy cheesecake; it also let me add more butter to the recipe, which resulted in a better flavor. After testing all of the biscuit-type cookies I could find, the surprising favorite was Barnum’s Animals Crackers from Nabisco. Nabisco’s Social Tea Biscuits were a close second.