It’s easy to assume cheesecake originated in France, where the arts of cheese-making and pastry-baking have been perfected. Or in New York, the state with a famous cheesecake style named after it. But the predecessor to our modern cheesecake, according to the historians and anthropologists who have traced its origin, can be found in ancient Greece. Here, by the Mediterranean Sea, the creamy, cheesy confection was a popular wedding dessert and might even have been served to athletes during the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. 

While the dessert was most likely around centuries earlier, the first known written record of the Greek cheesecake recipe is attributed to Greek writer Athenaeus around 230 A.D. The rudimentary cheesecake was made with fresh cheese, pounded until smooth, mixed with flour and honey and then baked. Romans are said to have introduced the Grecian cheesecake across Europe, and immigrants brought the beloved dessert to America — the dish taking on new variations and baking methods with each culture it traversed.

The Forme of Cury, the first known English cookbook written during the 14th century, added eggs to the cheesecake recipe and flavored the dessert with rosewater and dried elderflowers. The ultra-dense New York-style cheesecake, credited to restaurateur Arnold Reuben in the 1920s, goes heavy on the cream cheese. The trendy, burnt-topped Basque-style cheesecake (or tarta de queso), created in 1990 by chef Santiago Rivera of San Sebastian in Spain’s Basque Country, is made with a handful of simple ingredients and baked at a high temperature for a caramelized exterior and gooey center.

Käsekuchen (German cheesecake) relies on soft quark cheese, Japanese cheesecake is made fluffy and soufflé-like with the incorporation of whisked egg whites, and Sernik (Polish cheesecake) is made with twaróg cheese and potato flour. Wherever you travel in the world, you’re sure to find a unique, regional take on cheesecake.

For the first stop on your cheesecake world tour, look no further than Sonoma County, where farm cows graze on vast pastures and skilled bakers use local ingredients to craft luscious desserts. From New York to Basque-style and every flavor you can dream up, here is where you can find glorious cheesecakes all around the county to enjoy on National Cheesecake Day, July 30. Or any day of the year.

Best Cheesecakes in Sonoma County

College Confectionista

SoCo Style Cheesecake: Anamaría Morales’ famed “Sonoma County-style” cheesecake with traditional cream cheese filling in a butter graham cracker crust and topped with homemade whip cream. Can be made gluten-free with a nut-based crust. Find various other cheesecakes that rotate seasonally. Check website for pick-up times and locations. *Note: The College Confectionista is currently closed for the season. Check her Instagram page, @collegeconfectionista, for updates. 707-495-5324, collegeconfectionista.com

J.M. Rosen’s Cheesecakes

New York Cheesecake: You can’t go wrong with any of Jan’s Rosen’s famous cheesecakes — the Blueberry, Neapolitan, Chocolate Fantasy and Snickers Bar cheesecakes all get rave reviews. But the star of the show is the original rich and creamy New York-style cheesecake in a buttery shortbread crust — the one that made Frank Sinatra a lifelong customer. Order online (free shipping on local deliveries) or find Rosen’s cheesecakes at a number of restaurants and markets across California. 74 E. Washington St., Petaluma, 707-773-4655, jmrosenscheesecake.com

Stellina Pronto

New York Style Pumpkin Cheesecake: The classic New York-style cheesecake gets a sweet pumpkiny upgrade, with a sour cream topping and buttery graham cracker crust. 23 Kentucky St., Petaluma, 707-789-9556, stellinapronto.com

Speakeasy

Daily Cheesecake: Housemade cheesecakes change with the chef’s whim, but they’re always fluffy and resting atop a buttery graham cracker crust. The lemon cheesecake is a local fave. 139 Petaluma Blvd. N., Petaluma. 707-776-4631, speakeasypetaluma.com

Wit & Wisdom

Basque Country Cheesecake: Soft and airy Basque-style cheesecake with burnt top and accompanied with preserved citrus and fresh farmers market fruit. 1325 Broadway, Sonoma, 707-931-3405, witandwisdomsonoma.com

Cafe La Haye

Yuzu Citrus Cheesecake: Smooth, zesty cheesecake flavored with Japanese yuzu. 140 E. Napa St., Sonoma, 707-935-5994, cafelahaye.com

The Mill at Glen Ellen

Burnt Basque Cheesecake: Creamy, tangy Basque-style cheesecake with fresh berries. 14301 Arnold Drive, Glen Ellen, 707-721-1818, themillatglenellen.com

Costeaux French Bakery & Cafe

Classic Cheesecake: Creamy cheesecake in a gingerbread cookie crust, coated in mascarpone whip cream. The seasonal lemon cheesecake is also great, along with the pumpkin cheesecake come autumn. 417 Healdsburg Ave., Healdsburg, 707-433-1913, costeaux.com

Downtown Bakery & Creamery

Cheesecake: Large and baby cheesecakes with a classic rich and dense filling in a buttery graham cracker crust. 308 Center St., Healdsburg, 707-431-2719, downtownbakeryhealdsburg.com

Criminal Baking Company

Lemon Chevre Cheesecake: Creamy, tangy, rich and lemony classic cheesecake. Optional add-ons include fresh berries, a caramel drizzle or raspberry compote. 808 Donahue St., Santa Rosa, 707-888-3546, criminalbakingcompany.com

Red Bird Bakery

New York Cheesecake: Rich and dense New York-style cheesecake, topped with berries. 556 East Cotati Ave., Cotati, 707-521-9838; 463 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa, 707-544-3663, redbirdbakery.com

Patisserie Angelica

Seasonal Cheesecake: The patisserie’s creamy, decadent cheesecakes come in a housemade graham cracker crust and flavors change with the season. Flavors include caramel, raspberry, Meyer lemon and spiced pumpkin. 6821 Laguna Park Way, Sebastopol, 707-827-7998, patisserieangelica.com

Lightwave Coffee and Kitchen

Rotating Cheesecakes: Varying creamy cheesecakes are available each weekend. The variety of seasonal flavors include fig, cherry, blueberry, strawberry, baklava, lemon curd, pecan caramel and chocolate hazelnut. 9725 Main St., Monte Rio, 707-865-5169, lightwavecafe.square.site

Nightingale Breads

Mini Cheesecakes: Creamy New York-style mini cheesecakes made in-house by local cheesecake wizard Steve Hartz. Flavors change weekly, but fan-favorites include the tangy lemon curd, lime curd and passion fruit. Also find other unique flavors like orange cream, cranberry curd, blood orange, cappuccino, eggnog, apple pie, toasted coconut and pineapple. 6665 Front St., Forestville, 707-887-8887, nightingalebreads.com

Terrapin Creek Cafe

Passion Fruit Cheesecake: Light, fluffy cheesecake made with passion fruit and topped with whipped cream and vanilla bean sauce. 1580 Eastshore Road, Bodega Bay, 707-875-2700, terrapincreekcafe.com

Underwood Bar & Bistro

Mascarpone Cheesecake: Creamy cheesecake made with soft mascarpone and topped with raspberries. 9113 Graton Road, Graton, 707-823-7023, underwoodgraton.com

Oliver’s Market

Chocolate Cheesecake: Dense cheesecake made with dark Belgian chocolate in a crisp chocolate cookie crumb crust. A gluten-free option is available. Locations in Windsor, Santa Rosa and Cotati. oliversmarket.com

The post Where to Find the Best Cheesecakes in Sonoma County appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Neither heat nor mechanical issues nor Lazy Bears can keep the College Confectionista’s new cheesecake-mobile from its appointed rounds.

After nearly a year of rehabbing a 1984 postal truck (and covering it with countless cans of cherry red paint), baker and dessert entrepreneur Anamaría Morales has rolled out her first mobile cheesecake dispensary. You’ll recognize it by the giant slice of cheesecake bolted to the top.

On its first day of service last Saturday, Morales sold out her entire inventory of slices in just hours to hungry he-bears attending the annual Lazy Bear Weekend in Guerneville.

“I didn’t even have anything left to sell,” said Morales, who quickly returned to her kitchen for a long day of baking as she geared up for several more days of cheesecake truck adventures parked at Guerneville’s Sonoma Nesting Company (16151 Main St.)

“I knew I wanted to do this, but finding the right truck took a long time,” she said. Then came the restoration, which she mostly did herself.

“Every day, I was at my uncle’s shop for eight hours after baking to work on the truck,” she said. Teacher and cheesecake client Cristy Miranda created the giant slice of cheesecake on top of the truck.

“I had always pictured the truck with a slice of cheesecake on top, and I can’t even tell you how divine the intervention was. I just put it out in the universe,” Morales said.

The cheesecake truck will be slinging slices in Guerneville until Aug. 5, then (hopefully) be at events and festivals throughout Sonoma County.

There’s just one hitch: the truck still needs a bit of mechanical work to get it reliably from one spot to another, and Morales is hoping for a little more divine intervention to get over that hurdle — though she isn’t one to let a little hiccup sideline her for long.

Morales, known as the College Confectionista, received national attention for starting a cheesecake business when she was 18 to fund her education at the University of California Berkeley debt-free. The young Latina comes from a low-income family and was determined to be the first in her family to graduate from college. She has created a foundation to help other low-income Latinas in Sonoma County get college degrees.

For more details and locations, visit collegeconfectionista.com or Instagram.com/collegeconfectionista.

The post Say ‘Cheesecake’ at New Sonoma County Dessert Truck on the Russian River appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Anamaria Morales is on a mission to bake her way through college, “one cheesecake at a time.”

Tangy lemon, silky espresso, creamy peanut butter, sweet strawberries, red velvet. Each month brings a menu of new flavors to whip into cream cheese — and melt the willpower of fans.

A year after launching “The College Confectionista” during her senior year at El Molino High, the spirited 19-year-old has banked more than $9,000 through baking. She hopes to more than double that amount by the time she’s ready to transfer from Santa Rosa Junior College, where she takes online classes. Her goal is to be accepted into the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

For now, Morales is developing her entrepreneurial chops in the kitchen, experimenting with new flavor combinations, baking everything from scratch with fresh and local ingredients. She uses Clover cream cheese, marketing through social media and in some cases, hand-delivering each $40 handcrafted masterpiece of velvety goodness.

Her Facebook page is sprinkled with vintage advertising pictures of smiling housewives and winsome young lovers grabbed from midcentury magazines. The confectionista herself looks a bit like a 1950s time-traveler. A fan of all things retro, she loves to wear polka dots and sports handkerchiefs in her hair.

“Elvis Presley is my husband,” she jokes, “who died a long time before I was born.”

Morales grew up in Healdsburg, the daughter of Tomas and Laura Morales. She was prompted to start her own business after a stretch of late nights spent wondering whether — and where — she wanted to go to college.

“My parents, who both didn’t go to college, said maybe you don’t want to go to a four-year university right away. Maybe you want to do a gap year or travel,” Morales recalls. “That got me thinking. I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I worry about college expenses. I don’t come from money, my parents had me at a young age and never started a college fund for me. I’m starting my college fund from scratch.”

And while Morales sees a future in business for herself, she sees a future in the nonprofit world for College Confectionista.

“I’m hoping to turn it into a nonprofit, where I could create scholarships for other low-income and first-generation women, especially Hispanics, girls who have the drive to go to college and don’t have the money. That would make me so happy.”

College Confectionista, 707-495-5324, facebook.com/CollegeConfectionista

The post Local Entrepreneur is Baking Her Way to College One Cheesecake at a Time appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.