Cheesecake

Cracks from the cooling process.

Serve the cake already cut- what cracks?

I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake. It's too rich for me and I can only eat a few bites. But when you put a pie inside, hold me back! It gives you the feeling of pie and ice cream or pie and a glass of milk except for the creamy is cheesecake. Also, note that the crust is not graham cracker. I absolutely hate graham cracker crusts with cheesecake. I think that they get soggy. The crust recipe below is from a 1960-something copy of the red checkered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I've adapted the cheesecake recipe from that recipe as well. The crust recipe is one that my mother always used when she made a cheesecake. The first time I had cheesecake that my mother didn't make, I thought the person who made it messed up because it had a graham cracker crust ;) If making the cheesecake alone, use an 8-9 inch spring form pan. I used this recipe below in a 10 or 12 inch spring-form pan with a pre-baked Strawberry Rhubarb pie inside. Delish! My family has been asking me to take the extra pie that I have in the freezer to make this again. It's one of their favorite desserts.


Ingredients:

Cheesecake (According to my tasters, this was a drier cheesecake, which they all preferred over one that was less dry)
4 blocks of cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup sugar
3 tbs flour
2 tsp vanilla
juice of 1/2 lime/lemon/orange
4 eggs + 1 egg white from egg from crust
1/4 tsp salt

Crust
3/4 cup flour
6 tbs butter
1 egg yolk
3 tbs sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp vanilla

Topping
1.5 cups sour cream
juice from half of lime
3 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions: 
For the cheesecake, beat together all of the items except for the eggs. Once the base is creamed together and smooth, slowly add the eggs one at a time until combined. Be careful not to over mix the cheese mixture before or after adding the eggs.

For the crust mix together all of the ingredients with your hands. The butter should not be melted. The mixture should be crumbly. Press this mixture into the bottom of the spring form pan (line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper if you don't want to leave the cheesecake on the metal base.). The bottom crust should be baked at 425 degrees for about 7 minutes or until lightly golden. Let cool before assembling the cheesecake to bake. If you want enough of the mixture to go up the sides of the pan, double the crust recipe above. The sides do not need to be pre-baked.

For the topping, mix all ingredients together in a bowl or the sour cream container. This gets poured on at the very end of the baking process.

Assembly:
If you are making a regular cheesecake, take the pre-baked bottom and put the spring form pan together. If you have extra crust to form the sides, press the dough in now. Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan. I find it helpful to wrap foil around the bottom of the pan to avoid cheesecake drippage out of the pan- cleaning burnt cheesecake out of the oven is not fun. Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes and then drop the temperature to 350 degrees and cook for an additional hour. The cheesecake shouldn't be jiggly but shouldn't be super firm either. Turn the oven off. Pour on and spread out the sour cream topping mixture. Leave the cheesecake in the oven for about 10-15 more minutes.

If you are making a cheesecake with a pie inside, following the directions above, except for when you are pouring the batter into the spring form pan, only pour in about one inch of batter. Once you pour in about an inch of the batter, take the pre-baked pie (make sure the pie has cooled and the insides are not runny or this process WILL NOT WORK!!!), turn it out/slide it onto a plate (this works best if the pie pan is smooth, and not the ridgy aluminum kind) and then into the batter. This process has the potential to be messy, so when you are making your homemade pie to put into your cheesecake, use plenty of corn starch or flour to thicken the pie filling. Once the pie is in the batter, pour the rest of the cheesecake batter on the sides and on top. Smooth the batter around and follow the above directions for baking and applying the topping.

Let cool overnight and refrigerate for the best results.

Note- I have left a cheesecake in the oven for several hours after baking to let it cool and I have also taken it out to cool. Sometimes a cheesecake cracks and sometimes it doesn't. I find this process to be a crap shoot. I have had the most success with putting a pan of water in the oven while the cheesecake bakes to prevent cracking, but I usually forget to do this. Oh well, it all tastes good- it just depends if you're trying to impress someone or not. My family and friends don't care. They're excited if I make something for them, they don't care what it looks like.