Tried and True: Cheesecake

I mentioned that I made a cheesecake on Monday when we entertained my husband’s colleague from Seattle (who brought us a bottle of Syrah and smoked salmon — YUM!) and Stephanie asked if I had a recipe to share.  Well, you betcha I do!  This recipe came from the home of a lady I babysat for back in college.  When the kids were asleep one night, I started perusing her recipe books, and I copied this cheesecake recipe.  I have no idea why it caught my eye, but it did.

Sometime after that, I have no recollection when it was, I made this cheesecake for my husband because he hearts the cheesecake, and it was a hit.  Every since, it has been his very favorite of all my desserts (with the POSSIBLE exception of the Hershey’s chocolate cake recipe on the back of the Hershey’s cocoa container — you MUST make that sometime.)  I often make this cheesecake for company because it’s so easy and yet people are always impressed.

The only disclaimer I must make about this recipe is that somehow, over the years, I lost the exact cooking temperature and time.  And as many times as I have made it, I’ve never paid attention to what I do to make a record of it.  But somehow it always turns out okay.

Paul’s Favorite Cheesecake

Crust:

1-1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
3T sugar
1/3 cup butter

Mix together and press into a springform pan or pie plate. (For years I made this in a cheap glass pie plate. Now I have a nice springform pan, which I love, but either one will work just fine.) Do NOT bake.

Filling:

16 oz cream cheese (room temperature — leave out overnight for best results)
2 eggs (also room temp — leave out overnight)
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp real vanilla (Use real vanilla. It matters.)
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Combine the filling ingredients in a large mixer bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Pour into uncooked pie crust. Now, pay attention, because this is highly scientific. Bake at 325 or 350 until the top is lightly browned and it looks cooked. I KNOW. Do your best. I think it’s somewhere between 40 and 60 minutes.

Topping:

1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp real vanilla

Combine topping ingredients in small bowl, and when the cheesecake is cool, spread on top. Refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight. Serve with homemade berry sauce.

Berry Sauce:

This is the first time I’ve done this, but it was so good I’ll be doing it from now on. I just took a small package of blackberries (use raspberries or strawberries or whatever you like) and put them on the stove with 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water and simmered/boiled for about 5 minutes. Then I put it in the food processor, pulsed a few times, (I’m sure you can use a blender, if that’s what you have) and strained it in a mesh strainer to get the seeds out. I threw it in the fridge until time to serve. You can use it to decorate the plate, and feel free to put a dollop on top as well.

This post was entered in the Your Life, Your Blog carnival at Real Life.

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