Cheesecake

Cheesecake is a large family of sweet, cheese-based tarts. Cheesecakes are generally made with soft, fresh cheeses. Other ingredients such as sugar, eggs, flour, liquids are often mixed in as well. Typically, the filling covers a crust, which may be pastry, cookie, or digestive biscuitor any other biscuit like that.
-Wikipedia


Cheesecake is a sort of foodie desert, even though it has lost a bit of it's charm and glamor by being featured on every buffet line in America. Real Cheesecake is dense and sweet and leaves the mouth a bit dry as it spreads across the tongue. They almost always have a graham cracker crust and come in an amazing array of flavors.

Cheesecake is not all that hard to make either, you just need a springform pan and bit of time. As with waffles and pancakes, half the fun of making cheesecake is deciding what your going to put on top. I tend to like a bit of whipped cream and some raspberry sauce.

Of course I am not above making cheesecakes the quick and easy way-like with Jell-O No Bake Cheesecake Dessert.

New York Style Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust:

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs


Filling:

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eight ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Grease sides of a springform pan or use a 9-inch round pan, ungreased.

Crust Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine butter and graham cracker crumbs. Press into bottom of pan and freeze.

Filling Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and cream cheese on medium-high speed for 3 minutes.

2. Blend in cream. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg is added.

3. Mix in sour cream , flour and vanilla until smooth. Pour the filling batter over the crust.

4. Bake for one hour in preheated oven. Turn oven off and let cake cool in oven for about 5 hours.

5. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.