I love cheesecake.
For many years, I celebrated the end of a successful school year by sharing this cheesecake with my Advanced Placement European History students after they took their tests.
I’ve taken it to my friends at my pups’ veterinary hospital. It has been a birthday cheesecake, a get-well cheesecake, an I’m sorry cheesecake. It has gotten me through some pretty teary times, too.
My husband used to stand impatiently beside the sink when I made it to be sure that he could savour the left-over batter—and, make no mistake, Dixon was an exacting cheesecake connoisseur. Woe be to me if I let the pan slip into the water before he could retrieve the remnants of the batter!
You will not regret giving this recipe a try.
Recipe: Classic Cheesecake
Crust
2 1/2 C. finely-crushed graham crackers
1/3 pound melted butter
1/5 C. sugar
Add sugar and melted butter to crushed graham crackers. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a springform pan.
Filling Batter
1 C. sugar
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese (room temperature)
3 eggs (separated)-Beat egg whites until they are very stiff
1/5 pound butter
1/2 T. vanilla
1 T. fresh lemon juice
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
Beat cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time to the cheese and sugar mixture. Blend in room-temperature butter, vanilla and lemon juice. Fold in stiffly-beaten egg whites being careful not to mix whites too much; you want to leave as much air in the egg whites as you can to give your cheesecake a light texture. Pour this mixture into the crust and smooth top.
Bake on the middle shelf in your oven for 40 minutes at 325 degrees F. When the cheesecake is done, leave it in the unopened oven until the cheesecake cools completely. Leaving the cheesecake to cool completely will reduce the cracking on the top of the cheesecake.
You can serve this cheesecake plain or with fruit.
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