Things I Love About Small Town Life #201

Buying our Christmas tree from a cut-your-own tree-farm just down the road from our house.

Cheesecake Flop

I tried making a cheesecake this week. Other than the top being burnt, it was great! I kind of combined the recipes from Ina Garten and Joy of Cooking, but used less cream cheese.

I used Ina's recipe for the crust, expect that I needed more graham crackers (about 13) to get to 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs. For the filling I used

2 lbs. of cream cheese
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup cream
zest from one lemon
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Using one of the Joy of Cooking methods, I cooked it at 500 for 15 minutes. That was my mistake. I should have kept an eye on it and just cooked it until it was lightly brown, but instead I set the timer and left the kitchen. By the time the 15 minutes had passed, it was burnt. On the positive side, I had fun playing 6 card golf with my girls. I continued following the directions, turning the heat to 200 for one hour and then turning off the oven and opening the door for 30 minutes and finally taking it out to cool. Other than the burnt top, the flavor was really nice. It had kind of a "cakey" texture, which is fine for me. I will try it again, but will remember to watch it during the 500 degree stage.