Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Cheesecake for Conor

Today is Conor's 12th birthday and he asked for a cheesecake as his birthday cake.

Cheesecake

40 vanilla wafers
1/4 cup melted butter
1 T. sugar
3 8-oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 T. flour
1 t. vanilla
1/4 cup milk
3 eggs

Crust:
Crush the vanilla wafers into fine crumbs. I put them in a large zipper storage bag and had Emma them with a rolling pin but you can use a food processor instead. (I'd rather use the energy - especially if it's someone else's energy - to crush them with the rolling pin than to use my energy to wash the food processor.) Add the 1 T. sugar and the melted butter to the bag/processor and mix well. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom of a springform pan.

Cheesecake:
Beat cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour, and vanilla with a mixer. Beat in milk until smooth. Add eggs and stir just until mixed in. (Overbeating can cause cracks in cheesecakes.)

Pour filling into pan*. Place pan in a shallow baking pan and bake at 375 degrees until edges are puffy and done and center jiggles slightly:
8" pan - bake about 40 - 45 minutes
9" pan - bake about 35 minutes

Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cheesecake from the side, cool 30 minutes more. Remove the sides of the pan and cool cheesecake completely. Cover and refrigerate for 4+ hours.

*Conor wanted a raspberry swirl cheesecake. The recipes I found said to mix some seedless jam with a portion of the filling and swirl that in (similar to how chocolate marble cheesecakes are made). I had had a raspberry swirl cheesecake once at a restaurant that had more of a jam swirl and wanted to try to duplicate that so I melted 1/4 cup of seedless raspberry jam and swirled that in.