Cheesecake Attempt #1

There is absolutely nothing healthy about cheesecake, but that didn't stop me from baking one for the first time this past weekend. Chad's birthday was Sunday, so I had a perfect excuse to make one. I have never baked a cheesecake before, so I followed this recipe exactly. I did not make the blueberry topping, I simply ran out of time, but I think it would go beautifully with the flavor of the cheesecake.

My wonderful younger brother, Gabriel, bought me a brand new spring-form pan for Christmas and I found out that making a cheesecake is a lot more involved than I'd thought. The flavor was delicious, cream cheese adds the richness and sour cream adds the tartness this cake needs to cut the sweetness, especially if you add the topping. The one issue I had was my electric mixer is broken, so I had to mix it by hand; bad idea if you want points on presentation. The best part about this is that I have a lot of room to improve on my next attempt:

Classic Cheesecake (attempt #1)

Yields: 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil cooking spray
6 T unsalted butter, melted
2 C graham crackers, crushed
3 T granulated sugar
1/4 t ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

16oz cream cheese, room temperature (very important that it is room temperature!)
16oz sour cream
1 C granulated sugar (I actually cut the sugar by 1/3 C)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 t grated lemon zest
1 t vanilla extract
Boiling water, for roasting pan

Blueberry topping *Optional, recipe included in original post on marthastewart.com

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray. Wrap exterior of pan with aluminum foil (including base of pan).

Stir together butter, graham cracker crubs, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Press mixture firmly into bottom of pan. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

In large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low, add sour cream, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Beat until well combined and smooth, but do not overmix. Pour into chilled crust.

Set springform pan in large, shallow roasting pan. Place in oven. Carefully ladle boiling water into roasting pan, enough to come up 3" on the sides of the pan. Bake until cheesecake is set but wobbly just in the center. *I baked my cheesecake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, then turned the oven off and left cheesecake in the oven for an additional hour. It turned out perfect!

Remove from oven, refrigerate uncovered for at least 8 hours (overnight is better).

Run a sharp knife around edge of cheesecake, unmold and spoon desired topping over cake, or serve plain.

Enjoy and Bon Appetit!