Lemon Cheesecake

Who loves cheesecake? Me! Well, and John. We aren't too big on sweets in this house. Although, as of late, I have been baking an awful lot. Hmm...

When we do have dessert, our favorites are those that are tart and sweet (key lime pie, lemon bars), so I decided to experiment with a lemon cheesecake. Turns out, it was a good experiment! We had some friends over last weekend for dinner and let's just say they ran a train on the cheesecake.

Look at that little piece of cream trying to jump off the plate!

Right out of the oven. 

Lemon Cheesecake
Makes 8 generous slices

Ingredients for the crust:

1. 1 1/12 cups crushed graham crackers
2. 1/4 cup sugar
3. 1 stick unsalted butter (8 tbsp) melted 

How to make the crust:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together until well combined. 
3. Press into the bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan. I have found this is easy to do with the bottom of a measuring cup.
4. Bake for 7-8 minutes. 
5. Pull out and cool completely. 

Ingredients for the filling:

• 32 oz cream cheese at room temperature
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (roughly 2 large lemons)
• Zest from two large lemons
• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup of sour cream at room temperature
• 1/4 cup of flour

How to make the filling:

1. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat the cream cheese, butter, and sugar until smooth and creamy. Scrap the sides of your bowl as needed to assure everything is evenly mixed. Depending upon the temperature of your ingredients, this can take 5-6 minutes. 
2. Add the vanilla extract, lemon juice, and lemon zest and continue to beat on medium until well blended. 
3. Lower your mixing speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each egg. 
4. Add the flour and sour cream and continuing to mix until smooth, light, and fluffy. 

Putting it all together:

1. Preheat the oven to 320 degrees and assure you have one oven rack on the bottom and one in the middle. 
2. Prepare a water bath - I do not do a traditional water bath because it messes up your cheesecake. You know, the one where you have to wrap your springform pan up in tinfoil then immerse it in water? Yeah, don't do that. Instead, fill a cake pan with water and place it on the bottom rack. Same effect - less chance of your cheesecake getting messed up. 
3. Dump your cheesecake filling into your prepared pie crust in your springform pan. Smooth it out then tap the bottom of the pan on the counter to assure everything is even. 
4. Place your cheesecake on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes. At this point, your cheesecake is still going to be quite jiggly in the middle. Don't freak out, it will set up. Just trust that it will work out - you don't want to end up with a cracked cheesecake, do you? 
5. Turn the oven off, crack the door, and allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for an additional hour. It will still be quite soft - not so much jiggly anymore - but definitely soft. 
6. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and allow to completely cool. 
7. Once cool, transfer to the fridge. 
8. It is best to let it refrigerate over night, but if you can't wait then slice into it after it has been in the fridge a few hours. Put the rest back into the fridge and it will be perfect the next day. 

As you can see, I topped mine with raspberries and whipped cream. The raspberries paired really well with the lemon. 

Enjoy!

- H