Sorry about the lack of posting…computer was broken (busted hinge) and I only recently got it back. Figures it would happen just in time for school to start. I’m glad I took it in for repairs though. The technician said the other hinge was starting to show signs of doing the same thing, so they pre-emptively fixed that one too. I should be good to go for a few more years.
I should say outright that I love to cook. I love finding recipes and tweaking them, especially vintage ones. Sometimes it’s out of necessity (nut allergy on my part) and sometimes just to see if something will work.
Case in point…the Cheesecake.
My mom and I have been making this cheesecake as long as I can remember. She got the recipe when she was teaching in the Catholic schools (quite a while before I was born), so I am going to guess that this recipe is from the ’60’s or so. My mom got the recipe from another teacher called Ms. Sunday. She said she’s sure Ms. Sunday would be totally cool with me sharing it. It’s a killer, and not a light cheesecake. This bad boy means business.
Now, we have modified it over the years. Nobody in my family is wild about graham cracker crusts, so after a bit of poking around, we found that Sandies shortbread cookies work amazing. We just leave out the extra sugar when we do that. You could use the Sandies with pecans if you wanted, and I’m sure that would taste rocking as well. We use one whole package per cheesecake.
The second modification was somewhat by accident. When I was shopping for the last cheesecake, I accidentally grabbed Neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese. Oops. I didn’t realize this until I was ready to make the silly thing, and we had company coming over the next day, so it had to be ready. It turned out beautifully, and would have been lower fat than the original version. So, I guess if lower fat is your thing, go for it! The different cheese didn’t affect the taste at all. Here’s some other tips:
Make sure to use high quality real vanilla extract. The artificial stuff will taste weird.
Let your ingredients come to room temperature before mixing. It makes things so much easier.
Do NOT use low-fat cream cheese. The texture will be really strange, and it just will not taste good. That was called ‘things you only try once.’
Invest in a good springform pan. This recipe will not work in a regular pie pan or cake pan.
For your viewing pleasure, here is the original recipe. You can see my mom’s and my modifications tacked on.
Hilary
