\Whenever it’s the holiday season, I am always in charge of baking the desserts for family gatherings. So, over this past Thanksgiving I made a pumpkin roll and a simple cheesecake with a strawberry topping. I know a lot of families typically have a sweet potato pie or a pumpkin pie for thanksgiving dinner and for a large portion of my life, we did too. After a while, my family started to get bored of the same pies every year and I got really into baking so thus, the dessert was my department. Now,although I do make cheesecake for Thanksgiving, I wouldn’t say that that is the only time of year that I make it. It is my go-to dessert whenever I am part of a potluck. The goal of this post is to teach you guys how I make cheesecake.Now you may not like cheesecake but I guarantee someone in your life does so this may come in handy.
To make my cheesecake the ingredients that I use are as follows:
(1-½ cups) Graham Cracker crumbs
(3 Tbsp) Granulated Sugar
(1/3 cup) melted butter
(4) 8 oz packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese
(4) Eggs
(1 cup) Granulated Sugar
(1 tsp) vanilla
So to begin, you want to use a 9-inch spring form panto bake in. Before you start, preheat your oven to 325 F. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar(only 3 Tbsp), and butter together in a bowl. Next, you want to press this evenly to the bottom of your spring form pan, this is your crust. After the crust is situated in the pan, you want to start making the cheesecake batter. Before you begin this process, it is very important that you start off with room temperature cream cheese. Using room temperature cream cheese allows the cream cheese to be mixed with a mixer and prevents it from just getting stuck on the beaters. First in a mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese so that it is no longer in blocks. Make sure you mix for as little time as possible as mixing incorporates air into the batter and while baking, the air is released from the batter in the form of cracks. Next, beat in your sugar,and vanilla until it is completely mixed in. After this you want to beat your eggs in one at a time mixing the minimum amount. Once this is done you have officially made the cheesecake batter, so it can be poured into the spring form pan and placed in the oven for approximately 55 minutes. To prevent cracks, you can do a water bath. You know the cheesecake is done when it is firm everywhere and slightly jiggly about 2 inches from the center. Let it cool for about an hour and then refrigerate overnight. I’ve found that cheesecake tastes better a day after you make it instead of on the same day. Enjoy!
