Recipe: an almost traditional cheesecake

This past weekend was my Mother's birthday, and when I asked her what kind of cake she wanted, she responded, just a regular, plain cheesecake.

Cheesecake lovers, through and through, I wouldn't say we've tried all the recipes, but we've certainly tried a lot! The all time favorite being the chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake (my birthday choice last year). I like to experiment, so I found something a little different to try.

Since I haven't shared a recipe here in a while, and my brother took these lovely shots of the cake, I thought I'd post it.

I love looking through old issues of Taste of Home, and this one came from December 1999.

I chose it because I wanted a recipe with three packages of cream cheese rather than two, and I was intrigued by the fact that you separate the eggs, beat the whites and then fold them in.

The result is a light and fluffy cheesecake that is all to easy to devour. This barely lasted a day before we were licking up the crumbs.

Photos by Louis Abate

Ingredients
CRUST:
2-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 18 whole crackers)
1/3 cup sugar
7 tablespoons butter, melted
FILLING:
3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, separated
TOPPING:
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped
Strawberries to garnish

Directions
In a small bowl, combine the cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 2 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan. Bake at 350° for 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Reduce heat to 325°.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add egg yolks; beat on low just until combined. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form; fold into cream cheese mixture. Pour over crust.

Bake for 1 hour or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate until completely cooled. Combine the sour cream, sugar and vanilla; fold in whipped cream. Spread over cheesecake. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan.

Yield: 12 servings.

 

Photo by Anna Abate