"The" Cheesecake

My oh my, what a crazy few months. Everything seems to have calmed down, so hopefully this means I'll be back to more frequent posting.

Jared's birthday was just a few weeks ago. Every single year that I have known the family, we have had the same cheesecake for Jared's birthday. It is the richest, and most sinful cheesecake I have ever eaten. This year I asked Kyle to let Jared know that I would be making him cheesecake. He asked if I had "the recipe" which luckily I did. From what Kyle said, Jared was just about as happy as Jared gets that he would get to have his usual cheesecake for his birthday. Granted, I doubt that he was visibly happy, since it is Jared after all, but happiness is relative I suppose.

I spent the majority of that Saturday working on this cheesecake. It is definitely the most complicated cheesecake recipe I have ever attempted, and the entire time I was cursing Michelle for not teaching me how to make it. When I was done cooking it, the filling was far from set. I called my mom to get her opinion on what to do next. I turned up the heat a bit and cooked it for about 20 minutes longer. When I checked, the top had just started to crack, so I called it done and took it out to cool. The very middle was still jiggly, but I thought it would finish setting up as it cooled. I was wrong. It wasn't soup, but it definitely wasn't what cheesecake is supposed to be like. It was delicious though, and I got nothing but rave reviews.

Kyle really wants me to share the cheesecake recipe with everyone so that everyone can enjoy the deliciousness. I want to share it with everyone so I learn some new tricks on how to get this darn thing to turn out right. I've only got 50 weeks to perfect it before Jared's birthday next year.

Cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon peel
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 slightly beaten egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla

Combine flour, sugar, and peel. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in yolk and vanilla. Blend. Pat 1/3 of dough on the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan (sides removed). Bake at 400 degrees for about six minutes or until golden brown. Cool.

Butter sides of spring form pan and attach to bottom. Pat remaining dough evenly on the sides to a height of 2 inches. Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Filling::
5 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp grated lemon peel
1 3/4 cup sugar
3 Tb flour
1/4 tsp salt
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream

Stir cream cheese until soft, and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and lemon peel. Mix sugar, flour, and salt. Gradually blend into cheese. Add eggs and yolks one at a time, beating well after each. Gently stir in cream. Turn into crust lined pan. Bake at 500 degrees for 5-8 minutes or until top edge of crust is golden. Reduce heat to 200 degrees and bake for 1 hour longer. Remove from oven. Cool in pan for 3 hours. Remove sides of pan and serve.