I’m going back to making cheesecake.
I’ve never been able to make one without that unsightly crack that forms across the top. No matter how slowly I would cool it, the crack would always be there.
Another reason I stepped back from making cheesecake is that my wonderful white KitchenAid mixer is small: The bowl barely holds a standard cheesecake recipe.
But people around here have been asking about cheesecake lately, so I dug out an old recipe. The only name I have for it is “Cheese Cake (Easy) from Mom.” It’s easy because it’s a manageable size; it uses two 8-ounce packages of cream cheese instead of three or four. It can fit in a 9-inch pie pan.
You don’t even need any special equipment to make this; the pie pan does the job. Just butter it and pour in the filling. And isn’t that what cheesecake is about — the filling?
I made it once and baked the filling in a buttered pie pan, no crust. It came out perfectly, but I moved onto larger recipes and left it behind. Then I stopped making cheesecake.
Take out the good vanilla — you’ll really taste it here. I increased it to one and one-half teaspoons and added a dash of lemon juice.
I pulled out one of Mom’s beautiful old nickel-plated tart pans, and put graham cracker crumbs on the bottom and partway up the sides, which had been generously buttered.
I pushed my luck, using the fancy, deeper pan and adding the tasty graham cracker crust.
I cooled it slowly and carefully, and it still cracked, but I didn’t stress about it.
What am I going to do, stop making cheesecake?
It doesn’t look perfect, but it sure tastes perfect.
Easy Cheese Cake
Ingredients
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash salt
1/2 tsp. butter
Steps
Beat cream cheese until fluffy.
Gradually beat in sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Add vanilla and salt.
Pour into a buttered 9-inch pie pan.
Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees until lightly golden.
Serves 6
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