My apologies for not posting since the March 11th…been a little busy! Show season is staring and tax season (yay!, said no person ever) and it’s all caught up with me. This recipe for Deluxe Baked Cheesecake is from the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. (One of my all time favorites!)
3/4 c butter, softened
5 eggs
all-purpose flour
1/4 c heavy cream
sugar
1 t grated fresh orange peel
3 egg yolks
1/4 t salt
grated peel of one lemon
5 – 8oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
_In a small bowl with mixer on low speed, beat butter, 1 1/4 c flour, 1/4 c sugar,
1 egg yolk and half of lemon peel until dough is well mixed. I’ve made this a few times, adjust the lemon peel to your taste, I generally do a couple runs over 1 lemon and 1 orange but the full amount called for gets a little overpowering.
_Refrigerate, covered for 1 hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Press 1/3 of dough in bottom of 10-inch springform pan. Bake 8 minutes;
allow to cool.
_Turn oven to 475 degrees. In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese until just smooth; slowly beat in 1 3/4 c sugar until smooth.
_With mixer at low speed, beat in 3 T flour and remaining ingredients. At high speed, beat 5 minutes.
_Press rest of dough around side of springform to within 1″ of top of pan, don’t bake dough.
_Pour cheese mix into pan; bake 12 minutes; Turn oven to 300 degrees.
Bake 35 minutes. Turn oven off and leave in 30 minutes.
DO NOT OPEN OVEN IN BETWEEN! Remove, cool pan on wire rack.
Chill at least 1 hour before serving. Serves 16.
Again, watch the amount of lemon & orange zest you use in the actual cheesecake, as well. I do about the same for the cheesecake as I do for the crust.
This is an incredibly smooth cheesecake! 🙂 Top with a cherry or strawberry sauce if desired.