Shaker Gourmet

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Above is a cheesecake I made the other night, when I was teaching Iain how to make cheesecake! It's my favorite cheesecake recipe, using my favorite baking technique. And it's delicious.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 and 3/4 cups finely crumbed graham crackers
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup melted butter

Filling:

4 8-oz packages of room temp. cream cheese (regular or whipped)
1/2 cup room temp. sour cream
3 room temp. eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt in a large bowl, then add the melted butter. Work the butter through the dry ingredients until they are well-mixed. Press the mixture into a thin layer across the bottom and partially up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden. Set aside.

(For the next step, you can either do this in a stand mixer or use a hand mixer. I prefer to use a hand mixer, because I can better keep an eye on the consistency of the batter to make sure I don't overmix it. If you opt to use a stand mixer, instead of beating all the eggs first, add them last, one at a time, incorporating them on a low setting.)

Beat eggs in a large bowl, then add sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Gently mix with spatula, breaking up any large chunks of sour cream. Add the cream cheese, and break up loosely with spatula. Mix with hand mixer on low to medium and be careful not to overmix. Once the batter is smooth and starts to glisten, transfer into the springform pan.

Double-wrap the bottom of the springform pan with foil (as pictured above). Then place the springform pan into a larger pan surrounded by hot water, at least 3/4 of an inch and no higher than the top of the foil.

(Note: I recommend against using boiling water, because the water tends to slosh as you're putting it into the oven and you don't want to burn yourself! Hot tap water is fine.)

Bake for 60-70 minutes until the top is starting to brown and the edges are set, but the center remains slightly jiggly.

As soon as it's out of the oven, run a spatula or knife around the rim to loosen the cake away from the pan. Let the cake cool at room temperature for an hour, then chill in refrigerator for at least six hours (still in pan).

Serve and enjoy!