Cheesecake

Desserts are a rare treat around here. I’m not a big fan of sweets, so most of the time it’s simply because I don’t think to make them. Honey, on the other hand, likes a bite of something sweet after supper. Most of the time, he doesn’t say a lot about my lack of forethought. Yesterday, bless his heart, he spent a considerable amount of time in town buying groceries and stuff for me. While he was gone, I wanted to do something nice for him. Supper was going to be rather plain, so I thought dessert would be a way of thanking him for his above & beyond efforts.

Cheesecake is one of Honey’s favorite desserts. The only cheesecake I’d ever had was manufactured in a bakery and in my opinion, it was barely edible. It always looked good, but it tasted terrible. I’ve been looking around for awhile for a good recipe. Here’s something I found. I didn’t have fruit for a topping, so I went with chocolate. It’s really easy.

Regular or Chocolate Cheesecake

3 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temp.
1 C. granulated sugar
5 lrg. Eggs
For chocolate cheesecake:
2 oz (2 squares) semisweet chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

To make the bottom crust graham cracker crumbs & melted butter mixed until well blended and pressed in a springform pan (or a simple graham cracker pie crust works great too).

To prepare filling, In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese, sugar, and eggs at medium speed until smooth & fluffy.

Spoon ½ to ¾ mixture into crust or fill crust completely if you prefer regular cheesecake.

If you want your cheesecake to be chocolately, stir chocolate into remaining mixture until well blended. Drizzle over batter in crust to make swirls.

Bake cheesecake for 50 minutes. (The toothpick trick does work for this, but the toothpick will appear to be a bit wet when removed from the cheesecake. As long as it’s not doughy, the cheesecake is ready)

Transfer pan to wire rack. Cool completely.

Cover with plastic & chill for 2 hours.

Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting or top with your favorite fruit.

Now, as the late, great Paul Harvey would have said ~ Here’s the Rest of the Story:

Because it was late afternoon when I started this process and I wanted it ready for last night’s dessert, I was in a hurry to get it done & in the fridge. All I had was a graham cracker crust left over from my Christmas baking. I figured that would work nicely. (besides, not only do I not have a ‘springform’ pan, I don’t even know what it is.)

The filling mixed up so easy. I thought, ‘yea, I’m home free!’ I found out that the little graham cracker crusts only hold about 1/2 of the filling. Now I’m a frugal cook. When I saw that the other half was about to go to waste, I started desperately trying to figure out what to do. After a quick call to Honey’s Mom, I found that the extra batter can be poured into cupcake papers and baked about 30-45 minutes. Also, we skipped the refridgerator part on the mini’s and they were still really good.

For cheesecake, this is actually pretty good without frosting or anything.

Have a great night & may the Lord bless you.