Easy Cheesecake

Easy Cheesecake

I'm a fan of easy and I'm a fan of cheesecake, and when you combine the two, you've easily have a winner in my book of life.

There are certain recipe sources that I return to again and again for no-fail recipes that rarely fail to inspire or please, and the good people at King Arthur Flour is one of those.  When I lived in New England and within easy driving distance of their store, I was an occasional shopper of their Norwich, Vermont store and just loved oogling at all their fabulous merchandise and baking supplies.  This isn't an advertisement for them, just rattling on about shopping, I guess.  There were a couple of other really super cookware shops that I frequented in Vermont; it's just this recipe happens to come from KAF, hence why I mention it.

Moving on, this is a very nice cheesecake.  Full disclosure, it's not as good as my all time favorite New York cheesecake, but if you want a simple cheesecake that is simple, simple, simple, creamy smooth, and delicious flavor, I think you won't find many better than this one.  I think it took me longer to haul out the few ingredients and my cooking tools than it did to put this together.

My boyfriend took a tentative taste test and then couldn't stay away from it.  He liked it far more than I did, and I liked it, but as I said, this is very good.

EASY CHEESECAKE
Original recipe found at King Arthur Flour here for additional details and hints.

For the Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about one and a half packages, more or less)
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup melted butter (equivalent of 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon)
1/8 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)

Filling
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese (at room temperature)
2/3 cup sugar
2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping of Choice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix the crust ingredients together and pour into a 9-inch pie plate.  Press the crust the ingredients up the sides and on the bottom of the pan, making the thicker bottom than the sides.

Cream together the room-temperature cream cheese and the sugar until smooth. Add the eggs and the vanilla and again mix until smooth.  Pour the filling into the waiting crust.

Place the cheesecake in the oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes.  Add a crust shield or cover with a "hedge row" of tin foil so the crust won't overbrown.  Bake for an additional ten minutes.  The center will look slightly wobbly but it will be done.

Remove from the oven and let cool and set it on a rack to cool.  Make topping.  Cover pie and refrigerate.  Best after several hours to allow the flavors to meld.

RASPBERRY SAUCE

12 ounce bag frozen, unsweetened raspberries (about 12 ounces) divided
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon butter

Stir together 1 1/2 cups of raspberries, sugar and water in a saucepan.  Stirring frequently heat over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is boiling.

Reduce the heat and stir in the vanilla.

In a small cup combine the cornstarch and water, mixing well.

While stirring the raspberry mixture, slowly add the cornstarch slurry so it doesn't clump.  Continue stirring and cook over medium heat until the sauce thickens and looses its cloudy appearance and looks clear, about 4 minutes.

Remove from heat.  Add the butter and mix until the butter has been incompletely incorporated.

Allow the mixture to cool for 15 minutes, then add the remaining berries and stir to mix.

COOK'S NOTES:  This cheesecake was definitely better the second day, so I would suggest several hours of cooling at least, or maybe overnight.  But if you're in a hurry and need dessert right away, no judgment from me if you cut into it after only a couple of hours, grins.

When I made the raspberry sauce, I totally did not see that the raspberries were divided and just dumped the whole bag into the saucepan at the beginning and cooked them.  Worked fine for me, though whole raspberries might have made a prettier presentation.  I found that the sauce was not thick enough for me, so I made another little batch of the slurry (the 2 teaspoons of water and 2 tablespoons of cornstarch) and added that.  Much more to my liking.

A Platter of Pancakes and Blueberriest Blueberry Syrup

I've eaten a fair number of pancakes along the way, have tried a number of different recipes, and never complained.  It's pancakes, right?  They're all good.  But this recipe is very good.  Good enough to eat without syrup or butter.  Good enough to eat while they're so hot they'll burn your tongue good.  So good, this is my go-to recipe for pancakes.  When I crave pancakes, these are the ones I'm dreaming of.

I guess what makes them so good is they have more sugar than other recipes and less salt, so if you like a sweeter pancake, you'll like these.

However, a little syrup does go so nicely, and I want to share my favorite blueberry syrup of all time.  I've made it for years and have never strayed from it.  I swear, the blueberry flavor in this is so vibrant it's even blueberrier than fresh blueberries.  Doggone it's good!

SWEET, FLUFFY PANCAKES
https://www.graceandgoodeats.com/best-ever-pancake-recipe/

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups milk
1 large egg
3 tablespoons butter, melted

• In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar
• Melt the butter and combine with the egg and milk in a small bowl.
• Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients.
• Mix together, pulling dry ingredients from the sides to the wet center, until just combined.  A few lumps are perfectly acceptable and expected.
• Allow the batter to rest a bit (giving an opportunity for the baking powder to work its magic and) while your greased pan or griddle is heating over medium high heat.
• Once heated, use a 1/4 cup scoop, measure batter onto the griddle.  (Give the batter a little swirl with the side of your measuring cup, starting from the center, working outward to help shape the your pancake into a more perfect circle, optional, but nice!)
• Cook each side until light golden brown, about 3 to 5 minutes per side.

BLUEBERRIEST BLUEBERRY SAUCE

In a small saucepan combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, a good pinch of ground nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.  (That equates to about 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and even less than that for the salt.)

Stir in 1/2 cup of boiling water.  Cook and stir until mixture becomes clear and thick and bubbly, about two minutes or so.

Add one cup of fresh or frozen blueberries and cook and stir, bringing mixture back to the boil and the blueberries begin to burst.

Remove from heat and add one tablespoon lemon juice and stir.

Serve warm.

COOK'S NOTES:  The first time I made these, I burnt them.  Yep, sure did but they were still good.  I was overzealous with the heat.  It's my thought that since these tend to be a little thicker pancake, they needed to be on a lower heat to give the pancake time enough to cook through.  Even these aren't as quite as golden brown and picture perfect as I would've wished, we loved them anyway.

I've since bought an electric skillet and it has done wonders to improve the appearance of the pancakes; I'm supposing it's because the heat is even, with no hot and cold spots that happen with my griddle on my glass-cooktop stove.