You Can’t Hurry Love (Or Cheesecake)

 

It is almost Valentine’s Day. I know, I know – you have yet to implement your New Year’s Resolutions and here we are zeroing in on mid-February. Well, no need to do today what you can put off until tomorrow – so skip the gym just one more time and, instead, bake someone special (this can and should include you) this amazing cheesecake. If you didn’t believe in true love, you will now.

This cheesecake recipe is courtesy of my Aunt Joy. My cheesecake never taste like hers, even though I call her every single time when I am making it. Still, even my amateur efforts pay off big.

Be forewarned, this cheesecake needs time to bake and set, but surprisingly little time to eat. Odd.

I’ve made it twice and both times it was during the early weeks of having a newborn at home, which was a blessing in disguise because I was already wearing a lot of sweat pants and I had a baby that would wake up in the middle of the night demanding to be fed. Again. So I would bake it in the evening and let it sit in the oven until that dreaded 2AM feeding. It’s called multi-tasking, for all you men out there.

Make this and top it with anything you like – melted chocolate, fresh berries, a picture of yourself wearing your best sweatpants. I suggested to my Aunt Joy that we top the cheesecake with another whole entire cheesecake! She just sighed, but I think it was because she didn’t think of it herself. Some of us are just more creative than others, you know?

Cheesecake 

Prep time: 25 minutes | Bake time: approximately 2 hours | Total time: 4 hours

Crust Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1.5 sticks butter

Crust Directions:

• In a medium bowl, combine flour and sugar
• Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly
• Add 2 slightly beaten egg yolks
• Add vanilla
• Mix lightly with a fork just until pastry holds together and leaves sides of bowl
• Chill

Cheese Mixture Ingredients:

• Five (5) 8oz packages of cream cheese
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 Tbl vanilla
• 5 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 pint sour cream

Directions: 

• Pat 1/3 chilled cookie crust evenly over the bottom of 10″ spring form pan
• Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for 8 minutes or until lightly browned
• Pat remaining dough evenly onto sides of pan
• Chill
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and fluffy
• Beat in eggs and yolks one at a time
• Stir in sour cream
• Pour into spring pan with baked bottom crust and unbaked shell
• Bake at 450 degrees for 12 minutes
• Lower oven to 250 degrees and bake for 1.5 hours
• Turn off oven and let cake remain in the oven for 1 hour
• Remove from oven and and cool
• Take out of pan before refrigerating
• Love the one you’re with – and if you are alone, more cheesecake for you!