New York Style Cheesecake with Cherries - Robyn Harrison
These recipes for 2 cheesecakes are made with plenty of cream cheese and flavored with lemon juice or semi-sweet chocolate and amaretto liqueur.
New York Style Cheesecakes are those whose fillings are made with cream cheese as opposed to Italian Cheesecakes made with ricotta cheese. The following recipes produce rich, dense cheesecakes perfect for Valentine's Day dessert.
Crust:
- 8 ounces crushed graham crackers (about 16 crackers)
- 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
Filling:
- 4 eggs
- 1 32-ounce or 4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt butter in a 2-cup glass measuring cup in microwave oven, about 45 seconds on high.
- To crush crackers, put them in a plastic bag and roll over the bag several times with a rolling pin, shaking the bag to redistribute, and rolling until crumbs are fine. Alternatively, crackers can be crushed in a food processor or blender.
- Pour crumbs into butter and mix well.
- Press into bottom of 10-inch springform pan.
- Divide cream cheese into 8 to 10 portions. In a large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer, adding a portion at a time, until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time and continue beating on high.
- Gradually blend in sugar, vanilla and lemon juice and continue beating until smooth.
- Pour cream cheese over crust in springform pan.
- Bake in center of oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Cheesecake should be firm in center.
- Remove from oven and cool away from drafts.
Serve at room temperature, or chill, and refrigerate any remaining cake.
Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake
Crust:
- 8 ounces crushed chocolate wafer cookies (not sandwich cookies)
- 1/4 cup butter
Filling:
- 4 eggs
- 1 32-ounce or 4 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup Amaretto liqueur
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Melt butter in a 2-cup glass measuring cup in microwave oven, about 45 seconds on high.
- To crush cookies, put them in a plastic bag and roll over the bag several times with a rolling pin, shaking the bag to redistribute, and rolling until crumbs are fine. Alternatively, cookies can be crushed in a food processor or blender.
- Pour crumbs into butter and mix well.
- Press into bottom of 10-inch springform pan.
- Melt chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler, or in microwave.
- Divide cream cheese into 8 to 10 portions. In a large mixer bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer, adding a portion at a time, until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time and continue beating on high.
- Gradually blend in sugar, cocoa, melted chocolate chips and amaretto.
- Pour cream cheese over crust in springform pan.
- Bake in center of oven for 45 minutes to an hour. Cheesecake should be firm in center.
- Remove from oven and cool away from drafts.
For more Valentine Dessert ideas, see recipes for Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll and Chocolate Cake Roll as well as this Honey Cheesecake made without refined sugar.
Copyright Robyn Harrison. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
Robyn Harrison - Robyn Harrison spends her time attempting to banish ignorance--especially her own. To that end, she has been a teacher, librarian, ...
