How to Bake Cheesecake Perfectly Every Time?

Cheesecake is a classic dessert. While it’s delicious plain, cheesecake is a culinary blank canvass that can be easily dressed up with a variety of stir-ins and toppers. This unique recipe has a crunchy nut crust and a traditional cream cheese filling. Your family is sure to love it.

First, let’s preheat the oven to three hundred and a fifty (350) degrees, then make the crust. Pour one (1) and three-quarter cups of crushed graham crackers into a medium bowl. You can buy them like this or make your own in a food processor. Crushed cookies also make delicious crusts. You can substitute crushed ginger snaps, vanilla wafers, or chocolate sandwich cookies.

Next, add a quarter cup of finely chopped almonds to the bowl. You can also use finely chopped pecans, walnuts, or macadamia nuts instead. Add one (1) tablespoon of sugar.

And, if you like go ahead and add half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Other spices that would make a tasty crust variation are all spice, ginger, apple pie spice, or pumpkin pie spice. Stir the crust ingredients.

Then, pour in half a cup of melted butter and mix well. If you’re making a cookie crust variation, you may need less melted butter, so add it gradually.

Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and in about one and a half (1 ½) inches up the sides of a nine-inch spring form pan. Because we’re going to bake the cheesecake in a water bath, let’s place the spring form pan on a double layer of large heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Bring the edges of the foil up and mold it around the sides of the pan to form a watertight seal. The water bath baking method is recommended since it yields a creamier texture without the top cracking.

Now, let’s make the filling. Crack three (3) eggs into a small bowl. Beat them lightly and set them aside. Add two (2) eight-ounce packages of softened cream cheese to a large mixing bowl and add one (1) eight-ounce (8 oz.) container of sour cream. Add one (1) cup of granulated sugar.

Now, add two (2) tablespoons of flour and one (1) teaspoon of vanilla extract. Use an electric mixer to beat the filling until it smooth. Keep scraping down the sides of the bowl and then mix again until it’s fully blended then add the eggs. Gently stir the eggs into the beaten cream cheese to prevent aerating the eggs and batter.

This prevents the cheesecake from puffing up in the oven and falling in the center upon cooling. While, we’ll make a classic cheesecake here, at this point, you can gently stir in an added ingredient to make a specialty cheesecake.  Try a cup of chocolate pieces or a cup of fresh berries. Pour the filling into the prepared spring form pan.

Now, it’s time to bake. Place the springform pan into a shallow roasting pan and place the pan into the oven. Then, pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake it for one (1) hour. You’ll know the cheesecake is done when the cheesecake edges jiggles slightly then turn the oven off and allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven for one (1) hour to allow it to set.

Then, remove the springform pan from the water bath. Place it on a wire rack. Allow it to cool for fifteen (15) minutes. Use a small knife to loosen the crust from the sides of the pan and cool the cheesecake for another thirty (30) minutes. Remove the sides and allow the cheesecake to cool completely on the rack. Cover the cheesecake and chill it for at least four (4) hours before serving.

Cheesecakes and dessert sauces are match made in heaven. So, it’s worth planning to make a sauce, too. There’s a delicious recipe for homemade fudge sauce at bhg.com. Yum!

You can also watch this video on Youtube: Better Homes and Gardens