Cheesecake and Christmas Morning.

Oh Cheesecake... you will be the end of me!

I love this recipe from Baking Illustrated. The baking times in the recipe, however, have never worked for me. The recipe says to bake at 500 degrees for 10 minutes to start, but that burnt my cheesecake very quickly. This last time I put it in at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes and then 200 degrees for about 2 hours, I think. : )

This was the first time it didn't get that big crack down the middle of the cake.

For the raspberry syrup I smashed raspberries through a sieve, added some sugar, and reduced it over the stove until it was the right thickness.

Delicious!

It's a tradition of ours to all have hot chocolate together before any opening begins. We each have our own mug, but this year we needed one for Will too!

Can you guess which one is his?

Dom thinks it's torture to make them wait... but I love our tradition... and she doesn't look like she's suffering too much : )

With that out of the way we were ready!

We had lots of fun!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!!!

New York Cheesecake- Baking Illustrated

Ingredients-

8 graham crackers 6 tbsp of butter, melted shopping list

1 tbsp  sugar

6 tbsp melted butter
2 1/2 lbs. (5 packages)  cream cheese, softened to room temp.
1/8 tsp  salt
1 1/2 cups  sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons  fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup  sour cream
6 eggs
2 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Brush the bottom and sides of a 9" springform pan with 1/2 T. of the melted butter.

Finely crush the graham crackers.

Mix with the sugar and 5 1/2 tbsp of the butter with a fork until crumbly.
Press the crumbs in the bottom of the prepared pan, bake for 13 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove to rack to cool while you prepare the filling.

Turn oven up to 500 degrees ( I turn it up to 425 instead ).

In the large bowl of a standing mixer, beat the cream cheese for about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides. Add the salt and about 1/2 the sugar and beat at medium-low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape the bowl. Beat in the remaining sugar about 1 minute.

Add the sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla.

Beat at low speed for 1 minute. Scrape the bowl.
Add the egg yolks and beat at medium-low speed until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute.

Scrape the bowl; add the remaining eggs 2 at a time, beating until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute, scraping the bowl between additions.

Brush sides of springform pan with remaining melted butter generously after the crust has cooled.

Pour into cooled crust and place on a lipped baking sheet in case there is spillover.

Bake at 500 (425 for me!)  degrees for 10 ( 20 minutes for me ) minutes. Reduce heat to 200 degrees.

Do not open the oven door.

Bake 90 minutes. (About 2 hours for me, until the center of the cake registers about 150 degrees.)

Remove from oven, cool for five minutes on wire rack.

Run knife around the outer edge of the cake.

Allow to cool for 3 hours at room temp.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Best served 30 minutes out of the refrigerator.