Darlings, the Mary made cheesecake and told the Fab to pass on this recipe. Mary can’t be the only one that feeds large groups of people on a regular basis. (The Fab would have it catered, but …)
Quick Note Folks:
Yes, absolutely you have time to make this before Thanksgiving, if you do it today. Cheesecake tastes better if it sits in the fridge for a day. Well, it does. I made this recipe again yesterday, while I was making chili. Seriously, mixing this together takes about 15 minutes, the baking not quite an hour. Cool, wrap, into the fridge.
Now I did something different this time with the crust. Saved a bunch of time. I bought a package of Pillsbury ready made pie crust (the package that has 2 rolled single crusts for a 9 inch pie). I used that for the bottom crust. Line the bottom of 2 of the spring-form pans, trim the excess, piece together the bottom of the third. Do not pre-bake the crust, just pour the cake batter in on top and bake as directed for the cake. Worked dandy.
If you don’t need 3 cheese cakes, divide the ingredients by 3.
It Is All About The Cheesecake!
Note before you start — this recipe makes 3 nine inch round cheesecakes.
Cheesecake freezes beautifully.
Crust
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
In medium sized bowl combine:
3 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
1/4 Teaspoon grated lemon peel (from real fresh lemons not the dried stuff in the jar)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees
In medium sized bowl combine:
3 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
1/4 Teaspoon grated lemon peel (from real fresh lemons not the dried stuff in the jar)
Mix well, then add
1 Cup softened butter (real butter, I use salted butter, if you prefer sweet butter, that works fine too. I have no idea what fake butter or shortening will do to this recipe and I don’t want to know, if you try either, please do not tell me.)
1 Cup softened butter (real butter, I use salted butter, if you prefer sweet butter, that works fine too. I have no idea what fake butter or shortening will do to this recipe and I don’t want to know, if you try either, please do not tell me.)
Mix again until all ingredients are combined. You should be able to easily form a pliable ball from the dough with your hands.
Pliable like pie crust or play dough, not sticky.
If the dough seems stiff or wont form a ball – add water one tablespoon at a time until you can form a pliable ball.
Divide the dough into three pieces. Smash the dough into the bottom only of three nine inch spring form or straight sided cake layer pan. You can get all neat about it and roll the dough out and cut a nice circle then lay that in the bottom of the pan, but you were just smooshing the dough around with your hands to form a ball then divide it in three so you decide if you want to get out a rolling pin.
Bake the crust in your preheated (you did preheat — right?) oven for 10 minutes. You don’t want the crust to brown, just set, it will finish browning when you bake the cheesecake.
Cheesecake
Remove your pans from the oven, set aside to cool. Turn the oven temperature up to 350 degrees.
Remove your pans from the oven, set aside to cool. Turn the oven temperature up to 350 degrees.
In a very large bowl combine
9 eight ounce packages of softened cream cheese. (single cake = 3 packages)
3 cups sugar (single cake = 1 cup)
1/3 cup all purpose flour (Single cake = use 2 tablespoons flour)
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel (Single cake = 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla (single cake = 1/2 teaspoon)
9 eight ounce packages of softened cream cheese. (single cake = 3 packages)
3 cups sugar (single cake = 1 cup)
1/3 cup all purpose flour (Single cake = use 2 tablespoons flour)
1/2 tablespoon grated lemon peel (Single cake = 1/2 teaspoon)
1/2 tablespoon vanilla (single cake = 1/2 teaspoon)
Mix -Mix – Mix — mix until well blended
then add
7 eggs (I use extra large eggs — but cheesecake is pretty forgiving so if you use large or jumbo it should not make a huge difference. If you use small eggs, you are on your own.) (single cake = 2 eggs)
7 eggs (I use extra large eggs — but cheesecake is pretty forgiving so if you use large or jumbo it should not make a huge difference. If you use small eggs, you are on your own.) (single cake = 2 eggs)
3/4 cup 1/2 and 1/2 (single cake 1/4 cup)
Mix until well combined. Pour cheesecake mixture into your prepared pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for around 50 minutes. Cheesecake is done when only the middle 2 inches of the cake jiggle when you move the pan slightly. Take the cakes out of the oven to cool. The middle will finish setting while the cake cools.
After the cake has cooled run a spatula around the outside of the cake to loosen it from the side of the pan. Do not remove the side of the spring form pan at this point. Cover cake with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to chill at least four hours before serving. If you are going to freeze the cake, skip the refrigerator and put the plastic wrapped cake right into the freezer.
Raspberry Sauce
2 cups frozen whole raspberries
1 cup sugar
Place the raspberries and the sugar into a heavy saucepan. Heat over low heat until the berries are thawed and stirring combines the berries and the sugar into a liquid. Increase heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture reaches the “jell” stage on a candy thermometer.
Chill sauce and serve over slices of cheesecake.
2 cups frozen whole raspberries
1 cup sugar
Place the raspberries and the sugar into a heavy saucepan. Heat over low heat until the berries are thawed and stirring combines the berries and the sugar into a liquid. Increase heat to medium. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture reaches the “jell” stage on a candy thermometer.
Chill sauce and serve over slices of cheesecake.
One nine inch cake should be cut into at least 16 slices.
The Fab is Mad as Hell and She … Graceland Revisited
Darlings, the Fab realizes that she promised a post on finding Graceland as her very next post. Well, she did find it, not where she expected, and it was in front of her the whole time but she was too busy to see it (as these sorts of things usually are). Unlike the usual sorts of way that things go, someone stole Graceland, moved right in, replaced that already bad carpeting with that horror from the seventies, orange and brown spotted shag and put way too many black velvet paintings on the walls.
What in the world is the Fab talking about? Honestly she is too livid to be her usual gracious, genteel self, so she will just let Mary speak for her. (How strange is that that Mary is more civil than the Fab for once?) The text below is from the latest post in Mary’s Blog View From A Farmhouse Window and it speaks for itself (which is well, as that is what blogs are supposed to do).
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I Had an Idea for a Blog ….
I had an idea for a blog. One about life on a farm, in the mid-west from the viewpoint of a city girl moved out to the country. That blog would include the best photos that I could take, slices of life, and sometimes recipes. That was the idea, anyway. That it turned out to be much, much more is a function of how lonely and difficult life out in the middle of farm no-where can be. Truth is farm life for women can be too many hours alone or in the too cold or too hot, all doin’ what needs doin’ until you drop with no time or energy left over for dreaming. Silly useless activity anyway, dreaming. But.
View From A Farmhouse Window started with Kites and Dogs and almost Spring Air. I wrote a memorial to my Father and a wooden boat on a river. Mourned a loss. Had a Mad Hatter Day. One entry was devoted to Diesel Fuel and Dance Cards. Then, of course, the railroad. I told an An Easter Story. I talked about hunters (and I have no doubt that they are still talking about me all these years later). Then a surprise substitution of trailer brake work for girly time followed by And Then The Cat Fell Into the Bathtub. I wrote about walks in Wild Dog Woods and how a good dog can make you believe in forever, and then I wrote about the day that I lost my beloved Golden (I re-read it again just now and I am crying again). I poured my heart into View From A Farmhouse Window, because all too often out here, a gal just has to do it or break down.
As the years spun out View From A Farmhouse Window became where I went to remember, to dream, to talk to the fine people that stopped by. I made some wonderful friends first on AOL, then here, then here and on View From A Farmhouse Window mirrored and more on my own site. The photos from AOL didn’t translate here, I didn’t take the time to go back and re link them, but that doesn’t mean that my heart wasn’t in each and every one of those posts. I lived for the time that I spent here.
Why on earth am I going on like this? Before I started View From A Farmhouse Window in February of 2004, I did a search on the name to ensure that I wasn’t stepping on anyone’s toes. It was a great name for a Blog about farm life from the perspective of a city girl transplanted to the country. I had it all to myself. Did for more than half a decade. If I wanted to look up an old post all I had to do was search on the title.
Just yesterday, to my absolute horror, I discovered that about a year ago someone had elbowed her way in, plopped her insensitive behind down in the middle of my world, put her feet up and made herself right at home. No, I don’t OWN the title View From A Farmhouse Window, but I do own http://viewfromafarmhousewindow.blogspot.com/ don’t click it you are here already.
Perhaps it was just an “accident” that she decided upon a blog about life on a farm from the viewpoint of a city girl moved to the country with photos and slices of life and sometimes recipes. Perhaps it was “coincidence” that she chose http://view-from-a-farmhouse-window.blogspot.com/ see the dashes inbetween? and that she titled her blog “View From A Farmhouse Window” complete freaking coincidence. E-x-a-c-t-l-y t-h-e s-a-m-e b-l-o-g, E-x-a-c-t-l-y T-h-e S-a-m-e N-a-m-e.
I know that I am not fooling anyone, I have no doubt that she did a search, found view taken, then just added dashes between the words, because, well, you know, she wanted to use the name. I wish that I could say that her blog isn’t beautifully written, it is. I wish that I could say that the photos aren’t top notch (almost commercial quality) they are gorgeous. The thing is, as slick as it is, she stole my safe place, my heart and she did it on purpose. I am heartsick (and nosebleed angry). I can’t do anything about the doppelganger blog, she is (barely) within her rights. Maybe it is of no matter, can you imagine the Karma she has bought for herself? The Karma Train runs in a circle and her Karma train is running ’round in a circle to hit her from behind.
Well that, and I can out write anyone (almost), I can take pretty pictures, and, clearly, I am the only View From A Farmhouse Window that has any creativity.
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Fab again, well that Dear and you have for a friend a Figment who is not above a lady-like fight.