Cheesecakes have been around since Roman times and people have certainly mastered the art of making cheesecakes ‘everything as’, as a savory or as a dessert. The most preferred cheesecakes are for dessert and usually include a mixture of sweetened ricotta or cream cheese and a crushed cookie or cake with a fruit topping. Some cheesecakes are even made with yogurt, cream, or sour cream. The pick-me-up cheesecake recipe below is perhaps the fastest, easiest, richest, creamiest, smoothest, most delicious dessert ever, and all you need is a food processor, oven, round nine-inch, white or Pyrex. glass cake plate and a can opener.
This ‘pick-me-up’ cheesecake dessert involves shredding and baking the crust, whipping and baking the mixture, adding the topping, chilling, refrigerating, and serving. It can be prepared in just over thirty minutes and served in an hour. So ‘just because you don’t live near a bakery doesn’t mean you have to go without cheesecake’… Hedy Lamarr.
The crust: 2 ounces white granulated sugar, 3 ounces butter, 5 ounces vanilla biscuits or digestive biscuits
The mix: 16 ounces of cream cheese, 4 eggs, 6 ounces of white sugar, 1 teaspoon of lime juice, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
The Topping: 21 ounces (1 can) ‘Comstock’ or ‘ED Smith’ Cherry Pie Filling (or Strawberry or Blueberry)
Method:
Crush ingredients for crust (butter, vanilla biscuits, sugar) in food processor for three minutes and beat evenly and firmly (with large metal or wooden spoon) into 9-inch pie pan. Bake the dough in the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for fifteen minutes. While the crust is baking, blend the ingredients for the mixture (cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence, lime juice) in a food processor for ten minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, for the mixture, bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty-five minutes. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and turn off the oven. (If the top of the pie is cracked, it doesn’t matter, as the fruit filling covers it) Open the can of cherry pie filling and pour it over the cheesecake. Chill, refrigerate and serve within an hour. Serves eight to ten people.
Ready! This homemade pick-me-up cheesecake recipe is simple and inexpensive. It costs between ten and fifteen US dollars and the best thing is that it is safe… I have done it more than a thousand times and it has always been successful. Sometimes I have used fresh sliced fruits such as kiwis and strawberries with whipped cream to replace the topping and this gives it a more original touch. Sometimes I even replaced the eggs with six ounces of yogurt, cream, or sour cream for my daughter, who is deathly allergic to eggs, but would then have to bake them for only fifteen minutes. Either way, this ‘chilling’ cheesecake is warm to the heart and would brighten anyone’s day.
By Simone Galy-Lachish