My mother passed this recipe to me many years ago. It is the richest cheesecake that you can make. I save it for special occasions when I want to share a show stopping dessert that tops off a dinner or a party. I have included a recipe for a pineapple glaze, or you can thickly spread sour cream on top. Or if you want to make this for Christmas as I did this year I put candied cranberries on top. Ether way this cheesecake is the star of the show!
Crust:
1 cup sifted flour, King Arthur Flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup butter, softened
Filling:
5 pkg.(8-oz) cream cheese softened, Philadelphia cream cheese
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
5 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
Pineapple Glaze:
2 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoon cornstarch
2 cans(8 1/4-oz) crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, undrained
2 tablespoon lemon juice
Sugared cranberries
2 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup water
Crust:
Preheat over to 400F. Grease the inside of 9-inch springform pan(3 inches high). Remove side. Make crust: In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, lemon, peel, vanilla. Make well in center; with fork, blend in yolk and butter. Mix with fingertips until smooth. Form half of dough into a ball and place on bottom of springform pan. Place wax paper on top; roll pastry to edge of pan. Remove paper. Bake 6 to ;8 minutes or until golden. Cool. Meanwhile divide rest of dough into three parts. Between waxed paper roll each part 2 1/4 inch wide and 9 inch long. Assemble springform pan with the crust on the bottom. Line sides fo the pan with pastry strips, over lapping ends. Remove waxed paper. Preheat oven 450F.
Filling: In large mixer bowl, blend cheese, sugar, flour, peels and vanilla at high speed. Beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time: beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with spatula. Beat in cream. Pour into pan. Bake 10 minutes. Lower oven to 250F. Bake 1 hour longer. Remove pan to rack to cool, 2 hours. Make glaze.
Glaze: In small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in remaining ingredients. Over medium heat, bring to boiling, stirring; boil 1 minute, or until thickened and translucent. Cool.
Spread surface of cheese cake with glaze; refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
Sugared Cranberries: Bring 1 cup sugar and water to a simmer in a saucepan. Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Pour simple syrup into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Add cranberries and stir to coat. Refrigerate cranberries in syrup overnight, stirred a couple times to coat with syrup.
Remove cranberries from syrup and roll in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. You’ll need to roll them a few times to get a couple layers of sugar on them.
Set cranberries aside to dry for a hour or so.
To serve: Loosen pastry fro side of pan with spatula. Remove sides of springform pan. Top with either Pineapple glaze or sugared cranberries. Serves 16
