Blonde Gator

The genius of Food Network did it again….per the  request of my hungry hordes, I decided to give Alton’s Cheese Cake recipe a whirl, and it didn’t disappoint.

40 Million Calories

Here is the recipe.  I read many of the comments, so I baked the cheesecake for two hours at 250 with an hour of in-oven resting time.  It looks perfect after chilling overnight.  No cracks!

Also, several of the comments mentioned YouTube videos for this recipe.  As a first time cheese cake baker, I found them to be really, really helpful (in two parts).

Edit:   I made this cheesecake again last week.  As I got into it, I realized I didn’t have any Graham Crackers.  OMO!  But what I DID have, in the freezer, was a half a batch of graham cracker dough, h/t my pal Mary.  So I thawed the dough, and used it as a “pie crust” (following Alton’s directions for using the parchment paper).  I covered the bottom of the cake pan with dough, working it about half way up the sides of the pan.  Then I poked numerous fork holes in the dough, and blind baked it for about ten minutes at 350.  Cooled and filled, per Alton’s instructions.

This was a totally serendipitous event…the crust was amazing, and has me thinking about trying a (on the bitter side) chocolate cookie dough as well.

Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Cookie Dough Crust ~ Delicious!

Edit:  Note to self…275 for an hour and a half in the twitchy oven…then a rest of an hour.  Perfection!

~ Blonde Gator