Mom's Cheesecake

Becky Parker

Crust:

1 & ¼ cup crushed graham crackers. (1 pkg. = 1 cup)

¼ cup melted butter

¼ cup sugar

Mix butter and sugar, add graham crackers. Press into spring form pan, bake 5 minutes at 375°, let cool.

Increase oven temperature to 450°.

Filling:

5, 8 ounce package’s cream cheese at room temperature (use high quality brand)

1 & ¾ cup sugar

3 Tbsp. vanilla

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

¼ cup heavy cream

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla, add eggs’ one at a time, mixing in between each egg, add egg yolks and cream. Beat until smooth (the paddle attachment works best). Pour into pan, gently tap to bring air bubbles to the top and pop them, place pan on a cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes at 450° (Do not leave unattended, check often for too much browning or burning top, if needed cover with tin foil.), lower temperature to 250° and bake one hour or as long as needed. Cake will be the consistency of set pudding when done. Let cool for 2 hours and refrigerate overnight. If desired spread fruit, jello or jam on top.

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients

2 small Graham cracker crust-(9 inch) or 1 large graham cracker crust

Filling

3-8 ounce packages of Cream Cheese Softened.

1 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla**

3 eggs at room temperature.

1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) or 1 cup of pumpkin puree.

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

dash ground cloves

Instructions

Filling:

Beat Cream Cheese, ¾ cup of the sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, missing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Reserve 1-1/2 cups of the plain batter. Stir remaining ¼ cup sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter. Spoon ½ of the batter over each crust. Top with spoonfuls of the reserved plain batter. Cut through with knife several times for marble effect, taking care not to break crust.

Bake at 325 degrees F for about 40 minutes for the small crusts and 45 to 50 minutes for the large.

*I always put in extra Vanilla, I used about 2.5 tsp.*

**The last time that we made it we mixed all of the pumpkin in with the cream cheese batter and it turned out great. It was a little bit easier than doing the whole spoonful thing. But we really liked it that way!

***This also makes a GREAT plain cheesecake if you use only the first 4 ingredients. I made mini cheesecakes, about 18 to a recipe, and put a strawberry on top.