Dessert Food Recipe: Classic Cheesecake with Sour Cream Icing

This awesome cheesecake with sour cream icing is the one I remember from when I was a kid—no, not the Sara Lee version, though I ate Sara Lee cheesecakes by the dozen as a kid—but the creamy, dense cheesecake I'd sample whenever some kind person brought one to a party.

Even though cheesecake is a custard, and custards are notoriously delicate, this is a pretty sturdy recipe and tolerates considerable variation in the ingredient amounts and in substitutions. I've made it with more or less cream cheese and varied almost everything in it at least once. This is a big, party-sized cheesecake that serves 10-16, depending on how thinly you cut the slices.

Graham Cracker Crust:

Mix and spread on the bottom of a large, greased springform pan (they sell springform pans at cooking supply places like Cooking.com):
1 cup graham cracker crumbs, or crumbs from your favorite crispy whole grain cookie
1 T melted butter

Cheesecake:

56 oz cream cheese, softened at room temperature at least two hours
4 Tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
1 ½ cup granulated fructose or unrefined fine sugar (not the coarse crystals), such as Rapadura, Sucanat, or Evaporated Cane Sugar.
¼ cup milk, half & half, or cream
6 egg yolks
4 egg whites, room temperature (optional)

Preheat the oven to 475. Mix the cream cheese, flour, and sugar really well. With a handheld electric beater, mixing well after each yolk, add the egg yolks one at a time. Add the milk and mix well until very smooth.

If you are using the egg whites, whip the room-temperature egg whites until they are stiff, using an electric or hand whisk, being sure not to get any yolk or grease in the egg whites. Using a rubber spatula, fold in thoroughly the whipped egg whites. (I like to add the egg whites because they make the cheesecake lighter and give it loft, but if you don't want to go to the trouble or are allergic to egg whites, leave them out.)

Pour the cream cheese mixture over the crust. Bake at 475 for 12 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 200 and bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and leave the cake in the oven for another hour. Don't open the oven door the entire time the cheesecake is baking.

Release the springform pan and cool the cheesecake at room temperature until it is no longer warm to the touch.

Icing:

1 cup (8 oz) sour cream
½-1 Tbsp fructose, to taste

Mix the sour cream and fructose and spread on top of the completely cooled cheesecake. (If the sour cream flavor is too strong for you, add 1 tsp vanilla.)

Chill the iced cheesecake for at least four hours before serving.

To store, refrigerate and gobble up within a week. You can also slice the cheesecake and freeze the individual pieces for up to a month.

Variations: This recipe accommodates many variations. My favorite variation is to add a cup of crushed pineapple in place of the ¼ cup milk. I also make chocolate swirl cheesecake, dividing the mixed cream cheese mixture in half, blending into one of the halves 1/4 cup of cooled, melted chocolate, and pouring in both halves at the same time, creating a swirl effect. You can top the cheesecake with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, bananas, or any fruit that looks good to you. But the plain, classic version with an extra dollop of sour cream is still my favorite way to make the cheesecake.

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Copyright Nerd Writer Mom 2008