Star-Spangled Cheesecake (New York Cheesecake with Glazed Fruit Topping)

Some friends came over for the 4th and my mom asked me to make a dessert. I wanted to do something with fruit that was in season so I thought of a tart because the fruit on top is so beautiful. Then I realized I didn't have a tart pan so I decided to do a cheesecake with a tart topping. I've made a lot of cheesecakes, but never a New York Cheesecake. I've pieced together and added to a lot of basic recipes to come up with this.

It was delicious. I'll be using the cheesecake batter recipe for all of my cheesecakes from now on. The cheesecake was perfectly creamy and dense, sweet but not too sweet. The glaze was just sweet enough with just enough tartness to please any palate. It was, bar none, the best cheesecake I've ever made.


I used a 9-inch springform pan.

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham crackers
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp melted butter

Combine first 3 ingredients in food processor and process until fine. Add melted butter and pulse until combined. Press into springform pan. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. Allow to cool before adding filling.

Cheesecake
3-8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 cup whipping cream
3 tbsp flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs

Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Add sour cream and whipping cream and mix. Add flour and vanilla extract and lemon zest and mix. With hand mixer on low add eggs one at a time. Do not over mix because it will add too much air to the batter. Tap the bowl on the counter to bring bubbles to the top, run a spatula or spoon through to pop bubbles. Repeat tabbing and gently stirring until very few or no bubbles are appearing at the top. Pour into crust.

Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 1 hour, then 200 degrees for 15 minutes. Cheesecake should jiggle slightly in the center and be puffed on the edges. If not puffed and too jiggly continue baking at 200 until it is. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven for about 2 hours. Do not open the oven for the first 30 minutes of baking and do not remove the cheesecake until oven and cheesecake are cool. You don't want the temperature of the cheesecake to drop too fast or it will crack.

Refrigerate cheesecake for at least 4 hours before topping with fruit.

Topping
Fruit of your choice in design of your choice

Glaze
1/2 cup lemon and/ or lime juices
1/2 cup 7up
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 tbsp corn starch

Combine liquids. Bring sugar to a boil with half of the liquid. Dissolve cornstarch in the other half of liquid and add to the sugar mixture. Cook, stirring until mixture thickens and clears. Bring to a boil then remove from heat. Cool before brushing over the top of fruit.

Chill to allow the entire dessert to become cool.

Slice, wiping the knife clean between cuts. Enjoy!

Tropical Dessert Eggrolls

I made eggrolls that didn't turn out so great because I followed a recipe that said to bake them. I won't be making that mistake again. Just suck it up and have the extra calories. The taste is well worth the fat. Anyway, I had three eggroll wrappers left over and decided to make a little dessert out of them with some things I had within easy reach.

I considered using apples and making an apple pie/ apple empanada type thing, but didn't want to go through the effort of chopping the apples. So I looked to the banana for a tropical inspiration.

This was sort of a spur of the moment thing and I didn't take a lot of pictures, but since I have pictures of myself wrapping eggrolls I can show you how to roll them and a few other pics.

In this horrible, dark picture there is an eggroll wrapper, banana, brown sugar, sweetened coconut, and sliced almonds, and a little drop of vanilla extract. To wrap, place your items on the wrapper on the diagonal, which isn't so much what I did here, but turned into that when I started to wrap it. You'll find other methods out there on how to wrap an eggroll. I found that this method worked best for me when I did mine. These pics are of vegetable eggrolls that were too wet, not my dessert.

Step 1 -- fold in your sides.

Step 2 -- Fold up the bottom, while keeping the corners and sides nicely tucked in.

Step 3 -- roll up from the bottom and tuck everything in on the sides while rolling. Rub a little water or butter or whatever is wet on the top corner to help the wrapper to stick together when it's completely rolled.

Tropical Dessert Eggrolls
3 eggroll wrappers
1 banana
3 tsp brown sugar
vanilla extract
2 tbsp dried sweetened shredded coconut
1 tbsp sliced almonds, toasted
Butter flavored spray or melted butter
chocolate, any kind

Divide banana between eggroll wrappers, place on the diagonal. Put 1 teaspoon of brown sugar, a drop of vanilla extract, pinch of shredded coconut, and sprinkle of toasted almonds on each. Roll up like an eggroll. Brush or spray with melted butter. Bake at 350 until golden, about 25 minutes. Serve with chocolate for dipping or drizzled over or to take a bite with it or whatever. :)