Late Night Cheesecake

Hi there friends- I made this cheesecake at 2 a.m. this weekend when I couldn't get to sleep. From start to finish it put me in bed tired by 5:15 a.m. Doesn't take too long to put together but like any good cheesecake it takes watching it like a hawk. I think my Saturday dinner party gets were thankful for my poor sleep habits the evening before! This is a classic NY style cheesecake with just enough fluff to not be dense - but trust me- I slept like a baby after a slice of this and no sleep the night before.

To make the cheesecake you will need:

Crust
4 Ginger Molasses cookies (recipe found from previous post)
4 Tablespoons of Butter
1/4 Salted Almonds
A Pinch of sugar

Put this in the food processor until blended into a ball and spread on the bottom of typical sized spring form pan. Bake in preheated oven at 375 for 10 min. Remove from oven and set aside.

Set oven to 325 and wait for temp. Meanwhile get together the following ingredients for the filling:

Filling
2 1/2 lbs (or 5 packages) Neufchatel cheese *
1 1/4 Cup Sugar (rough cane)
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lime Juice
1 Teaspoon Grated Lime Zest
4 Eggs
1 Cup Sour Cream
Dash Himalayan Salt- course

After taking these items out and letting your cheese come to room temp put on a half full kettle of water to boil. Your cheese cake will eventually get a nice warm sauna bath. How lovely.

Prepare your spring-form pan with aluminum foil nearly to the lip of the top of the open pan. Why? It's a swimsuit for your pan whose going to take a bath- and more like a wet suit than a swim suit you don't want your crust or cake getting wet!! So place your spring form pan into a wide roasting pan (minus the rack) and wait for the water to boil.

Meanwhile, in your mixer with a paddle mix all neufchatel cheese until fluffy. Scrape the side of the bowl and then add sugar. Scrape again- add all citrus and salt. Add in the eggs one at a time- again- scrapping sides when needed and finally add in the sour cream- blend until it's a smooth consistency.

At this point your water will be boiling and screaming at your distracted self. Go ahead and shut that off! Now empty the cheese mixture into the spring form pan and add kettle water around the pan until it's about halfway up the pan depending on how safe you feel with your "suit" - you don't want any water getting in.

Bake for 1 3/4 hours. Turn off oven and yet wait ten min to remove pan.
After ten min open the door of the oven and wait another twenty min. Take roasting pan out of the oven- the water bath should be mostly gone so you may remove it now but regardless wait to put in a refrig until completely cool. This is extremely tedious- I know- but this will save you in beauty because it will come out smooth and gorgeous - no cracks!

Finally- chill and serve, Bon Appetit




*(this is very much like cream cheese but lower in fat and tarter - please don't get the idea this is a "low fat" version of cream cheese- it just happens to be very much like cream cheese but naturally lower in fat- if you want to use good ol' fashioned cream cheese go for it!)

**I served this with a strawberry, blueberry, rhubarb compote YUMMY