Strawberry Cheesecake

I absolutely love making cheesecake. Why? Cheesecake is so versatile and can be made for any occasion! Need a cheesecake for a bunch of kids? Great! Make the crumble crust out of Oreos! Sub out the strawberries with any other fruit that you like! Use any kind of graham cracker you like, dress it up, dress it down, the possibilities are endless!

Last minute Christmas dinner plans led to needing to whip up a dessert for 8-10 people and I couldn’t think of a more fitting dish. Not a whole ton of added sugar (it’s actually only in the crust) leaves the cheesy part of the cheesecake light and fluffy.

Well enough about the fluffiness and how amazing cheesecake is, on with the recipe!

1. Preheat the oven to 300˚
2. Grind/blend the graham crackers until they are crumbs, add the sugar and mix evenly. Add the butter and mix until they look like moist crumbs
3. Pour the mixture into a 9 or 10 in. spring form pan and press it down to form the crust. Place the pan in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. While this is happening, prepare the rest of the cake. Blend the strawberries and add in the cornstarch. Boil on the stove until everything is fully mixed then set aside to cool.
5. In a large mixing bowl add the creme cheese and condensed milk. Mix thoroughly with a hand mixer (make sure you pre mix them with a spoon or something so that you don’t send giant chunks of creme cheese flying all over the place. Also before turning on the hand mixer, have it already sticking into the cheese to form a little resistance).
6. Add in the lemon juice and eggs then mix again with your hand mixer.
7. When the crust is done pour in the creme cheese mixture then drop small spoonfuls of strawberry puree to make dots all over the top of the cake. Take a chopstick from the center, spiral out and make swirls!
8. Bake for 50-55 min. If it’s a little jiggly it’s okay, it’ll firm up in the fridge.
9. Let it cool and then place in the fridge for a few hours.

Nom!