Recipe #14: Cheesecakes and Anniversaries

A few weeks ago marked the one year anniversary of my relationship with my boyfriend Andrew. I’m not usually a fan of making a big deal out of anniversaries and such, but since neither one of us had been in a relationship that had lasted longer than 3 months, it was a pretty big deal. Needless to say, I figured a nice thing to do for him would of course involve baking something. Now, somehow I found me a man that does not have a huge obsession with chocolate and desserts as I do. How this happened, I do not know. I guess it’s a good thing, since I won’t be pressured to constantly bake things for him that I myself will end up eating large amounts of; but, at the same time, it’s kind of a downer since I LOVE to bake, and I love to share my baked goods with the people that I love. To his credit, Andrew does always enjoy what I bake, and gladly eats it, just not as often as I would like. He’s not a big chocolate person, but he does like cheesecake and he likes key lime pie. I was going to just go with making him the key lime pie, since I had never made one before, but then I found the recipe for lime cheesecake and decided it was the perfect compromise. Or, so I thought…

The moment I told him, all excitedly, that I made him a lime cheesecake, he looked at me kinda strange as if I had made something no one had ever heard of or eaten. Admittedly, lime cheesecake is not a popular dessert, but it’s definitely been done before. I reassured him that he would definitely like it. He didn’t. OK, he said he did, but I still don’t believe him. He didn’t even eat a whole piece, he just tasted mine. His argument was that he couldn’t taste the cheesecake because the lime flavor was so strong. Huh? I have no idea what that means. All that matters is, I thought it was delicious. My dad did, too, since he ate the rest of it pretty much singlehandedly.

Long story short: if you like lime and you like cheescake, you will most defintely like this recipe. Unless, of course, your name is Andrew and you’ve been dating me for the last year:)

I have to brag about the aesthetics of my cheesecake. Notice how the top is not cracked? That’s because I followed this simple little trick: Fill a shallow pan with hot water and place on the rack under the cheesecake while it’s baking. It totally works!

Lime Cheesecake
recipe from allrecipes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs 6 tablespoons butter, melted 24 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch 3 eggs 1 tablespoon grated lime zest 2/3 cup key lime juice

Directions:

1.	Combine cookie or graham cracker crumbs with butter or margarine. Press into bottom and partially up sides of 9 inch springform pan. Refrigerate.
2.	In a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer the cream cheese, sugar, lime peel, and cornstarch until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, blending just until smooth. Add key lime juice with mixer on low. Finish mixing by hand. Do not overbeat, or cake will crack during baking. Pour batter into prepared crust.
3.	Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 55 to 65 minutes, or until set. To minimize cracking, place a shallow pan half full of hot water on lower rack during baking.
4.	Turn oven off, and let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes with the door open at least 4 inches. Remove from oven. Refrigerate cake overnight, and up to three days.