Cheesecake

I am a cook.  I am not a baker.  I don't like baking because of the precision required and the multiple ways to mess up something that is, most likely, required for some special occasion.

Unfortunately for non-baker-me, my daughter has developed a taste for cheesecake.  She loves it.  She thinks about it often and asks for it regularly.  For her 13th birthday last month, she wanted a cheesecake for her birthday.

I bought one.

Of course I took it out of the box and put it on the special birthday platter and told her I had made it myself.  So what if I did?  When you fancy yourself a cook and your daughter asks you to "cook" something special for her special day, you do it.

As far as she knows.

So I must be feeling guilty about that because this week, when we got a notice about that same daughter's Athletics Recognition Banquet -- requesting last names A-H to bring cheesecake, I decided to really do it.  In all honesty, A-H could bring cheesecake or pie, but I had a bad pie experience this spring, too, at my friend, Sarah's wedding.  I wasn't really all that interested in "doing" pie again yet.

Never mind that "CHEESECAKE" was an answer in today's crossword and I decided it really was destiny.  So cheesecake it was.

I started, as I often do, with allrecipes.com.  I compared a few different recipes to find a common thread, variations, and approximate cooking temps and times.  Here's what I came up with and it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. . . .

Heat convection oven to 325.  Line a pan with aluminum foil -- this because I lent my springform pan to a friend last month and, though I have a vague memory of her returning it, I have no earthly idea where I put it.  No big.  The foil trick works just fine.

Crust:
One box of gingersnaps.  Actually, I used the Girl Scout cookies that taste pretty much like gingersnaps. Since Girl Scout cookies are a rarity except for in January, I think I'll use gingersnaps next time.

1/4 cup butter, unsalted, softened

Run it in the food processor until it's crumbly.  Dump the crumbs into the foiled pan and press down firmly.  I used the bottom of a glass.  Anything like that would do the job.

Filling:
24 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup of sugar

Cream together in the mixer using the whisk attachment.  I think whipping this part for quite a while is good.  Lighter, fluffier = better.

Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and a 14 ounce can of condensed milk.  Keep whipping.

Add three eggs, one at a time, until JUST BLENDED.

One tip I got from allrecipes is that over-whipping the eggs is what can cause the the top of the cheesecake to crack.

Pour the filling onto the crust and bake for about 20 minutes.  You want to pull it out while it's still kind of gooey and unset looking in the middle.  It will continue to cook after it is out of the oven.

Let it cool in the pan, then lift it out and gently pull the foil away.  I think I will top the part I take to the Banquet with canned cherry pie filling but the part we keep at home will remain topless.

My daughter, the purist.