Cheesecake a la Reuben's

[carolina rodriguez]

This is a recipe for a rich, classic New York style cheesecake that I
tried yesterday and came out *beautiful*. The recipe is from Jodi (or is
it Judy?) Rosenberg's _Fresh-cream, sugar-packed, all-butter,
no-holds-barred book of baking_ (title probably not entirely accurate).
This is my first cheesecake ever not to crack!

CRUST:
1 1/4 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1 Tablespoon sugar
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup ground nuts (walnuts, almonds or pecans) (optional)

CAKE:
3 pounds (6 packages) *real* cream cheese (not reduced-fat or fat-free),
at room temperature or warmed slightly in the microwave
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 whole large eggs at room temperature
2 large egg yolks at room temperature
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

HOW TO DO IT:

Preheat oven at 375 degrees Farenheit To make the crust, mix wafer crumbs,
sugar, butter, and nuts (if using them) with a fork until they are well
blended (I used the food processor for this and it worked fine) Press
crust mixture onto the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Bake at 375 in
bottom rack of oven for 10-15 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees Farenheit and place a baking dish or
roasting pan full of water in the bottom rack of oven, to create moisture.
With electric mixer on medium high speed, beat cream cheese, sugar and
vanilla until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a
spatula and beat again for 45-60 seconds. Lightly whisk the eggs and egg
yolks and add to cheese mixture, along with the lemon juice. Beat at
medium low speed until it's smooth and velvety, about 30 seconds. Scrape
bowl down with a spatula and beat again for 10 seconds.

Pour cheese mixture over crust. Bake at 300 degrees Farenheit, in the
center of the oven, for 1 1/4 hours, or until a tester comes out clean
from the center of the cake. Remove cake from the oven and run a knife
around the edge of the cake to separate it from the pan. This prevents
cracking. Cool cake in pan until it reaches room temperature.
Refrigerate overnight and serve the next day.

Enjoy!

-Carolina
--
Rec.food.recipes is moderated; only recipes and recipe requests are
accepted for posting. Please read the "Posting Guidelines" article.
Recipes/requests go to rec...@rt66.com; questions/comments go to
tfdp...@acpub.duke.edu. Please allow several days for your submission to
appear.