I’ve been making cheesecake with this recipe since I was in high school. It’s actually my Aunt Arlene’s recipe that she wrote out on a (now stained with vanilla extract) index card and shoved in a book on baking that she bought me for a Christmas gift. I don’t know when she’s last made it, but I remember she always used a springform pan, and since I’ve never owned one, I’ve never attempted this recipe with such a contraption. Anyway, since the cheesecake recipe is not new to me, I am only posting this because of the macaroon crust! Which I only tried and succeeded at because I really wanted to bake something for when my boyfriend took me to his extended family’s passover dinner. And non-religious me, did not know the first year when I brought sugar cookies, that during passover they do not eat anything with leavened flour in it. So no oreo or nilla cookie crust for my cheesecake. I had to figure something out. Viola macaroons!!
Ingredients:
-
Crust
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 package of flaked coconut
- Pinch of salt
- 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-
Cheesecake
- Sliced Strawberries
- 2 8oz packages of cream cheese
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups of sour cream
Preparation of Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line your pie/cake pan with one full sheet of wax paper. (This I didn’t do the first time, and it was soooo hard to get out. Delicious but a mess.)
In a big bowl, stir together the flour, coconut and salt.
Then stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until well blended. (It’s easier to use your hands than a spoon for this.)
Then spoon the macaroon mixture into your pie pan lined with wax paper. It’s incredibly sticky and will be a pain to keep the wax paper down while you try to smooth it into the pie shape, but do your best.
Bake just the crust for 8 minutes, until coconut is very lightly toasted. Keep in mind that this is just the crust, baking too long now will just cause it to burn while it’s baking the cheesecake.
Take it out and make sure it is completely cooled before pouring the cheesecake batter in.
Preparation of Cheesecake:
Beat together all the cheesecake ingredients together except for the strawberries and the sour cream.
Once smooth, fold in the sour cream by hand.
Pour into crust.
Bake at 370 degrees for a half an hour.
Shut off the oven after the half an hour, but leave the cake in the oven without opening the door for one hour.
Then remove from oven, let it cool completely before adding strawberry slices.
Notes:
- You can read about the difference between leavened and unleavened here.