by Therese

The first time I tried cheesecake after much coaxing was about 2 decades ago, it seemed oddly bizarre to me having cheese and cake together.  After my first bite and realizing that it didn’t taste like American cheese and whipped cream I was instantly addicted.  One of my very good friends proclaimed the other day that Cheesecake is outdated all the while shoving fist fulls of my cheesecake into her cake hole.  I disagree, the whole no sugar, no carb cult is depriving themselves from one of the only forms of legal highs available… and you can do it in your workplace.  This is a simple base receipe for cheesecake that is wonderful, just add whatever bit of yourself to it to adjust the flavour.  The minimal mess and time it makes to create this cake is shocking, I never correct people when they assume I slaved over it for hours and neither should you. 

Not So Plain Jane Vanilla Bean Cheesecake 

You will need the following ingredients:

For the filling:

1 cup of  white sugar

2 and ½ cups of low fat cream cheese

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

3 whole eggs 

For the crust:

1 cup of crushed almond

½ of a cup of melted butter

1/3 of a cup of white sugar 

Method: In a food processor blend all of the filling ingredients until smooth, set aside.  For the crust combine all ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.  Line a spring form pan with parchment paper and grease the sides well.  Press the crust evenly along the bottom of the spring form and  bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.  Pour filling over top of the crust and make sure that the batter is evenly distributed.  Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.  Allow to cool in the fridge for a minimum of 3 hours before serving 

Tip:  Wet your knife and wipe it clean in between each cake cut, you will have lovely even slices as opposed to a crumble mess!