German Cheesecake

Random Rachel's Note:

My Aunt received this recipe when she was living in Germany years ago. It is awesome! Hard to mess up, easy to change the flavor. I can't eat store bought cheesecake anymore, because this recipe has me spoiled. It is very important that the cream cheese be allowed to soften to room temperature so that the cheesecake will be creamy. The recipe listed is for a plain cheesecake, you can make any flavor though, by using different extracts, or adding berries, chips, etc, or by topping with pie filling, etc. I usually have a little bit of the crust left over. I have found that the top doesn't crack in a 13x9 glass baking dish, but it does crack when baked in a springform pan. If you aren't going to be topping it with something, you could throw a dish of water in the oven while the cheesecake is baking to help prevent the cracking. I never do.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs 20 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

Crust

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups flour

Filling

• 3 eggs
• 24 ounces cream cheese (3 packs)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. For the crust: Cream butter, sugar, and egg; add flour. Spread in the bottom of a 9" spring form pan and bake for 5 minutes at 450, remove and cool slightly.
2. For the filling: Cream the cream cheese, add sugar slowly, and vanilla. Cream in eggs one at a time, add milk and flour.
3. Pour onto crust, and bake 10 minutes at 450; reduce the heat to 250 and bake an additional 60 minutes (or until center tests done.)
4. Cool to room temp, the refrigerate until chilled. Serve cold.
5. Note: My mom just tosses all of the ingredients into the mixer at once, but I think it comes out creamier if you mix them as listed.

Reviews

[Annacia]

This is outstanding. I made a small sized cake as I'm the only one in the family that likes cheesecake (YAY!). The sides browned enough to look like chocolate but when it was cut the center was a perfect creamy vanilla. I topped mine with a strawberry rhubarb sauce using rhubarb cut outside my back door and straight onto the chopping block. I also added a touch of Goldschlager to it and, oh my, what a fabulous combo! Made for ZWT7 and Witchin Kitchen.

[CarrolJ]

Very good! This tastes very much like the Baked Cheesecake that I ate at one of my neighbors' homes in Winnweiler, Germany when we lived there from 1975-1978. It was the first time I had ever eaten baked cheesecake that day. This is good even without the fresh strawberries I plan to put on it later. BTW...I only made a 1/2 recipe and used a glass pie plate and it didn't crack at all. So perhaps this recipe just prefers glass baking containers. I very lightly sprayed the pan before putting in the crust and it lifts out just fine...so I see no need to use a springform pan unless you just like the presentation of the cheesecake standing up so elegantly. I will make this recipe again. Made for Zingo--ZWT#6--2010.

[Brenda.]

Quite a nice cheesecake. I have to be honest and say that after trying both I do prefer a graham crust, The cheesecake itself is fabulous. Mine cracked a little on top but I loved the nice even top that firmed up without the jiggly center guessing game that I play with my normal recipe. I did leave it in the oven the full 60 minutes at 250 but should have maybe checked it at 55 minutes. I used reduced fat cream cheese and stirred in mini chocolate chips vs using a fruit topping. Overall we were very pleased and I will be saving this recipe to make again. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us :) Made for ZINGO! ZWT 6