Swirled Cranberry Lemon Cheesecake

Submitted by Doobie Lou

"I won a prize in a local dairy recipe contest with this recipe, which I clipped from a magazine years ago. It's pretty, unusual and tastes great! The lemon flavor really comes out when you use freshly-squeezed lemon juice and fresh zest."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 12

ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup jellied cranberry sauce

directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and wrap outside in two layers of aluminum foil.In small bowl, toss melted butter with crumbs. Press onto bottom of prepared pan.
2. Put cream cheese and sugar in food processor and whir until very smooth. Add all remaining ingredients except cranberry sauce. Process just until smooth. Reserve 1/4 cup of the cream cheese mixture, and pour the rest over the crust.
3. In small bowl or in food processor, combine the cranberry sauce and reserved cream cheese mixture. Mix until blended. Pour this mixture onto the top of the cheesecake in a spiral pattern. Using a chopstick or skewer, draw small circles along the cranberry spiral to form a swirl pattern.
4. Place springform pan in a larger pan. Fill halfway with warm water to form a water bath. Bake 1 3/4 to 2 hours, until toothpick inserted in center comes out only slightly moist. Turn off heat and let cake cool in oven with door ajar for 1 hour. Remove cake and let cool completely.
5. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Reviews

[Ms B.]

The flavor for this cheesecake was awesome, but I was disappointed in the appearance. The blend of cranberry sauce and cheesecake produced a muddy color rather than the pretty pink that I expected to contrast with the main cheesecake. I had hoped to serve this for special guests over the holidays, but instead made another recipe for that meal for better presentation. It could have been just the canned cranberry sauce that I used, but I had hoped for a better plated presentation.