Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

DIRECTIONS

• In a bowl combine flour, sugar, and lemon peel.
• Cut in butter until crumbly. Using a pastry cutter works well. I have had luck in other recipes using a food processor, but have not yet tried it with this recipe.
• Pat dough onto the bottom and about 1 inch up the sides of a greased 9 inch springform pan.
• Place on baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.
• In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and heavy whipping cream until smooth.
• Add the eggs and beat on a low speed just until combined.
• Beat in lemon juice and vanilla just until blended.
• Pour 2 1/2 cups batter into a bowl and set aside.
• Stir pureed strawberries and food coloring if desired into the remaining batter. If you would like to use pureed strawberries for the topping, use only 3/4 cup of the strawberries and reserve the rest. Personally, I do NOT use pureed strawberries for the topping since I have found that the strawberry jelly comes out much prettier. So, I add the whole cup of pureed strawberries to the batter at this point.
• Pour the strawberry batter into the crust.
• Place your pan on a double thickness of heavy duty foil (about 16 inches square) and wrap securely about the pan.
• Place your foil wrapped pan in a large baking pan and add about 1 inch of hot water to larger pan.
• Bake for 35 minutes (still at 325).
• Remove from oven and carefully pour reserved vanilla batter over the bottom layer.
• Now, the swirl part of the recipe! If you reserved pureed strawberries for this, then use those. If not, get out a small bowl and combine the strawberry jelly, water, and red food coloring if desired. Combine until you have a smooth mixture.
• For either pureed strawberries or strawberry jelly, use a spoon to add about 1/2 teaspoon spoonfuls over the top of the cheesecake.
• Using a knife, carefully cut through only the top layer to swirl the topping. I try to start at the outside and cut through every dollop of strawberry in a spiral that ends at the center.
• Bake for 40-50 minutes until center is almost set.
• DO NOT REMOVE FROM OVEN. Just turn the oven off! Leave your cheesecake in the oven for an hour to allow it to cool very slowly. (cooling a cheesecake too fast leads to cracking!).
• Remove the cheesecake from the oven and from the water bath. Take a knife and carefully run it around the edge of the pan to loosen.
• Cool for an additional hour on a wire rack then put in the fridge UNCOVERED overnight. (covering your cheesecake will lead to condensation on the top of the cheesecake).