Spray 8 or 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray Crust: 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (9 whole crackers/1 sleeve)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
8 Tbs (1 stick unsalted butter)
Pinch salt
Mix together and spread in bottom and slightly up sides of springform pan.
Bake 10 minutes at 325 degrees.
Let cool 5-10 minutes before adding filling.
Cheesecake Filling:
4 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs1/4 cup sour cream
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
Whip softened cream cheese and sugar together, scraping sides of bowl to incorporate all the cream cheese.
Add in eggs one at a time and mix well.
Add sour cream, cornstarch, vanilla and lemon juice and mix well, scraping sides as needed.
Pour into crust and bake 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees.
Cool for 30 minutes on baker’s rack before transferring to refrigerator to chill (Most recipes say 2-4 hours. I say chill it as long as you have time to before you need to dig in.)
If using the water bath method: (The reason for this method is to keep the top from cracking and so less browning will occur as the water helps the cheesecake to bake evenly and deeply without the top getting overly done before the center sets.)
Pour filling into crust.
Wrap bottom of ban with aluminum foil tightly to the top of the pan.
Set springform pan in larger pan with deep sides.
Fill larger pan with boiling water until it is halfway up sides of springform pan.
Place in oven and bake 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees.
Cool as above.
Eat it!
Or top it with freezer jam you’ve warmed up a bit, or fruit you’ve cut up, or chocolate ganache you’ve made or salted caramel syrup you’ve bought. Or don’t top it. Enjoy by itself.
Just enjoy.
The story behind the recipe
I imagine a decadent treat like cheesecake was pretty much unheard of by my parents. It’s not that they were unlearned. They and their parents were smart people. They read newspapers and listened to the radio when they could get it to tune in. But they lived in a small town in Arkansas circa 1940s and 50s, and days were spent by both families just trying to make a living. So new desserts that took and hour or more to make just weren’t on the radar.
They enjoyed sweet things and both my grandmothers could whip up a mean pie. But things like soufflé and cherries jubilee and such that were on the realm in other worlds like New York and Chicago and LIttle Rock had not made the journey to dessert plates in small town Arkansas.
When my dad was in the Army, he had culinary adventures with foods he’d never seen – and most of which he did not like – such as spaghetti and meatballs. And when my mom had moved to California, she saw all kinds of foods she’d never seen before, like pecans and walnuts that were shelled and ready to purchase for pies or what have you. This made her a bit adventurous and so when my sisters and I were little, she shared this flare for extravagance and bestowed upon us a cheesecake. Now mind you, it was the boxed Jell-O no bake variety. But delicious it was, nonetheless. And it was a special treat to see that boxed mix come home in a brown paper Piggly Wiggly bag. It meant a break from the old ordinary things she made like chocolate meringue pie, or fresh apple cake with sugar sauce, or homemade shortcake with strawberries my dad had picked or peaches he’d gotten from the local produce man. Plain old ordinary things, that I had no idea at the time were anything but. Things that I and anyone with any sense would love to sink their teeth into now.
That Jell-O no bake cheesecake was quick and simple and delicious and we loved it. So when I got old enough, I decided I wanted to make a real cheesecake. And she bought me the ingredients to do so. She had to do this quite a few times as the first few were not good – not good at all.
But now I have this trusty cheesecake recipe. It is decadent and delicious. And it is a good stand-in for when your local grocery may be out of the Jell-O no bake variety.
I had looked and looked for a cheesecake brownie recipe that gave a good contrast of a semi-tart cheesecake and a super sweet brownie. Maybe I was searching in wrong areas, but I could not find one that did not have the baker mixing the cream cheese directly into the batter of the brownie.
But I wanted a flavor fight on my palate. So I decided to tweak the brownie recipe and swirl my tart cheesecake mixture into my super sweet brownie base so each bite had all the flavors I craved. Dispel all visions of grease traps and enjoy this recipe!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Makes 9×7 pan of brownies.
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
Whip these together in mixer.
In separate bowl, mix together
1/2 cup AP flour
1/4 cups unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Add this mixture to wet ingredients in mixer bowl.
Incorporate well.
Spread in greased 9×7 pan.
Whip together:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 TBS. lemon juice
Dollop this on brownie mixture and swirl with offset spatula or knife (or whatever you have on hand)
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
Read on for the beginning of my story.
As with a lot of great endeavors, mine began with an great idea … and a heavy dose of cluelessness.
An opportunity presented itself to leave a job at which I was feeling supremely unappreciated. A local caterer decided to sell – located in a strip mall, fairly good location, and with a good reputation. He’d begun using his leftover food from catering jobs to make meals and package them so locals could grab a meal and simply bake it or reheat it at home. A semi-home cooked meal, if you will. It was actually a novel idea and wasn’t being done in the big chain grocery stores and discount stores as it is now.
That’s all I knew about him or catering. All you need to know, of course.
Did I ask to see books? No. Did I ask to be trained? No. Did I do anything a responsible, knowledgeable person would? No.
I got a love of cooking and a lot of knowledge and little knack for it from my mom, an awesome cook. And I, like a lot of “foodies”, loved watching the FoodNetwork and hearing the backgrounds of the food stars. Paula Deen’s had struck me as it was akin to something I’d thought should be in my town. As I remember it, she’d taken sandwiches and sold them door-to-door. We’d had a young lady who would bring pre-made sandwiches and salads to our office and sell them … from her car. Not actually legit as a food business, but she seemed clean and the food was good and freshly made. Our office, as well as others in the area, bought from her whenever she came in. I worked downtown and it was hard to even leave for lunch some days, so I thought this could be done on a grander scale. Think food truck. My mother-in-law and I had a few of those “we should do that” conversations knowing we never would.
Until said opportunity mentioned earlier came about. Why not mix the above ingredients into one fabulous recipe for success? Rename the business so that the emphasis was on making pre-made lunches and meals, and selling those at the offices downtown, while keeping the brick-and-mortar to sell from as well. And do a little catering on the side. I loved to cook and wouldn’t catering be just like cooking a favorite meal at home? Everyone would love it and be sooooo appreciative of having home-cooked food, they’d take whatever I dished out.
Yes, yes, that is how it would go. How hard could this be?
My first partner, a lady I worked with who’d been in the restaurant business before, and I met with the caterer. As we decided to buy it, she backed out. Probably because she was smarter than I.
My husband, who is also smarter than I, still thought it was a good idea. And so I didn’t feel as stupid for desperately wanting to try my hand at it. Following a discussion with my mother-in-law, Rebecca, who saw how much we wanted to do this and would do anything for her kids, we agreed to go halvesies on the business. Process that …. My mother-in-law would be my partner. Love her to death and she tolerates me so this would be marvelous. Right?
With financing from my husband and mother-in-law, and encouragement and further offer of financing from my parents, my Dad telling me, “You’ll never know unless you try and you’ll always wonder what might have happened if you don’t do it.” Faith and money, check.
Joanne, who cooked for the former caterer agreed to stay on and help us. I think she could see how “deer-in-headlights” we were and didn’t even realize it. But she did, and so she took pity.
We bought it! I gave my two-weeks notice to all of my bosses who seemed aggravated at me for leaving. No well wishes from them. The former owner handed over the “secret recipes,” and explained the basics of operation, like don’t tick off the health department ladies and such.
Day one was to be February 1. In preparation, my father-in-law and super-great, patient, long-suffering husband laid new flooring, attached baseboards, tore down a wall, rewired electrical outlets, found a used two-bay refrigerator and more shelves and hauled those in. We cleaned and painted and cleaned and planned, and cleaned. We got new signage, set up food vendor accounts, bought packaging, and set up a cash register. Because we were going to be bringing in serious money, ya know? I took a ServSafe course for proper food handling and was set to go!
The night before we were to open, and have our health department inspection, we decided to clean the grease trap, which had been stewing in its own juices for a couple of months. To those who don’t know: Grease traps are stinky; awful; gag-the-strongest-stomach kind of yuckness.
Rebecca brought her wet/dry vac from home and since I had a strong stomach and knew nothing of grease traps, I knew I could handle it. My sweet mother-in-law hid her face in her jacket and closed me in the back room with the 20-gallon grease trap and the 10 gallon vac (do the math); and started gagging immediately, as I turned the vac on. After weeks of sitting and not being pumped, it was rank to the utmost degree. I managed to get the vac filled up, not spill it as I wheeled it out the back door, and dumped it. I can handle me some rank stuff, but this was too much. And, lord help us, I was only halfway through. Second fill-up equally gross, if not more so, and done!
We left the nearly new wet/dry vac out behind the strip mall for whoever had the guts to take it.
We were exhausted and beyond over our heads and just plain irritable at the end of that day. But I knew this was the worst of it. (Naivete showing again) I went home, took a long hot shower and polished off a cheesecake brownie with a tall glass of milk.
I thought, “This day will be the most exhausting. This will be smooth sailing once we get a handle on it and a workable schedule. Easy-peasy ……”
For a crowd: (Feeding 48-96, depending on recipe you choose)
One large box of brownie mix (the size from Sam’s) will make 2 steamer trays or 2 large sheet pans. Then proceed to the cream cheese step.
But if you want to make the brownie base from scratch, you can double most ingredients in baking with little issue.
However, to ensure a good rise on brownies, cakes or muffins (and things of that texture), you need to increase your baking powder or baking soda just a bit to neutralize the acidity in your recipe.
To make 4 times this recipe, which is 1 full-size aluminum steamer pans or 1 large sheet pan:
2 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 cups granulated sugar
Whip these together in mixer.
Add:
4 eggs, whipped
4 heaping tsp. sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix well
In separate bowl, mix together
2 cups AP flour
1 cup unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
Add this mixture to wet ingredients in mixer bowl.
Incorporate well.
Spread in greased 9×7 pan.
Whip together:
3 (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3 TBS. lemon juice
Dollop this on brownie mixture and swirl with offset spatula or knife (or whatever you have on hand)
Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
This is an ongoing diary of my experience becoming a caterer/meal prep worker to the masses. I will include a recipe or two from each entry. Hope you enjoy!
