Creamy Lemony Cheesecake

I usually don’t make things I can’t eat, but for Shavuot I decided to go all out and make cheesecake! It was certainly worth all of the Lactaid pills [Note: You can also make this cheesecake with dairy-free cream cheese and sour cream]. This cheesecake is dense but still creamy, and the lemon zest really makes it.

A couple of tips to making the perfect cheesecake:

• Bring all of your ingredients to room temperature before you start to ensure as little mixing as possible–overmixing will lead to you cheesecake cracking. You can just let everything sit out, or I like to put everything into a warm water bath.
• After baking, turn the oven off and let the cheesecake cool in there. This helps to ensure the cheesecake cools very slowly and doesn’t crack.

Lemony Cheesecake

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup sour cream
4 8 oz. bars of cream cheese
2 pre-made graham cracker crusts

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. With an immersion blender, blend eggs. With a wooden spoon, in sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and sour cream.
3. With a mixer (or I use the electric whisk attachment on my immersion blender), beat in cream cheese until smooth, careful not to overbeat.
4. Divide evenly into 2 graham cracker crusts. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, then turn oven off and allow cheesecakes to cool in oven 5-6 hours. Chill before serving.

The cost:
eggs: .40
lemon: .29
sour cream: .99
cream cheese: 5.56
crusts: 1.98

Grand total: $9.92 (makes 2 cheesecakes)