Sophie's Cheese Cake
This card has "(mom)" typed in the upper right corner so I understand that to be my mother's mom - my Grandma Sophie. Thus, to distinguish between the several cheese cake recipes in my mom's collection I'm calling this Sophie's Cheese Cake.
I felt like the cheese cake should have a rich flavor so I purchased name brand cheese and full fat cheese and sour cream. I also used real vanilla extract instead of imitation vanilla. I set the cream cheese out on the counter while I ate dinner and then made the cheese cake after dinner. It didn't say to soften the cheese but I thought it would be easier to work with. Also, since vanilla was going in the second layer, I decided it would be a stronger flavor if I used vanilla instead of almond in the main layer.
Since it's only a few ingredients I was going to use the hand mixer but then I read 5 - 7 minutes and immediately went for the stand mixer. I stopped once, after 3 or so minutes, and scraped down the bowl. After 7 or 8 minutes there were still little chunks of cream cheese in the batter but I didn't want to over-mix and figured they'd melt out while it baked.
I've got a few pie dishes so I used one that is slightly deeper and put just a thin coat of Crisco to grease it.
After 25 minutes it was still a little shiny in the very center so I baked for an additional 3 minutes.
When I pulled the cake out of the oven to set on a cooling rack, it was pretty high so I was glad I had used the deeper dish since I still needed to add the second layer.
When I went to put the sour cream topping on, it had fallen and pulled away from the sides a bit.
I didn't want to dirty another mixing bowl so I opened the sour cream and stirred it up good, then added the 3 TBSP sugar, 1 TBSP at a time, and mixed it up well.
Finally I added the 1 tsp vanilla and stirred it in well.
I just used a regular spoon to stir it all and then to scoop and spread it on top of the cheese cake.
Back in the oven for 10 minutes.
It looks good - I'll find out tomorrow when I serve it at book club.
That's one good thing about cheesecake is that you can mke it ahead of time and just store in the refrigerator. I realized this is a crustless cheesecake - one of the ladies made such a cheesecake a few months ago specifically for a guest who ate gluten-free. I felt like hers was better but I was very pleased with this one - also gluten-free, by the way.
The sour cream top layer was removable if one wanted to do so but yet it held together nicely with the lower body. The lower part did not look overly creamy of smooth but it felt creamy and smooth in the mouth. This recipe has a good balance of sweet and cheesy. I enjoyed it and so did my guests, a couple of whom went back for seconds.
I had three pieces left over. I stored them Sunday night in Tupperware and ate them as late the last piece on Wednesday night and it still tasted fresh.
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