Emergency Cheesecake!

Emergency Cheesecake.

It’s not that I needed it, it’s that I had to make it. Had to.

Do you know my mom caught my dad with a cheesecake? She’s known as the queen of cheesecakes. When she and my dad were dating she’d bake him a cheesecake. He’d take it home where he would use a ruler to measure it daily to make sure members of his family weren’t sneaking bites of his cheesecake.

So I have my mom’s recipe in my head but I’m not much of a cheesecake fan. I haven’t made a cheesecake in years, but I baked one a couple days ago.

Why? Because while I was sick my husband missed certain food items in the fridge and I decided I’d better find some use for them before they spoiled.

I held in my hand a pint of premium cottage cheese and a 12 oz. package of cream cheese. And I thought… Emergency Cheesecake. I had no eggs, but I did have plenty of lemon curd- which contains eggs. I also had sugar, flour, butter and graham cracker crumbs.

I didn’t feel like digging out my springform pan, so I used a two-piece coffee-cake pan.

Emergency Cheesecake

1 pint full-fat cottage cheese

1 12 oz. package full-fat cream cheese

1 pint lemon curd

2 Tbs. superfine sugar

2 Tbs. unbleached all-purpose flour

the zest from one lemon

Put all the above ingredients in a mixer. Mix at a low speed until combined and then crank that sucker up to high and whip for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine: 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs with 3/4 stick melted butter. Press into springform pan or any pan with a removable bottom. Bake at 350′ for 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Pour cheese mixture over graham cracker crust. Spread carefully until evenly distributed. Bake at 350′ for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and bake for another 45 minutes. Turn off oven and cool cake in oven for another hour. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Cover and set in fridge overnight.

Loosen the edges of the cake from the pan with a knife dipped in warm water. Lift up bottom of pan. Slice cake and serve with fresh fruit.

This cheesecake won’t be super smooth and creamy but then I’m not a big fan of super smooth and creamy. Probably why I dislike ice cream, especially super rich expensive ice cream. Too creamy.

Even my husband, who’s not big on desserts, said, “This is really good!”