Only 4 ingredients in the filling, 4 in the crust, and fruit of your choice makes this the Easiest Cheesecake Ever! And it gets rave reviews!
I was on a mission to clean out my fridge, pantry and freezer. I had accumulated all kinds of miscellaneous ingredients from shopping for the holiday season. So I was forcing myself not to grocery shop, but to use up what I had on hand.
It is good to find the bottom of your chest freezer from time to time. And discover all those odds and ends tucked away in the fridge freezer. And all those things that have worked their way to the back of the pantry.
The challenge is to make something appetizing with all those odds and ends!
This basic cheesecake was an absolute winner!
It doesn’t have any sour cream or cottage cheese, no water bath to bake. It bakes up fairly densely like those New York cheesecakes.
You can add the fruit topping of your choice to give it whatever flavour you want. I used my homemade Bread Machine Blueberry Jam and it was delicious. You could use any juicy jam, fresh or frozen fruit.
You can make a graham wafer crust with only 4 ingredients or you could buy a graham wafer pie crust and bake the filling in that.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/2 cups graham crackers or just under 1 sleeve of crackers blended to crumbs
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 6 Tbsps butter melted
- 1/8th tsp salt
Cheesecake
- 16 oz cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Fruit Garnish
- Opt 1 1/4 cup seedless jam of your choice I used this Bread Machine Blueberry Jam
- Opt 2 2 cups fresh fruit chopped
- Opt 3 2 cups frozen fruit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Stir all the crust ingredients together until thoroughly combined.
- Spray a 9 or 10" spring form pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom with a parchment paper round to fit.
- Press the graham crumb mixture evenly on the bottom of the pan.
Cheesecake
- Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the eggs and then vanilla. Beat until smooth and evenly mixed. Pour the cream cheese into the crust.
- Opt. 1 - If you want to have a fruit center, spoon 1/4 cup of seedless jam in the center of the cheese cake. Gently swirl the fruit around with a toothpick to draw some of the jam into the cheese mixture. Do not insert toothpick very deeply.
- Bake cheesecake for about 30 minutes. Center will not be fully set until cheesecake cools. A digital thermometer should read between 165-170 degrees F inserted 1" from outer edge of the cheesecake.
- Remove cheesecake and allow to cool. Transfer to serving plate and discard the parchment paper. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.
- Serve with fresh or defrosted fruit as garnish or on the side.