Cheese Cake

A biiiiirthday treat for the Aries

The argument continues.  This time Yannis and I are both wrong.  We both thought for sure that cheese cake originated in New York.  Cream cheese didn't arrive in Greece untill recently, so we, like most Greeks, think cheese cake is an American delicacy, which the Greeks call tseezkek.  I found out that in absolutely every corner of the world people are making some version of cheese cake.  I was very surprised to learn that the first recorded mention of cheese cake was by the ancient Greek physician Aegimus.  He wrote on the art of making cheese cakes and he included two recipes for making cheese cakes for religious uses in his writings.  I'm going to make my sister's recipe for cheese cake, which I think is the best one on the planet, for Yannis birthday treat.  I'm sure it's not even close to the original Greek's recipe, but I know it will taste divine!!

Cheese Cake

crust-
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup graham cracker or vanilla cookie crumbs
2 Tables. brown sugar
mix crust ingredients and press into a 9" pie plate, put in freezer

Batter-
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 8 oz. packages cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1 cup sour cream or full fat yogurt
1 teas. vanilla
1 teas. lemon juice

Beat the sugar, butter and cream cheese together till smooth and fluffy; blend in the cream, flour, vanilla and lemon juice; beat in the eggs, one at a time; stir in the sour cream or yogurt and pour into pie crust.  Bake in 350 F./180 C. oven for one hour.  Turn the oven off, leave the door open a little and let the cheese cake remain in oven for 5 hours.  Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.  The cheese cake tastes better the longer it sits before eating. Serve with your favorite fruit, sauce, syrup and whipped cream.  Take a good long walk after eating for digestion so you can come back for seconds.....