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Ingredients
- 2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs
- 6 Tablespoons butter or margarine -- melted
- 12 ounces frozen and defrosted or fresh strawberries
- 2 pounds cream cheese -- softened 3 to 4 hours at room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- 4 large eggs -- room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla -- divided
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Preparation
Step 1
Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325. Butter a 9 inch springform pan with sides at least 2 3/4 inches high. Wrap the outside of the pan with a large piece of heavy duty aluminum foil. Have ready a baking pan with at least 2 inch high sides that is large enough to hold the foil-wrapped pan.
Put the crumbs and melted butter in a medium bowl and stir until the crumbs are evenly moistened with butter. Put the mixture in the prepared pan and press the crumb mixture evenly over the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Set aside.
Put the strawberries in a food processor and process them to a puree. Strain into a small bowl, discarding any seeds or pulp in the strainer. Measure 3/4 cup of the puree and set aside. (Cover and refrigerate the remaining puree for another use. Good up to three days).
Put the cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl and beat on low until the mixture looks smooth. Mix in the flour to incorporate it. Put the eggs in a small bowl and use a fork to stir them vigorously to blend the yolks and whites. Add the eggs in 2 additions, mixing just to blend them into the mixture. Scrape the bowl as needed. Mix in 1 teaspoon of the vanilla. Put 2 cups of the batter in a medium bowl. Stir the remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla and the lemon juice into the batter in the medium bowl and set aside. This will be for the vanilla layer. Mix the reserved strawberry puree into the batter in the large bowl, stirring just until the mixture is evenly pink. Pour the strawberry batter into the prepared crust.
Put the cheesecake into the larger pan and fill with hot water to reach 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan. Bake 45 minutes. Carefully slide the oven rack out. Pour the reserved vanilla batter all around the inside edge of the pan. The batter will flow evenly to cover the top of the cheesecake. Bake an additional 20 minutes. When done, the cheesecake looks set and may have a few tiny cracks around the edge. These cracks close up as the cheesecake cools.
Cool the cheesecake, covered loosely with paper towels, in the water bath for 1 hour. Carefully remove the cheesecake from the water bath. Remove foil wrapping and paper towels and cool for 1 hour more. The cheesecake should feel cool to the touch. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 6 hours. The cheesecake will firm but this cheesecake will remain especially creamy and soft.