Home Made Love: I Love New York Cheesecake

by Denene Millner — Jul 21, 2010

By MARI and LILA CHILES

For the past four summers, our mommy has sent us to cooking camp at Young Chef's Academy, where kids learn how to handle themselves in the kitchen, plus get the 411 on some great recipes from all around the country and the world. We've learned how to whip up some great dishes, some of which we share in our Home Made Love Family Recipe Book, a cookbook we created at home and often share here on MyBrownBaby. When camp is over, we almost always give mommy a list of ingredients to pick up at Kroger so that we can put to practice what we've learned at camp, and mommy usually skips right to the store (hey, if we're cooking, it means she's not!).

This summer, we learned how to make some pretty awesome regional dishes from Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, and Chicago. We really loved making the New York-Style Cheesecake, especially since we knew it is one of our Papa Jimy's favorites. As a special treat for our granddad, we whipped one up on the last night of his summer vacation here at our house and, of course, mommy pulled out her trusty Nikon D-50 to get all the fun on film. Here, we show you how to whip up a home made cheesecake and decorate the plate so it looks really fancy. You're going to love it!

I LOVE NEW YORK CHEESECAKE

What You'll Need:

CRUST

5 TBSP butter, melted

20 square graham crackers, crushed

¼ cup sugar

FILLING

4 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

4 egs

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 TBSP vanilla extract

How To Cook It:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Combine graham crackers, butter and sugar mixing well. Press into the bottom of a spring form pan.
In mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy
Gradually Beat in the condensed milk, beating until smooth
Add eggs, flour, and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Pour into crust.
Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, or until slightly browned.
Cool before serving.
Drizzle strawberry syrup or caramel on a plate; arrange a slice on top of it, then top with whipped cream and a strawberry slice or two and enjoy!