Musings of Cheesecake

Cheesecake, one of the primeval elements of mankind second only to that of fried chicken, is onto itself more art than food and most certainly is not a cake as the name implies. Cheesecake is instead more akin to a custard, or in this circumstance, a mousse (not to be confused with a Bavarian apparently...). It is both intensely sweet and intensely satisfying at the same time, and ths recipe is no exception. The only real warning I have about the nature of THIS cheesecake is that even the tiniest slice can become almost overpowering if one fails to take the necessary time to savour every last bite. I realize how arrogant that sounds, but I guarantee you, once you try this cake you'll never be the same again.

Recipe:
5 packages of full fat cream cheese
2.5 cups of sugar
5 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp cornstarch
1tbsp vanilla
1/4 cup sour cream (FULL FAT)

Crust:
2tbsp butter
1/4 cup cookie crumbs of your choice (preferrably graham)

For a chocolate cheesecake:
Add 3tbsp cocoa powder
substitute sour cream for 8oz bittersweet chocolate

Preperation:
1: BRING ALL INGREDIENTS TO ROOM TEMPERATURE. This step is crucial, failing to do so will result in immediate and violent failure of your product.
2: Prepare your crust in a 16" springform pan by melting your butter and thouroughly mixing with your crumbs, press firmly but gently into the pain and bake in a 450 celsius oven for about 5 minuts.
3: Preheat your oven to 200 celsius.
4: Begin by creaming together your cream cheese and sugar on low speed with a stand or hand mixer until light and fluffy.
5: Beat in your eggs one at a time, ensuring that each egg is completely blended into the mixture.
6: Beat in the cornstarch, sour cream and vanilla until the mixture is thouroughly combined.
7: Pour mixture onto the COOLED crust.
8: Slide into the oven and bake at 200 for 2 hours.
9: When the two hours is up crack the oven door, turn off the oven and let stand for half an hour.
10: Place cheesecake in the fridge and let cool for at least 24 hours, 48 ideally.
11: Decorate or serve as you see fit.

This cheesecake is pretty basic and relatively fool proof, the starch granules in the cornstarch will prevent the cheesecake from cracking, as will the low oven temp and long cooking time. Also, one should notice that unlike most cheesecakes this recipe does NOT call for a waterbath to be implemented. Why? Because quite frankly it doesn't need one. Waterbaths are usually a good idea for most custards, but I've found that this recipe really doesn't require the extra effort. The recipe takes enough time to do as is, it doesn't need the extra time of prepping and cleaning a waterbath. Serioulsy, no matter how tempted you are, don't use it, at least not with this recipe.

Decoration suggestions:
Personally, I just dust this thing with icing sugar and serve, but one could easily ice it with an icing of their choice, or drizzle on a little chocolate it make it look a *little* more presentable. Really, it's open to discussion and experimentation, so really, just try it, you'd be surprised at how much creativity you can use when decorating this kind of thing.