Strawberry Cheesecake

I ended up going shopping with my mom and my sister for Mother's Day and happened upon a steal of a deal for some springform pans (which I already had my hopes up on finding some) so of course I needed to try those out and found this awesome-ly awesome recipe. It was easier than I thought it would be for sure (I've always heard how difficult cheesecake is) and I thought it turned out really really well. You will need:

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

20 oz frozen sweetened strawberries, thawed
1 Tbsp cornstarch
3 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 eggs

1. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9 in springform pan. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
2. In a blender or food processor, combine strawberries and cornstarch. Cover and process until smooth. Pour into saucepan; bring to a boil. Boil and stir for 2 minutes. Set aside 1/3 cup sauce. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate sauce for serving.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in milk. Add lemon juice, mix well. Add eggs, beat on low until just combined. Pour one half of cream cheese mixture over crust.
4. Carefully(!!) spoon or drizzle reserved 1/3 cup of strawberry sauce over cheese mixture. Gently pour remaining cream cheese mixture over strawberry sauce layer. Drop remaining strawberry sauce by 1/2 tsps on top. With a knife, cut through top layer only to swirl sauce.
5. Bake at 300 for 45-50 minutes or until almost set. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Run knife around edge to loosen crust. Let cool 1 more hour. Refrigerate overnight. Remove side of pan to serve.




One thing I changed here was that I did not drop the sauce by tsps on the top. I carefully covered the whole top with the strawberry sauce instead.