Strawberry Cheesecake, by thewoksoflife.com

While I realize that it’s a bit counter-intuitive to be posting a Strawberry Cheesecake recipe on the second day of the new year, as many of us are listing out our New Year’s Resolutions and getting ready to make 2017 a year of gym sign-ups and low-carb/paleo/whole 30 diets, well…

I’m doing it anyway.

Because this Strawberry Cheesecake is special:

An Accidental Recipe

The story of this strawberry cheesecake recipe is all too familiar in our family. Upon my arrival at home for the holidays, my mom—who has built up quite the sweet tooth over the years—marched me over to the refrigerator and pointed at 2 unopened packages of cream cheese left over from Thanksgiving.

(We might have gone a little overboard back in November when it came to estimating how much cream cheese we’d be needing for various dessert and mashed potato applications.)

“Sarah, can you make a cheesecake?” she asked, also pointing out a few other things in the fridge that she wanted me to ~~get rid of~~ apply to various meals throughout the week.

In my subsequent ransacking of said fridge, I also found a box of strawberries that must have been on sale, because they were looking a little worse for wear, and a jar of strawberry preserves. It was one of those jars of fruit preserves whose length of stay on the refrigerator door you’d rather not think too much about. There were also a couple lemons in there that had seen better days.

These kinds of fridge clean-outs are extremely common in our family, and they often yield some of our best recipes. This strawberry cheesecake is no exception.

I whipped it up for a Christmas dessert, and my mother—a connoisseur of cheesecake—proclaimed it to be the best she’d ever had. My dad loved it, my sister loved it, I loved it, and my grandmother cut off half of what was left of it the next day, put it in a tupperware, and stuffed it in her duffel bag to take home.

If that isn’t a sign that a recipe is blogworthy, I don’t know what is.

Alright, enough talk. Let’s get on with the recipe.

Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe: Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch springform pan and wrap the bottom in foil. You’re going to be putting the cheesecake in a water bath, and you don’t want the water to seep into the pan from the bottom.

Break up the graham crackers into smaller pieces and put them in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until they’ve turned into crumbs. Add the melted butter and process again until the mixture resembles wet sand. Press evenly into the bottom of the springform pan, packing the graham cracker crumbs down as tightly as you can.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and mix on low speed until creamy. Add the sugar and mix on low speed until smooth. Blend in the milk on low speed as well. Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing just until incorporated. Then mix in the sour cream, vanilla, lemon zest, and flour. You don’t want to over-mix or allow too much air into the mixture.

Pour the filling into the prepared crust.

Tap the pan against the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles, and place it in a rimmed baking sheet filled with 1 cm of water.

Transfer the entire apparatus to the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Do not open the oven door! After 30 minutes has elapsed, turn the oven off, and let the cheesecake cool gradually in the oven with the door closed for 3 hours. This prevents cracking. Chill in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, make the strawberry sauce. In a small saucepan, add the jam, water, and sugar. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Simmer for 3 minutes, until the sugar is completely dissolved. (If you want your sauce really red, you can add in a couple drops of red food coloring.)

Dissolve the cornstarch into the lemon juice, and pour it into the pot, whisking constantly. Simmer until the syrup is bubbly, but no longer foamy. Remove the syrup from the heat, and allow to cool. Stir in the strawberries.