Slice Of Cheesecake? Cream Cheese/Ricotta Cheesecake

Slice of cheesecake anyone?

This recipe is linked to Mandy's Recipe Box for Totally Tasty Tuesday.

This one receives the stamp of approval by the "Holy Cow". Another amazing recipe!

I have been giving some thought to contacting the Meijer store and asking them if I can be their product spokes person.

What do you think?

I used Meijer sugar cookies for the crust of my cheesecake, and I also used Meijer ricotta cheese.

Cheesecake crust.

This is what it looked like after it cooled in the oven.

No cracks....isn't that amazing? I love this recipe and will definitely be making it again.

Hopefully without a flop.....

Did you notice I said without a flop?

Do I really have to tell you what happened in my kitchen when I was making this cheesecake?

Really?

Okay, if you insist I will tell you.

Did you notice how the pan was wrapped in foil?

Well, I was suppose to wrap the pan in foil and then add hot water to the pan, without the water getting into the foil.

Did I succeed at doing that?

NO!!

So, if you look real close at the above picture, you can see that my crust is soggy.

Did I panic?

Yes!!

I was not about to throw away that cheesecake and start over.

I had many thoughts running through my head all at the same time, and it kind of looked like this:

Maybe I can put it back in the oven hoping that the sogginess will bake out.

Maybe I can soak the wetness out with paper towels.

What am I going to do?

Maybe if I put it in the frig the butter that is left in the crust will harden.

Maybe if I keep my mouth shut no one will notice.

The almonds in the crust remained crunchy.

Did you read that really, really fast? Because that is how fast my brain was working, and I went to bed like that, leaving my cheesecake in the frig.

I checked it in the morning and the crust had hardened. It is not crunchy, but it still has the flavor of a good cheesecake crust.

Cream Cheese/Ricotta Cheesecake

For The Crust:

1 1/4 c. finely ground shortbread cookie crumbs (8 Meijer sugar cookies)

1/3 c. finely ground blanched almonds

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1/3 c. butter, melted

a pinch of salt

a pinch of ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Wrap the bottom and sides of a 10 inch spring-form pan in foil. Use a large shallow roasting pan, or a 12 to 14 inch round cake pan.

In a medium size bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add in the melted butter, and mix together using a fork until the crumbs are well coated.

Dump the crumbs into the spring-form pan. Press the crumbs evenly and firmly onto the bottom or the pan and an inch or so up the sides.

For The Filling:

16 oz. cream cheese, softened to room temp

1 1/4 c. ricotta, room temp

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 large eggs, room temp

3/4 c. sweetened condensed milk

In the large bowl of your mixer, on its lowest speed, mix together the ricotta, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth.

Remaining on low speed, mix in the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg appears well mixed before adding the next one. The batter should look smooth when you're done adding the eggs.

On low speed slowly add the sweetened condensed milk, mixing just until well combined.

Pour the batter into the crust in the foil-wrapped pan. Lift the pan off the counter about 1 inch and drop it once or twice. This will allow the air bubbles in the batter to float up and release before baking.

Place your foil lined spring form pan into the shallow roaster or cake pan, and pour hot water into the pan so it rises about an inch or less up the side of the wrapped spring-form pan. Be very careful not to get the hot water into the cheesecake batter or inside the foil.

Bake the cake for 70 - 80 minutes, or until it seems just barely jiggly. I started checking mine after 60 minutes. When cake is done, turn off the oven, open the oven door to first stop, and let the cake cool slowly inside the oven. When cake has cooled in the oven for about an hour, run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the crust. Refrigerate in the pan, lightly covered, for several hours or overnight before removing the sides of the pan.

"Let them be like straw blowing in the wind, while the angel of the Lord drives them away."

Psalm 35:5