Spread A Little Love Today

My favorite dessert by far is cheesecake.

I always tell myself when we go to a restaurant that I'm going to order something decadently chocolate, or a pie piled high with tart apples, but I invariably ask for a slice of the usual.

I love the taste of cinnamon, and the eclairs from Jewel are incredible.

And, of course, there is ice cream. I can eat as much ice cream as is placed in front of me. An ice cream shoppe monstrosity with ten scoops, a banana, pineapple, three different sauces, nuts, a mountain of whipped cream, and a maraschino cherry (where if you finish it, it's free), is no problem. In fact, I have directed in my will that the following words be inscribed on my headstone:

Here lies Steve

He did many favors

But what did him in

Was thirty-One Flavors

But if I was going to marry a dessert, forsaking all others, it would be cheesecake.

Martha Stewart does a New York style that calls for eight 8-ounce packages of cream cheese. The classic Sara Lee Original is still my go-to frozen dessert. My dear friends, Bill and Josette, present me with a rich, heavy, blueberry cheesecake every Christmas. I am not a big fan of Eli's.

Cheesecake is considered to be a custard tart since its main ingredients are dairy, sugar, and eggs. The most popular version in America comes with a graham cracker crust and a layer of sour cream topping. However, cheesecake varieties come with chocolate crusts, vanilla wafer crusts, or no crusts at all. The filling can incorporate orange, lemon, pumpkin, chocolate chips, or Bailey's Irish Cream, and can be topped with strawberry, raspberry, cherry, or cranberry compote.

The filling can be made with ricotta, mascarpone, farmers cheese or dry cottage cheese, but no true cheesecake aficionado would touch these with a ten-foot fork.

Cheesecake can be traced back to ancient Greece where it appeared in a book by the Greek physician, Aegimus, on the art of making cheesecakes for medicinal and religious purposes. Cheesecake was served to athletes during the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. as an energy booster, and cheesecake was served at Greek weddings.

The conquest of Greece introduced cheesecake to Roman cuisine where it quickly became a dessert using honey as the sweetener. From Rome, the confection spread throughout Europe, Britain, and the Middle East.

The earliest English cheesecake recipe is found in the cookbook Forme of Cury, written in 1390 A.D. English cheesecakes traditionally add fruits and spices to the filling, and are always baked.

The modern American cheesecake that has an uncooked, cream cheese based filling on a cookie-crumb crust got its start in 1872 when  William Lawrence, from Chester, New York, came up with a way of making an "unripened cheese" that was heavier and creamier than similar French farmstead cheeses.

There are literally thousands of cheesecake recipes on the Internet, and everyone and their uncle thinks their recipe is the best. That being said, I present to you my personal recipe that is sure to get the job done. I have eschewed the springform pan and obnoxious water bath; for ease I use a store bought crust; and I add the sour cream to the filling to skip a step.

I also firmly believe it's silly not to use Philly.

Steve's Easy Cheesecake

Ingredients:

2 8-ounce packages Philadelphia Brand cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Keebler extra-serving graham cracker crust

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In mixing bowl, beat softened cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar and beat together. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly. Add vanilla and sour cream. With mixer on medium speed, beat until smooth and silky.

Pour mixture into crust and place in oven for 30 minutes. Turn once and continue to bake for another 15 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack, then cover (with plastic lid that comes with crust) and refrigerate for several hours.