Cheesecake Boo-raj

Total Time: 6 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 6 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 15
• 4 cups graham crackers, ground into crumbs (2 celophane packages)
• 1 cup pecans, chopped finely (feel free to omit these or replace with some other kind of nut, macadamea, almond, etc)
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon (you can skip if you want a more "pure, basic" cheesecake)
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 3 lbs softened cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 6 eggs
• 16 ounces sour cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Recipe

• 1 use a 12" spring form pan- i've used a 10" pan, but had a little filling left over.
• 2 preheat oven to 350.
• 3 combine graham crackers, butter, brown sugar, and pecans until nice and crumbly (i use a food processor).
• 4 press into the springform pan, use a metal measuring cup to flatten bottom and build up the sides of the crust as close to the top edge of the pan as possible.
• 5 in kitchenaid or other stand mixer, whip soft cream cheese (must be soft and smooth or you will have ghastly chunks in the finished product), sugar, lemon juice and vanilla.
• 6 beat in eggs one at a time until well blended.
• 7 place cheesecake pan on top of a rimmed baking sheet to keep melted butter from running into your oven.
• 8 pour filling into crust (if there is a little filling left over, just pour it into another cake pan and bake a small cake"for sampling").
• 9 bake until the cheesecake has just begun to crack and is not jiggly, about 70 minutes- check at 45-50 minutes and keep an eye on it.
• 10 remove from oven and allow to cool several minutes.
• 11 keep oven heat at 350.
• 12 combine topping ingredients and pour over warm cake, tilt to cover to edges.
• 13 return to oven for 20 minutes.
• 14 remove from oven and cool to room temperature.
• 15 chill in refrigerator 4 to 5 hours.
• 16 serve.