Easy Dreamy Cheesecake

This is one of the easiest cheesecakes you will ever make. 
Cross my heart. 
And forget about all those cheesecake recipes from the past where you had to leave the oven door open for 5 hours
 after baking for the cheesecake to set. This recipe has an easy baking method that takes all of the scariness out of making cheesecake.

Y'all might remember from my last post, Country Potato Salad, that I got this recipe from my husband's Navy boss at the time, Chief Wilson. It was a recipe his Mom had given him so I was so grateful when he gave it to me. 
He made this cheesecake for every get together (he usually made two). 
They were famous in our little American military community in England. 
Everyone requested he make a couple of them when we had potlucks. 
And I loved it because it was more of a sweet cheesecake rather than tangy. 
I have changed it a bit over the years. I added sour cream and flour to the mix to help give it a slightly smoother texture.

Chief always made this cheesecake using premade graham cracker crusts. And most of the time, I do as well. 
Every now and then I'll make the crust from scratch so I'm going to include that recipe in here also.

 Ingredients:

For the crust: 

1-¼ cup Graham Cracker Crumbs

3 Tablespoons Sugar

1/3 cup melted butter

For the filling:

2 blocks (16 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. sour cream
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour

½ tablespoon vanilla extract

½ tablespoon lemon juice (optional)

2 eggs

Directions:

You can make the pie crust below, or you can just use a premade one from the store.
If you use a premade one, try to look for the crusts that says "2 extra servings", like the one below. 
If you can't find it, just go with the regular ones. You may just have a tad bit of filling leftover.

Preheat oven to 300F degrees. 

For the crust:

Mix the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter and pack mixture firmly into bottom and sides of 9-inch pie pan. 
Chill in the refrigerator while preparing the filling.

For the filling:

Mix cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, flour, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a mixer. 
Add eggs one at a time to the mixture and thoroughly combine. The key to getting a really creamy cheesecake is to mix these ingredients together really well until the mixture is kind of thick and smooth (about 4-5 minutes). Pour into pie crust.

Bake for about 65-70 minutes.

Chill in the refrigerator a few hours before serving. 

Optional: top with cherry or strawberry pie filling or drizzle with caramel sauce.

Post Script: This was my son's first table food. I probably shouldn't admit that since this is so not healthy, but my child wasn't eating anything I was giving him, except for bananas.  One day, my husband and I were sitting on the couch eating our slices of cheesecake. My son, 8 months old at the time, pulled himself up from the floor using the coffee table and scooted himself around the entire length of the table. The whole time his mouth was open and he was looking hard at our cheesecake. My husband gave him a bite and Alex proceeded to eat almost an entire piece of cheesecake (without the crust).  It is still his favorite dessert to eat to this day. 
So I owe Chief Wilson a big thanks for that as well!

Enjoy!

Printable Recipe Here

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