CARLA'S CHEESECAKE INSPIRED BY Le Village

Crust:

2- 7 ounce boxes of Speculoos cookies (Trader Joe's)
1 stick (8 Tablespoons) butter, melted
1/2 cup  brown sugar

Cheesecake:

3 large 8 oz. boxes organic  cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup organic sour cream 
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large organic eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Heat oven to 350. Coat bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with butter.

In a food processor, finely crumble the cookies . Process for 1 minute and transfer to a bowl.  Drizzle butter over the mixture, add brown sugar, and use a fork to mix until well moistened. Put crumbs into the pan, spread and press them into an even, lightly packed layer. Bake 10 minutes and remove from oven to cool.

Now preheat the oven to 500 degrees

Beat cream cheese and 1 cup sour cream until fluffy about 3 minutes.  With mixer going, add sugar in a steady stream until well mixed. Whisk together eggs, vanilla and lemon juice and add to cream cheese mixture. Beat until very smooth. Pour it over the crust and smooth the top. Bake for 10 minutes at 500 degrees,  then lower the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for another 1 hour and 15 min.

Remove from oven and cool.  While cooling, mix 2 cups sour cream with 1/4 cup sugar (add more sugar if you like it sweet).  When the cake is cool, spread the sour cream mixture over the top (like icing) and place in fridge.  Cover and let it sit for at least 4 hours in fridge. When ready to serve, slide a knife around the outer edge of cake in the pan and then remove the side of the springform pan.  Enjoy!

This is a crust I make in a food processor. It’s easy and pretty foolproof!  On Sunday Pie Night, I learned that the secret to a good crust is to have everything very cold and to handle it as little as possible.

Ingredients for one  9" pie crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or Cup4Cup Gluten free flour
1 1/2 sticks cold butter, cubed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup  ICE water

 Measure the flour into the processor with the regular blade attached. Add the unsalted butter, cut into cubes (should be frozen or very cold). Add salt. Process for 5 seconds. (the butter should still be in pieces)

Add the ice water and process for 5 seconds longer, just until dough comes together. Don’t wait until it is a big clump or it will be too wet and tough.

 Remove the dough and gather it into a ball with your hands (squeeze it a bit to make it stick together). Place a piece of wax paper (lightly dust it with flour and lightly flour your rolling pin) over a wood board or clean surface and roll the dough into a 16-18 inch circle to 1/16-1/8 inch thick. Place this dough (on the wax paper) into the fridge for about 20 minutes maximum. When you are ready to put it in your pie dish, place the pie dish on top of the dough, turn it over and then gently peel the wax paper off the dough .  Pat it gently into the pie dish and crimp the edges.

Note: If you find yourself without a proper rolling pin, I find that a chilled vodka bottle will do the trick just fine!  A quick shot before rolling out the dough is known to boost confidence!