This cheesecake recipe has been in our family ever since I can remember. In talking with my mom, she said she copied the recipe from a TV talk show when I was a baby (think black and white!) If you search the Internet for cherry cheesecake recipes, you'll find that many of them call for a vanilla wafer at the bottom or less commonly a graham cracker crust. The cheesecakes my mom makes have no crust at all (Less carbs, right?). And in between the layer of cheesecake and cherries, there is a luscious layer of sweetened sour cream. I could find no recipe exactly like my mom's.
Cherry Cheesecakes
Makes about 30 standard muffin-sized cheesecakes
3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1 cup sugar
5 eggs
1T vanilla
1 pint sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 t vanilla
1 can cherry pie filling
In a large bowl combine the cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, 5 eggs, and 1T vanilla using an electric mixer. Fill muffin liners about half full with the cream cheese mixture and bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes or until set (less time if using dark muffin tins).
After the cheesecakes have cooled, combine one pint of sour cream with 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla (my mom uses 1/4 cup sugar in hers). Top each cheesecake with a heaping tablespoon of the sour cream mixture. Top the sour cream mixture with about a few tablespoons of cherry pie filling. (You may have some leftover pie filling.) Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
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| This is a Google photo. The real cheesecakes disappeared too quickly to take a photo. |
About half-way through my New Catalog Extravaganza, I noticed my son getting the second platter of cheesecakes out of the fridge. My first thought was, "He is going to eat them all!!!" Then I looked down at the first platter and saw that it was empty; he was simply replenishing the supply for my guests. What a good boy!
Happy Stamping/Eating Cheesecake!
