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The Ultimate Cheesecake with Candied Cranberries

By Elaine Mellen

Posted on January 25, 2017

My mother passed this recipe on to me many years ago and it’s just as amazing today. My Ultimate Cheesecake is a show stopper for special occasions, full of the love you expect from dessert.

This is the richest cheesecake that you can possibly make, so I save it for special occasions when I want to share a show stopping dessert that tops off a dinner or a party. I have included my recipe for a pineapple glaze, but you can also thickly spread sour cream on top. Or you can make it festive. If you want to make this for Christmas, as I did this past year, then put candied cranberries on top. Either way, this ultimate cheesecake is the star of the show!

The Ultimate Cheesecake

Crust Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup light brown sugar

Filling Ingredients:

5 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
5 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream

Pineapple Glaze Ingredients:

2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 cans (8 1/4 oz each) crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, undrained
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Sugared Cranberries Ingredients:

2 cups fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup water

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Crust Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix all ingredients together.

2. Press onto bottom and up sides of the pan, until desired size. Bake 8 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Filling Preparation:

1. In large mixer bowl, blend cheese, sugar, flour, peels, and vanilla at high speed.

2. Beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time. Beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with spatula.

3. Beat in cream. Pour into pan. Bake 10 minutes.

4. Lower oven to 250 degrees F. Bake for one hour longer.

5. Remove pan to rack and let cool for two hours. Make glaze.

Glaze Preparation:

1. In small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in remaining ingredients.

2. Over medium heat, bring mixture to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute, or until thickened and translucent. Let cool.

Sugared Cranberries Preparation:

1. Bring 1 cup sugar and water to a simmer in a saucepan. Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Pour simple syrup into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Add cranberries and stir to coat. Refrigerate cranberries in syrup overnight, stirring a couple of times to coat with syrup.

3. Remove cranberries from syrup and roll in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. You’ll need to roll them a few times to get a couple of layers of sugar on them.

4. Set cranberries aside to dry for one hour or so.

To Serve:

Loosen sides of pan with a spatula. Remove sides of springform pan. Top surface of cooled cheesecake with either Pineapple Glaze or Sugared Cranberries and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Serves sixteen people.