Easy Cheesecake (21.5)

This name of this recipe says it all--this is the easiest cheesecake I have ever made. No springform. No cracking. And, as you can tell from the scores, it is quite delicious. 

I highly recommend using the food processor to put together the crust (as noted on the recipe). You can go from crackers to crust in the oven, in about two minutes. 

I tried to cheat a bit and use cream cheese that was mostly at room temperature. The center of each stick was still a bit cold and stiff. Don't do this!!! It made little chunks of cheese in the batter that were still visible even after baking.

I checked on my crust after 20 minutes, and it looked like it could handle a bit more browning before it needed to be covered. I checked again at 25 minutes, and checked the temp 1" from the edge. It was already at 168! I pulled it out immediately. The edges of the cake appeared to be barely cooked, and the center did not look anywhere near done. But I had faith in the temperature reading, took it out, and left it to cool. 

After about 90 minutes of resting, the cheesecake had come to room temperature. We snuck a slice before putting it in the fridge. It was set at the edges, but still a little loose in the middle. After a couple hours in the fridge, it was perfect. 

The texture was like silk on my tongue, and the flavor was just barely sweet enough to eat without any sauce or whip cream. We'll be making this again!

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/easy-cheesecake-recipe

 Scores (out of 5): Dustin: 3.5 Breanna: 4.5 Michael:4  James:5  Andrew: 4.5  Total  21.5/25