Maple Cheesecake

Holy deliciousness!!!! This is the best dessert EVER!!!!! And on top of being delicious... it looks show stopping! Niki found this recipe in her handy dandy Taste of Home Cooking Magazine!!! It was a recipe submitted by Wendy Paffenroth of Pine Island, NY. The only thing Niki changed was leaving out the walnuts in the crust. Also, the chocolate drizzled on top is not IC friendly, but it is so minimal that it shouldn’t bother many. You may substitute white chocolate or just leave off... it's really just for wow factor. From nikicooks.blogspot.com.

Maple Cheesecake


Ingredients:

Crust
2 cups Graham Cracker crumbs (without problem ingredients)
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2-ish cup melted butter (I eyeballed it... you want it moist throughout, but not wet wet)

Filling
4 pkgs plain cream cheese (8 oz each), softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. maple flavoring
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/8 tsp grated lemon peel (I use dried)
3 eggs

Melted Hershey's bar, optional


Directions:

1. Place a greased 9 inch springform pan on a double thickness of heavy duty foil (about 18 inches square). Wrap foil securely around pan.

2. In a small bowl, mix the cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto bottom and 1 inch up sides of prepared pan. Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

3. For filling, in a bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in the maple flavoring, extract and lemon peel. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until blended. Pour into crust. Place springform pan in a larger baking pan (I used my extra large roasting pan); add 1 inch of hot water to larger pan.

4. Bake for 45-55 min or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool cheesecake on rack for 10 minutes. Loosen sides from pan; remove foil. Cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.

5. Remove rim from pan. If desired, drizzle cheesecake with melted chocolate. (I used the baggy with a hole method... you can find videos on how to do this by googling... how to drizzle chocolate over cake...you can also google how to melt chocolate... I did that too, lol!!)