because a birthday should always be celebrated
happy birthday, ridiculous nuria,
who always manages to make me
laugh
swear
blush
you are exactly the annoying
kid sister i always imagined
other people having
but never thought i’d hafta experience.
new york style cheesecake
adapted from america’s test kitchen family baking cookbook
crust:
8 graham crackers, crumbled
6 TBL butter, melted and cooled
3 TBL sugar
filling:
2 1/2 lbs cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
1/3 cup kefir yogurt (or plain yogurt, or sour cream)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks
6 large eggs
preheat oven to 325°
in a food processor, blitz the crackers until they’re fine crumbles. pour in the melted butter and sugar and pulse until incorporated. dump the mixture into a 9″ springfoam pan. press the crumbs into an even layer. bake crust about 10-15 minutes, i aimed for the middle and took it out at 12:30, because i’m obnoxious. remove from oven, allow to cool, about 30 minutes.
increase oven heat to 500°.
put a pot or a kettle of water to boil. (optional)
meanwhile, make the filling. in a mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth, constantly scraping down the side of the bowl and beaters.
mix in the yogurt (or sour cream), lemon juice and vanilla. add in the yolks and the eggs, 2 at a time until well incorporated.
very carefully pour the mix into the pan.
in the oven, at the bottom level, pour the hot water into the pan. (optional step)
bake the cheesecake for 10 minutes.
without opening the oven door, lower the heat to 200° and continue to bake for 1 1/2 hours.
don’t open the oven door, turn off the oven and ignore the cheesecake until cooled, about 2-3 hours.
when you’re feeling brave, take out the cheesecake and carefully run a knife around the edge.
chill in fridge, ideally overnight.
serve as is or if you’re felling fancy, drizzle a bit of chocolate ganache.
BAM!
previous nuria bday concoctions:
vegan pb cups
the angry birds project
suisse mocha cheesecake
coffee cheesecake
2 years ago: ultimate white cake
1 year ago: overnight steel cut oats
morestomach 
Looks delicious, Lan. I love the use of kefir here for a tart taste. Happy bday Lil sis! I’m the annoying little sister in my family. Thoughtful of you to dedicate a beautiful cake! Worth graham cracker crust no less!!!
thanks Amanda. it’s a fairly straight fwd recipe and thankfully using kefir didn’t alter it at all!
what a thoughtful thing to do as a big sister..im a bad big sister, i amazon prime things to my brother..
dixya, she’s actually not my sister by dna, but we do have a sibling-like relationship that lends itself to a great deal of laughter and sometimes sibling rivalry. we also amazon prime stuff to each other!