Cheesecake

This is my most favorite cheesecake recipe. It's really easy to modify this and swirl in any flavor of your choosing. Raspberry, Strawberry, Nutella, Chocolate... on and on. All you have to do is take 1 cup of the cheesecake batter before baking and mix in 1/2 cup of raspberry or strawberry preserves, 1/2 cup nutella, or 1/2 cup melted chocolate. Then swirl it into the cheesecake and bake as normal.

This recipe has ground almonds in the crust, but you can leave them out and simply replace said quantity of almonds with graham crackers. You will need to add another tablespoon of melted butter to an all graham cracker crust.

Preheat oven to 350

Crust:

1/2 cup almonds
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter

In a food processor, finely grind the almonds. Add the graham cracker crumbs and sugar and pulse to combine. Add melted butter and pulse until crumbs are wet.

Press crust into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9 inch spring form pan.

Filling:

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
16 ounces mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Beat cream cheese and mascarpone in an electric mixer until smooth and soft. Add sugar, lemon juice and vanilla and beat until well combined. Add eggs and beat until completely incorporated.

If swirling: Remove 1 cup of batter and mix with 1/2 cup of preserves, melted chocolate, or Nutella.

Pour into prepared crust and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until middle is set.

Allow to cool on a wire rack for an hour and a half.

Refrigerate overnight.