My Mother-in-Law's Cheesecake Recipe (A Kathi Post)

Last week I told you I was planning to make my mother-in-law's (Dennie's) cheesecake recipe to take to Thanksgiving dinner. I made it and I took it. It was good.

This is the recipe card, straight from her recipe box. It looks like she made it often. I am going to keep it just like it is. She was a wonderful cook, but a messy one. I liked that about her.

The finished cheesecake has a light, fresh taste. My Jim likes it with some pie filling on the top, so that's what we did (strawberry), but it's good naked, too.


Here's the recipe, with my translations:
CHEESE CAKE
16 oz. cottage cheese
4 eggs
1 t. salt
3/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 T. flour
1 T. vanilla
Juice of 1 lemon
Juice and rind of 1 large orange

Cream the cheese; add sugar and egg yolks. Mix flour and milk. Add to the cheese, sugar and eggs. Add condensed milk, orange, lemon, and vanilla. Beat egg whites and fold into cheese mixture.

(I did this part all in my food processor. I added the salt, though it's not mentioned in the recipe directions. I used a zester to zest the orange.)

For the crust:
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1-1/2 sticks of butter, melted 
2 t. cinnamon
1-1/2 t. vanilla

Mix together and press into an oblong pan. 

(I used a 9x13 pan, but next time I make it I will use a jelly roll pan instead so I had cleaner edges when it's cut).

Pour the cheese mixture into the crust. (Preheat your oven to 350 degrees). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, then lower the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for 35 more minutes. Then turn the oven off and let the cheesecake sit in the oven for 1-1/2 hours longer.

I remember Dennie telling me a story about how their pastor stopped by their house (when they lived in Arkansas). She had just turned the oven off and was waiting for the hour and a half to take it out when the pastor arrived. He sat, and sat, and sat, and finally said he guessed she wasn't going to offer him any of whatever it was that smelled so good in the oven, so he guessed he'd leave. She had to show him the recipe with the waiting time instructions just so she could prove she wasn't holding out on him, just waiting for it to be done! He stayed long enough that he could have some before he left.

It does smell really nice in the house when you bake this.

Here's a picture of Jim's Dad and Mom. Now doesn't she just LOOK like the baking-est person?!

I'll write the ending like Jim does:
"So grab a fork, put some fruit on it, and FEED YOUR FACE!"