Strawberry Glazed Cheesecake!!

I am on a cheesecake kick lately!!!If you will remember the people that my husband works with "challenged" me to see if I could make a "good" cheesecake using goat's milk.  The one I made last week was good BUT not one to "stop the presses" or "OH MY I just died and went to Heaven" sort of thing - you know what I mean!  So the search was on for THAT cheesecake recipe.

I borrowed a book from the library called America's Best Pies by the American Pie Council and Linda Hoskins.  Glancing through it and drolling over all the wonderful pies, I happened to come upon this recipe for Strawberry Glazed Cheesecake.  Lo and Behold - I had all the ingredients except the cream cheese.  So what is a person to do . . . you make your own!!  Instead of using the Neufchatel recipe I used last time, I ussed my normal goat cheese recipe - Chevre.  Please note - you can use cream cheese in this recipe and the result will be the same or even better!

Glazed Strawberry Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350

Crust

2 cups cinnamon graham crackers, crushed
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Mix together all 3 ingredients.  To test if you have the right consistency, take a small fistful of the crust and squeeze tightly in your fist.  If the crumbs hold together - success!!  If not, add a little more butter until you get the right consistency.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Let cool on a rack.

Filling

3 8 ounce packages of cream cheese or 24 ounces of Chevre (soft goat cheese0
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Cream all ingredients together.  Spoon into graham cracker crust.  Bake for 30 minutes.

Glaze (do this after the cake has been taken out of the oven and is cooling)

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 T Karo Syrup
3 T cornstarch
3 T gelatin (like Knox gelatin)
red food color (about 3 to 4 drops)

2 quarts strawberries

Combine all ingedients (except strawberries) in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then cool.

Hull and rinse the strawberries.  Pat dry and set on a papper towel.  Dip the strawberries in the glaze and set on cheesecake.  Garnish with whipped topping (note: I didn't have any whipped topping - the picture in the book shows the whipping topping around the edge of the crust - very pretty!)

It would have looked a lot prettier with the whipped topping around the edge - oh well!  BUT it was GOOD!!  My husband liked this cheesecake a lot better than the previous one.  So this is definitely a winner!!  Will I make it again?  Definitely!!

Was this THE perfect cheesecake recipe - probably not - but it was definitely good!!