Crust
1 ¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup melted butter
In 9” pie pan, stir together graham cracker crumbs and sugar until well
mixed.
Stir melted butter into crumb mixture until well mixed, then press crumbs
evenly on bottom and sides of pie pan with the bowl of a spoon.
In an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees, bake pie crust for 10
minutes.
Filling
8 oz. cream cheese
1 large egg
14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
After pie crust has baked for five minutes, start making filling.
Cut cream cheese into four or more pieces and put into blender with egg, milk,
and salt.
Blend until smooth.
While blender is running slowly, add lemon juice in center and blend until
mixed well.
(Lemon juice starts
firming up the filling, so it’s easier if you add the lemon juice just before you
pour the filling into the pie crust.
If the pie crust is not done yet, you can let the mixture rest in your
blender.
When the pie crust is
ready, start the blender back up and add the lemon juice.)
When pie crust has finished baking, remove it from oven and turn oven down to
300 degrees.
Pour filling into baked pie crust.
Bake cheesecake in 300 degree oven for 50 minutes or until top is very lightly
browned and mostly firm.
If you don’t have a blender, you can let the cream cheese soften, then use a
mixer to make the filling.
Topping
1 can of any kind of pie filling or you can use any kind of
fresh fruit with or without a sugar glaze or you can make
your own topping, such as the following:
2 cups blueberries or pitted sour cherries (pie cherries)
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ cup fruit liquid and/or water
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
(or ½
tsp. vanilla plus ½ tsp. almond is nice for cherries)
If using frozen blueberries or
cherries, let them thaw completely, then drain off liquid
into a measuring cup.
Fresh pitted
cherries may also have some cherry liquid that you can use.
If you don’t have ¼ cup of drained liquid, add water to make ¼ cup.
If you have more than ¼ cup of drained liquid from the two cups of fruit, use
all of it.
Put fruit liquid/water, sugar, and cornstarch in saucepan over medium heat and
stir constantly until cornstarch starts losing some of its milky color.
Add half of fruit and continue stirring
constantly but gently.
When
mixture starts becoming firm, add remaining fruit and stir gently until mixture
is the consistency of pie filling.
The purpose of adding the fruit by stages is so that most of the fruit
will retain its shape.
After removing pie filling from stove, stir in flavoring.
Let cheesecake and topping cool to room temperature, then spread filling on
cheesecake.
If some cherries are showing the side where their pit was removed, turn them
over with a spoon to show their best side.
Keep refrigerated.
Note: When I freeze blueberries or cherries for pie filling, I mix 2 cups of
fruit with ½ cup of sugar and freeze the mixture in individual containers.
Sugar helps the fruit freeze
better.
When I cook the pie
filling, I don’t add more sugar.
I
just add cornstarch to the sugary liquid that drains off the fruit before I
cook it.
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