Today I thought I ‘d share with you an easy recipe for a delicious lemon cheesecake that would make a great dessert for your Easter meal. The great thing about cheesecake is that you can make it a day or so before you need it, freeing up your time for other things. The taste of this cheesecake is bright and lemony and is good with just a dollop of sour cream on top, but it is even better with a blueberry topping that can be made very quickly before serving.
My recipe is an adaption of a recipe that appeared in Southern Living magazine about 10 years ago. I have made this cheesecake several times, and everyone who has tasted it has loved it.
Even though I haven’t made this cheesecake in several years, I knew exactly where the recipe was. I have lots of cookbooks and binders of recipes, but I can usually put my hand on a recipe. Years ago, I started neatly copying favorite recipes into this book, but somewhere along the line, I just started taping recipes into it. This was all before so many recipes were available digitally.
So once I found my recipe, I gathered my ingredients. To make this recipe, you will need a 9 inch springform pan, 1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies, 1 cup finely chopped pecans, 1/3 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, 3 large eggs, 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, 2 teaspoons lemon rind, 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, 1 (8 ounce) container sour cream. Don’t worry! There is a printable version of this recipe below including the directions for making the blueberry topping.
First, you will need to mix 1 cup crushed gingersnap cookies and 1 cup pecans together. I used my food processor to crush them at the same time. Add 1/4 cup sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter to the crumbs and mix it all together. I used salted butter because I like the sweet/salty combination.
Press the crumb mixture into the bottom and up the sides about 2 inches of a greased springform pan. I greased my pan with butter and plenty of it!
To make your filling, beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer or stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just blended. Gradually add the sweetened condensed milk, rind, and lemon juice, beating until blended. Pour the filling into the prepared crust.
After pouring the filling into the crust, tear off a piece of aluminum foil and place it on top of a metal baking pan.
Bring the foil up the sides of the springform pan. Now, at this point, most people pour hot water into the baking pan, but you don’t need to bake this cheesecake using a water bath! The purpose of enclosing the pan with foil is to prevent any butter from seeping out of your pan and making a nasty mess in your oven. Trust me, I know about this-the hard way!
Now you are ready to bake your cheesecake at 300 degrees for one hour. Baking it at a low temperature helps to prevent cracks from forming. When it is done, turn off the oven and let the cake sit in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove cake to a wire rack and spread evenly with sour cream. (I actually skip this step because I prefer to put a dollop of sour cream on my slices when I serve it.)
Place a clean dish towel over the pan and place it in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours. The towel will prevent any moisture from forming on the top.
See! No cracks!
When you are ready to serve, remove the outer ring of the pan. To remove the metal bottom of the pan, run a spatula between the cheesecake and the bottom and slide your cheesecake onto a serving dish.
To dress it up, I added some sprigs of lavender around my dish. (I bought the lavender 2 weeks ago, but it’s been too cold to plant it!)
The easiest way to slice your cheesecake is to dip your knife into warm water and then wipe it with a dish towel. Do this each time between slicing. Garnish each slice with fresh blueberries, blueberry topping, and a dollop of sour cream! Delish!
If you’d like a printable version of this recipe, click HERE!
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Sandy says
February 27, 2015 at 10:24 amI made this on Wednesday night for my church small group. It was quite a hit. Thanks for sharing. Your pictures were awesome. I will keep this one in my recipe collection.
Jane Windham says
March 1, 2015 at 11:25 amThanks so much for taking the time to come back and leave your comment, Sandy! So glad that everyone enjoyed the cheesecake!
lily says
June 14, 2013 at 1:14 amWould it be somehow possible to add the sour cream to the main filling,
instead of using it as a garnish kind of thing? If so, how much would I need to add?
Thanks.
Jane Windham says
June 14, 2013 at 7:26 amLily, I don’t think that I’d add the sour cream to the filling because I’m not sure how it will react with the other ingredients. You could always garnish the slices with whipped cream instead of sour cream. But if you decide to experiment, please let me know how it turns out!
Lily says
June 16, 2013 at 7:34 amI think I’ll stick to your advice, I’m not in the mood to experiment and then possibly regret.
lily says
June 18, 2013 at 2:35 amSo I finally tried out the recipe and it’s great!
The topping, however, wasn’t exactly complete when I tasted it. So I added leftover lemon juice, rind and a pinch of salt, turned out to be the perfect balance between sweet, savory and sour… Will definitely make this cake again, though it took a lot of effort, since I had to hand mix everything…
Janelle says
April 7, 2013 at 11:33 pmYum! Yum! Going to pin this right now! LOVE Gingersnaps!
Liz says
April 5, 2013 at 9:41 amLove the blueberry topping…and such a gorgeous cheesecake!
Rattlebridge Farm says
April 4, 2013 at 9:37 pmWow, this is a showstopper of a dessert. Thanks for all of the tips, too. I have had so many cheesecake mishaps (and even have a small scar to prove it! Not the cheesecake’s fault, but mine). Love the blend of lemon and blueberries!
Kathleen says
April 2, 2013 at 7:07 pmIt looks delicious! I make a ricotta cheese cupcake with a blueberry sauce. The sauce would be great on your cake!
MariaElena says
April 2, 2013 at 9:17 amOh, Jane! Cheese Cake is my favorite dessert in the whole world! 🙂 It looks so good! U am going to have to try your recipe. I have a new weekly link party which is live now and I would love if you stop by and link up this wonderful post! Hope to see you there! http://mariaelenasdecor.blogspot.com/ Hugs, Maria.
Jean Windham says
April 1, 2013 at 11:15 amThis recipe sure looks good. I am sure it will taste good too. I can’t wait to try this recipe for all of us to have a slice or two… Jean
Susan in SC says
March 31, 2013 at 3:37 pmSlice me a piece – I’ll be there in a few hours! 🙂
Ann says
March 30, 2013 at 12:00 pmThis looks not only delicious but beautiful as well! The pic of the cheesecake right out of the pan is pretty much perfect. Definitely pinning to save. Enjoy your weekend…Happy Easter! p.s. what did you use for the background of the last pic? Love it…
SheilaG @ Plum Doodles says
March 30, 2013 at 10:03 amThis looks so good, Jane! I recently found gluten-free graham cracker crumbs, so I can make this cheesecake with those- thanks for the recipe!
Mary says
March 30, 2013 at 5:55 amYour cheesecake looks like a wonderful dessert Jane! Blueberries and lemon are a match made in heaven and I love the idea of a gingersnap crust! Love your lavender ring 🙂 Happy Easter at the Crossroads!
Barbara F. says
March 29, 2013 at 9:19 amWhat a beautiful cheesecake, Jane. Looks absolutely perfect. Lemon and gingersnaps go so well together. Happy Easter to you and Leo. xo
may says
March 29, 2013 at 5:35 amThis looks yummy!! Thank you so much for taking the time to share.. Have a wonderful Easter!! Hugs May x x x x
Alycia Nichols says
March 28, 2013 at 5:50 pmI have the absolute WORST record with springform pans!!! I don’t know why I can’t get along with them! They look easy enough to use, but I always end up with a pile of pie instead of a slice! Your recipe sounds really good (the addition of pecans to the gingersnaps is really appealing to me!), most particularly because I love cheesecake AND blueberries! Yours turned out really pretty (with no cracks!), and you decorated it so nicely with the lavender sprigs! Enjoy, and thank you for sharing the recipe and tips!!!