Kahlua cheesecake

I have to admit I am a thrifter to the bone. I've gotten all kinds of great stuff at thrift stores for example a blue delphite Fire King chili bowl for 5o cents, a The Sak purse for $10, and 6 Glasbake milk glass mugs. I'm very proud of my thrifting finds. When ever I find something good I sort of feel like a treasure hunter. I got a spring form pan from the thrift store a few weeks ago and I've been dying to make a cheesecake ever since. I figured Easter was as good an excuse as any to whip one up. I'm glad I finally did it. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I'm really proud of the way that it turned out. My little $2.99 spring form pan also preformed beautifully.

crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 8 oz. blocks of cream cheese room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon liqueur (I used Kahlua)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.