Key Lime Cheesecake

This is perfection. It is refreshingly cool on a hot afternoon, bright and cheerful on a rainy day, and you already know how much I love cream cheese. Introducing the Key Lime Cheesecake!  Guaranteed to make your day a little bit better. (I can't actually back that guarantee with anything except maybe a befuddled apology, but I'm pretty confident that this can't make your day worse.) 

My mom found this recipe on Pinterest claiming to be a Cheesecake Factory Copycat recipe of their Key Lime Cheesecake. But when we looked at the linked recipe on Food Pusher, it was for a 7-inch cheesecake. I don't know about you, but a 7-inch cheesecake is entirely too small for me.  Kelly from Food Pusher said that she adapted the recipe from a "larger cheesecake," but being from several years ago, the link to the original source no longer worked,  so Mom and I fiddled with it a bit to make it fit in a 9-inch springform.  So if you want to make a small cheesecake, head on over to Food Pusher at the link above, but if you want a larger cheesecake in the range of 9 to 10 inches, read on!

You already know how much I love cream cheese, and therefor also, cheesecake. So I won't waste your time and go on and on about it. I started to write a whole big thing and thought, they don't want this! Stay on track!  Instead, I'll fawn over limes for a moment. From the entry on the lime avocado sugar cookies, you already know I prefer limes to lemons, but I think limes deserve a little bit of their own lime light:  First off, they're green. I love green. Secondly, they're sour, but in a zippy, sassy sort of way, not a grumpy old man sort of way. Thirdly, they're so small and cute! But that's enough of that. What makes them especially wonderful is that they are part of this cheesecake.   

And one last thing before we dive right in:  lime vs. key lime. This is technically supposed to be a key lime cheesecake, that is, a cheesecake with flavoring of key limes, and not just regular limes. But I'm not going to be a stickler. The first time I tried this recipe with my mom, we had key lime juice, and, I won't lie to you, it was awesome. But because it was a test drive of the recipe, adjusting it for size, I didn't take pictures. When I got home and made it again for you, I couldn't find key lime juice, only regular lime juice. Sure, I could have bought the key limes in the produce section and juiced them myself, and I'm sure it would have been better and more exciting, and more true to my DIY theme, but let's be honest:  who wants to juice 15 tiny limes when you can just buy a bottle of slightly lower quality juice? Not me.  So long story short:  if you use regular lime juice, it's not the end of the world. I won't tell if you don't tell.  Just use a little more regular to make up for the stronger flavor of the key variety.  

This is quite a team of ingredients, and I know it looks like a lot, but really, this is a pretty simple, straightforward recipe. Most of the bulk of this lineup is from the flour and sugar containers, and we only actually use a little bit out of each of them. 

As is logical, we will start at the bottom and work our way up, so crust is first on the ticket.  Grind up the graham crackers into tiny little bits (I prefer the kitchen robot for this) and melt some butter. Mix the crumbs, melted butter and a little sugar in a bowl and wrap the springform pan with foil. Even though the foil is technically to keep water out of the cheesecake, it also helps to keep butter leaking out of the pan, so wrap it up now.  Also, it will be easier to wrap an empty pan than to risk breaking your crust later. Pour your crummy (in texture, not quality) mixture into your springform pan and pat it out and up. I find that the flat bottom of a glass or measuring cup works fantastically for this. When you're happy with it, bake it for 10 minutes or so.

Next on our way up through this delectable dish is the filling. I don't have a lot of pictures of this because it's so easy. Start with your cream cheese in the bowl of your stand mixer and just start it spinning to get all smooth, like a cheesecake should be. Or jazz. Or a baby's butt. Or whatever else is smooth. You know. When you're satisfied that the cream cheese is smooth, leave the mixer going on a slowish speed and start adding more ingredients. Sprinkle in the sugar, spoon in the sour cream, drizzle in the vanilla, shake in the flour.  Scrape it down (wait, stop the mixer first!), and then go back to the mixing, adding one egg at a time (just to stop splashing), pour in heavy cream, and lime juice. See why I didn't get you pictures for each of these? Nothing really changed the way the mixture looked significantly, and you can totally do this.  I believe in you!

At this point the filling is smooth and seems a little thin, like a thin yogurt. It also smells delightfully limey.  Make sure that your crust is thoroughly and securely wrapped in foil and place it in the oven bag if you're using it. Then put that into the bigger pan for the water bath. Carefully pour the filling into the crust and scrape out the bowl. You may want to smooth the top of the cheesecake slightly, but it won't need much help.  

Place the cheesecake with its water bath container into the oven and carefully pour boiling water into the outer pan. Bake it and then turn off the oven, but leave the cheesecake in it with the door closed for another 30 minutes. The water bath should help prevent any major cracks in the top of your cheesecake during baking, but if it does crack, don't worry about it. The glaze that goes on will cover it up and if that doesn't, use some well-placed whipped cream! Ta-da!

Speaking of the glaze, when the cheesecake is cooling, make the glaze. Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, lime juice, and a little water and heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  When you start out it will be cloudy, but it will start to thicken after a few minutes and become clear and bubbly. It will look a little like Gak.  Remember Gak? From the early '90s? This is better than Gak. It smells better too.  Like something that should go in a margarita.  Let it cool, and thicken a bit, but not all the way until it's completely set. Pour it on the cooled cheesecake. It works best to pour it into the center and help it spread with an offset spatula.  Put the cheesecake back in the refrigerator to let the glaze cool and set up the rest of the way.  

When the glaze is cool and set up (it may still be slightly sticky to the touch, but is overall pretty much a solid),  whip up the whipped cream and slice up some limes for a garnish.  This isn't necessary, but the whipped cream makes it that much prettier, and who doesn't love whipped cream? You may notice that this makes a bit more whipped cream than you probably need for the cheesecake, but let me say two things about that:  1) it's very difficult to make just a little bit of whipped cream, and 2) keep the extra to dollop on top of your morning coffee.  Trust me. You won't regret it.  Unless you're lactose intolerant.  In that case, I'm sorry.  I'm so, so sorry.

You'll want to stabilize the whipped cream if you're going to present the whole cheesecake, so add to the heavy cream and sugar a bit of instant vanilla pudding.  Whip it with your mixer until stiff peaks form.  Spoon it into an icing bag and pipe out pretty little whipped cream stars around the edge.  So pretty! Arrange the lime slices and, voila! an elegant, refined dessert that will make any day brighter.  

Key Lime Cheesecake

Crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 Tablespoon sugar

Filling

24 oz.  cream cheese (3 8-oz. packages), room temperature

1/2 cup sour cream

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup key lime juice (1/3 cup if using regular lime juice)

3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour

Glaze 

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/4 cup water

3 Tablespoons key lime/lime juice

Garnish

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar 

1 tablespoon instant vanilla pudding mix

Sliced key limes/limes

Tightly wrap bottom and the sides of a 9-inch springfrom pan with aluminum foil.  Mix graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar in a medium bowl and pour into pan, pressing into edges and about an inch up the sides.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, and allow to cool.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed until smooth.  Gradually add in the sugar, sour cream, flour, and vanilla and beat until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl and stirring up any cream cheese that may be in the bottom of the bowl beyond the beater’s reach.  Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the heavy cream and lime juice and continue beating until the mixture is entirely smooth and creamy. 

Preheat oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit and begin boiling water for the water bath. 

Pour the cheesecake filling into the springform pan.  As an extra precaution, you may set the springform into an oven bag to prevent leaking from the water bath. Set the prepared pan into a larger, shallow pan and pour about 1 inch of boiling water into the shallow pan.  Place the whole apparatus in the oven. After 8 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 50 minutes, or until filling is lightly browned, puffed, and has only a slight jiggle.  Turn the off and leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door closed for another 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from water bath and allow to cool.  Once the cheesecake reaches room temperature, remove foil and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.  

To make the glaze, combine sugar, cornstarch, water, and lime juice in a small sauce pan. Whisk until smooth and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook for approximately 3 minutes. Allow to cool until thickened, but not set. 

Pour cooled glaze into the center of the cheesecake and spread evenly with an offset or rubber spatula. Refrigerate until glaze is cold and firm. 

Whip together whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla pudding mix in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Spoon into a piping bag and pipe whipped cream around the top of the cheesecake, if desired. Garnish with lime slices. Refrigerate until ready to serve.