Creative New York Strawberry Fudge Cheesecake

• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Foil
• Spring Pan
• Cookie Sheet
• Sauce Pans

One of our countries, perhaps all countries, strength is the diversity of its' population. As such we have to be innovative and creative to tailor to our uniqueness. Individuality can be seen as a weakness but in our home we taken this uniqueness and make it into a creative challenge to create some of the most extraordinary innovative deserts. In this case it was a special birthday cake for my son.

Having a child who is on a special diet is a nightmare for most parents because their children are not allowed to eat the goodies on Holidays. Halloween is treacherous for this reason as well as Easter. This is particularly true at birthdays. It is very hard to have birthday parties with the sugar free cake that tastes like cardboard. So a creative solution to this dilemma is to work with your child to design their own cake. There is a lot of room for creativity and youtube is a wonderful resource for cake recipes.

My son’s birthday was a few days ago and he wanted a cheesecake. This was not an issue except I didn’t want a really fattening cake with a lot of sugar. So I bought light cream cheese, light sour cream and I cut the sugar in half and only used organic sugar.

What started with as a youtube recipe kind of took on its’ own life and we ended up with a New York Strawberry Fudge Cheesecake that was fantastic. The strawberry sauce was a little too coagulated but I refrigerated it overnight. The idea is to make this cake your own by modifying it to your preferences. And you don’t have to tell anyone you used light cream cheese, light sour cream or organic sugar. Trust me they will not know the difference.

Cheesecake, chocolate and strawberries seem to be the perfect mixture to my son. I am giving you the entire recipe and not leaving out grandma’s secret ingredient. I am also providing the youtube video which we based our cake on so you have a video to follow but at one point you should make the cake to your preferences and dietary needs.

4- 8 oz packages of light cream cheese

1-8 oz light sour cream

1 lemon

3 cups organic sugar

3 cups cookie crumbs

¼ cup flour

5 eggs

1 stick butter

1 cup of chocolate chips

2 tablespoons of vanilla

30 strawberries (10 for decorating)

Canned light whip cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. I actually just take the butter out of the paper and wipe the excess butter off the wrapper onto the spring pan.
3. Wrap the bottom of the spring pan with foil. I have never had a leak but better safe then sorry.
4. Melt half a stick of butter in the microwave.
5. In a mixing bowl mix cookie crumbs, melted butter and ¼ cup of sugar well.
6. Pour mixture into the spring pan. Push down with a metal measuring cup and spoon half way up the sides of the spring pan and over the bottom of spring pan as evenly as possible. **If you use plastic it will not stick to the sides of the pan.** Once even as possible place in oven for 10-12 minutes. Cooking length varies according to oven. It took longer in my oven so I am sharing my experience. In any event, I suggest you watch your crust.
7. When crust is crisp take out and let cool for 10 minutes minimum but keep your oven heated at 350 degrees.

Once your pie crust is cooled add the filing. Make certain to cover all the pie crust and make the filing as even as possible in the spring pan. Place spring pan on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 50-55 minutes. Oddly enough this was the correct amount of time for my oven. While your simple cheesecake is cooking mix your sour cream topping and start your fudge. Once your cheesecake is a bit wobbly in the middle take it out and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Mix 8 oz of sour cream with juice from a quarter of a lemon and ¼ cup of sugar. Set aside until ready to use. Once simple cheesecake is cooled apply the sour cream topping and put back in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes take out and cool for at least one hour. Then wrap and place in refrigerator for four hours.

Melt ½ stick of butter in sauce pan. As the butter is melting add one cup of chocolate chips. When everything is melted add ¼ of sugar. Take off the heat and let rest. Then start on the strawberry sauce. After Cheesecake has cooled for four hours wrapped in plastic in the refrigerator reheat on the fudge on low until it is liquid. Let cool and then pour over cheese cake.

Puree 20 strawberries in food processor. Put puree in sauce pan over high heat. Add juice of a 1/4 lemon. Add a 1/4 cup of water and ½ cup of sugar. Stir until it bubbles then lower to medium heat and keep stirring until thick. Let cool.

Once the cheesecake has chilled in the refrigerator for 4 hours minimum, take it out. Heat the fudge until it is liquid but not too hot. Let it cool to room temperature and then pour it over the cheesecake. This part is tricky. If the fudge is too hot or thick it will set into the sour cream topping. It has to be a thin layer of fudge on the top quickly covering the sour cream topping. Put the plastic back over the cheesecake and let it set over night.

When you are ready to serve take the strawberry sauce out of the refrigerator and puree it again adding a bit of water. This will vary based on how big your strawberries were and how well they were cooked when you made the sauce. Admittedly, my strawberry sauce was not perfect and to thick. But I had no complaints and it was delicious just the same.

Cut into 12 slices, add whipped cream and serve with a decorative strawberry.

If you wish to do low sugar as I did. Cut all the sugar in the recipes by ½. For example a 1/2 cup of sugar would become a ¼ cup of sugar. There is so much to this cake no one will miss it but I leave that choice to you.

I hope you are inspire to make your own creative cheesecake. We came very close to making York Peppermint Patty Cheesecake this year. There are just so many different ways to make your desert special to you and your family. While this may seem like a lot of work, it is also alot of fun as a family project. Creative, innovative, and customized deserts for all from our family to yours.

Please write and let me know about your own innovative creative unique cheesecake recipes. I might want to try them. Please also let me know if you tried mine and enjoyed it.