Cooking Lesson #1025: Simple, No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake

…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen

ow you doin’? I don’t know who doesn’t love a good cheesecake. Cheesecakes can be broadly categorized into two basic types--baked and unbaked—and some do not have a crust or base. Cheesecake comes in a variety of styles based on region. My cherry cheesecake is a cross between a cherry cheesecake and a cherry cream cheese pie. It's super easy to put together and tastes delicious.
 
Modern cheesecake is not usually classified as an actual cake, despite the name. Some people classify it as a torte due to the usage of many eggs, which are the sole source of leavening, as a key factor. Others find compelling evidence that it is a custard pie, based on the overall structure, with the separate crust, the soft filling, and the absence of flour. Other sources identify it as a flan, or tart.
 
The United States has several different recipes for cheesecake, and this usually depends on the region in which the cake is made, as well as the cultural background of the person baking it.
 
Chicago-style cheesecake is a baked cream cheese version that is firm on the outside with a soft and creamy texture on the inside. These cheesecakes are often made in a greased cake pan and are relatively fluffy in texture. The crust used with this style of cheesecake is most commonly made from shortbread that is crushed and mixed with sugar and butter.
 
New York–style or Jewish-style cheesecake uses a cream cheese base. Gil Marks traces the origin of the New York-style or Jewish cheesecake in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine to the 1930s, made famous in such establishments as Reuben's Restaurant and kosher-style Jewish deli and Lindy's, opened by German-Jewish immigrant Leo Lindermann in 1921.
 
Earlier cheese pie recipes called for cottage cheese. Cream cheese was invented in 1872 and made its way into American Jewish cuisine by 1929 according to Arnold Reuben, owner of the namesake restaurant, who claims credit for the recipe (as well as the Reuben sandwich). Junior's, established by Harry Rosen in 1950, is another NY Jewish establishment famous for New York-style cheesecake. Jewish baker in Decatur, Illinois Charles W. Lubin created the Sara Lee brand of supermarket cheesecakes and expanded into other cakes such as coffee cake, being sold in 48 states.
 
And now there is my Simple, No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake.  Not only is it easy to make, but as delicious as any created by Lubin, Rosen or Reuben and a lot less expensive as well.
 
Prep time:  5 minutes
Chill time: 5 hours
Yield: 1 (9-inch) cheesecake / 12 servings
 
Ingredients 
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (8 ounce) package softened cream cheese
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling
 
Directions

1. Place condensed milk, softened cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla extract into a mixing bowl; beat until well blended.
2. Pour mixture into a prepared pie crust.
3. Chill in the refrigerator for 5 hours; do not freeze.
4. When ready to serve spoon the cherry pie filling on top of pie.

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ChefSecret:  The Italian version of cream cheese that can be used in this recipe is ricotta cheese. 

Quip of the Day:  The White Elephant (a true Shaggy Dog Story—you just gotta read to the end.)

An old farmer is tending his crop one day when he spies a white elephant trampling the edge of his field. He knows that there are four different types of elephants in his area: red elephants, blue elephants, purple elephants, and white elephants.

To kill a blue elephant, you use a blue elephant gun; to kill a red elephant you use a red elephant gun, and to kill a purple elephant you use a purple elephant gun. However, scientists have so far been unable to create a white elephant gun. So, what could the farmer do?

Well, the farmer had been working his land for 50 years, so he knew some tricks. One thing was that white elephants love cherry cheesecake. So, one morning the farmer goes out to the patch of ground where the white elephant had been before and set out a cherry cheesecake with ten cherries arranged in a circle and then retreated to his house to watch. The white elephant soon came across the offering and was overjoyed; it happily gobbled it up because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer left out a cheesecake, but this time it only had nine cherries on top, this time in a star pattern. When the white elephant found the cherry cheesecake, it was delighted and quickly ate it without noticing that there was one less cherry (white elephants can't count well past 5) because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer left out a cheesecake with seven cherries on it, in the shape of a light bulb. The white elephant subconsciously senses that there is less of a cherry flavor, but it doesn’t really notice because it's very lucky for there to be a cheesecake in the same spot three days in a row. It eats the cheesecake because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer sets out a cheesecake with six cherries in a semi-circle. The white elephant is beginning to think that something is wrong, because it definitely seems like there is something off about it. The elephant eats it anyway because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next day the farmer put out a cheesecake with five cherries on it in a pentagon. The white elephant knows for sure that something is wrong because it can count to 5, and there used to be more than that. It grunts and waves its trunk around a little but still eats it because, well, white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer set out a cheesecake with just four cherries arranged in a square. The elephant is beginning to get upset about its dwindling cherries, but it eats it anyway because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer left out a cheesecake with only three cherries arranged in a triangle. The elephant has now grown furious, so it storms out away from the farmer's field into his neighbor's, which the elephant proceeds to trample and destroy. Then, having cooled down a little it returns and eats the cheesecake, because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer put out a cheesecake with just two cherries. The elephant is again so furious that it angrily runs off and destroys the neighbor's house and crushes his car. Then it comes back because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

The next morning the farmer sets out a cheesecake with only one cherry, stuck right in the center. The elephant is in full rage mode, and it goes to the neighbor's house. Since his house was destroyed the neighbor was living in a tent. The elephant trampled the tent and crushed him to death. Then the elephant came back and begrudgingly ate the cheesecake because white elephants love cherry cheesecake.

On the final day the farmer changes things, up a little. Instead of cherries, he covers it in slices of pears. When the white elephant saw this it couldn’t believe its eyes. White elephants HATE pears! They despise pears! And there was no cherry cheesecake! The white elephant was just so angry, just so full of rage that it couldn’t even move. It just stood there and turned purple with rage and the farmer shot it with the purple elephant gun. (No elephants were harmed in the telling of this Shaggy Dog story.)
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