Italian Cheesecake

At my bridal shower almost 3 years ago, all the guests were asked to bring along a recipe since I like to cook. My mom's cousin Jean (my great Aunt Jean's daughter) gave me a recipe for cheesecake that I've wanted to try but never quite got to it. I think part of it was fear as I've never made a cheesecake before. My love for Easter pie gave me the push to try it out this weekend. I added a couple things (orange rind and almond extract) to Jean's recipe to make it a little closer to what I was looking for. Her recipe calls for an 8" springform pan, and I used a 9" since it's what I had. All in all, I think it came out pretty well.



Italian Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 300F

15 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz cream cheese (2 bricks)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
4 large eggs
2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
rind of 1 lemon, grated
rind of 1 orange, grated

- grease an 8" (or 9" in my case) springform pan
- Beat ricotta cheese, cream cheese, sugar, and cornstarch until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at at time, adding extracts and rinds with the last egg.
- Pour into greased pan
- Bake at 300F for one hour. Turn off oven and let cake sit in oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove rim of pan, cover and refrigerate

Note: I found that I had to allow the cake to cool more before covering. Otherwise, too much condensation forms.