A Little Something Sweet

We have been having my parents over for dinner on Sundays lately, so I'm always trying to come up with something different to serve. This past weekend, being a holiday weekend, I wanted to make dinner and dessert a little extra special.


For dessert, I had my heart set on cheesecake. I didn't want to use my standard chocolate swirl cheesecake recipe and I didn't want to fool around with using my springform pan, so I combined a few recipes to come up with a version I could bake in a 9 x 13 cake pan. I used a shortbread style crust instead of a traditional graham cracker crust. It was fast and easy and baked up beautifully without a single crack in the top. Even if you're new to baking cheesecake, you can make this one and look like a pro!



Creamy Cheesecake

Shortbread Crust:

• 2/3 cup butter


• 2/3 cup brown sugar


• 2/3 cup finely ground pecans


• 2 cups flour

Cheesecake:

• 32 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)


• 1 cup sugar


• 1/2 cup milk


• 4 eggs


• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Crust: In a medium size bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Stir in the flour and finely ground pecans until coarse crumbs form. Press into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

Cheesecake: In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar together until well blended. Add milk, eggs and vanilla extract until well mixed. Pour over cooled crust and bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 35 minutes. Center should be set and edges just beginning to brown.

Cool completely and refrigerate before serving.

This piece is topped with caramel ice cream topping, but it is also delicious served plain.