Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake

Total Time: 3 hrs 45 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr Cook Time: 2 hrs 45 mins

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel (fresh or dried works)
• 1/2 cup cold butter
• 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup pureed fresh strawberries
• 8 -10 drops red food coloring (optional)
• 3 tablespoons seedless strawberry jelly (optional)
• 1 tablespoon water (optional)
• 2 -3 drops red food coloring (optional)

Recipe

• 1 in a bowl combine flour, sugar, and lemon peel.
• 2 cut in butter until crumbly. using a pastry cutter works well. i have had luck in other recipes using a food processor, but have not yet tried it with this recipe.
• 3 pat dough onto the bottom and about 1 inch up the sides of a greased 9 inch springform pan.
• 4 place on baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees until lightly browned. cool on a wire rack.
• 5 in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and heavy whipping cream until smooth.
• 6 add the eggs and beat on a low speed just until combined.
• 7 beat in lemon juice and vanilla just until blended.
• 8 pour 2 1/2 cups batter into a bowl and set aside.
• 9 stir pureed strawberries and food coloring if desired into the remaining batter. if you would like to use pureed strawberries for the topping, use only 3/4 cup of the strawberries and reserve the rest. personally, i do not use pureed strawberries for the topping since i have found that the strawberry jelly comes out much prettier. so, i add the whole cup of pureed strawberries to the batter at this point.
• 10 pour the strawberry batter into the crust.
• 11 place your pan on a double thickness of heavy duty foil (about 16 inches square) and wrap securely about the pan.
• 12 place your foil wrapped pan in a large baking pan and add about 1 inch of hot water to larger pan.
• 13 bake for 35 minutes (still at 325).
• 14 remove from oven and carefully pour reserved vanilla batter over the bottom layer.
• 15 now, the swirl part of the recipe! if you reserved pureed strawberries for this, then use those. if not, get out a small bowl and combine the strawberry jelly, water, and red food coloring if desired. combine until you have a smooth mixture.
• 16 for either pureed strawberries or strawberry jelly, use a spoon to add about 1/2 teaspoon spoonfuls over the top of the cheesecake.
• 17 using a knife, carefully cut through only the top layer to swirl the topping. i try to start at the outside and cut through every dollop of strawberry in a spiral that ends at the center.
• 18 bake for 40-50 minutes until center is almost set.
• 19 do not remove from oven. just turn the oven off! leave your cheesecake in the oven for an hour to allow it to cool very slowly. (cooling a cheesecake too fast leads to cracking!).
• 20 remove the cheesecake from the oven and from the water bath. take a knife and carefully run it around the edge of the pan to loosen.
• 21 cool for an additional hour on a wire rack then put in the fridge uncovered overnight. (covering your cheesecake will lead to condensation on the top of the cheesecake).