Cheesecake Recipe

[MrsBone]

I'm wanting to make a cheesecake for this weekend. We are celebrating me and my husband's birthday with some friends. Well, I bought some organic cream cheese and neufchatel cheese. I just made cream fraiche that I could probably use for it as well. I've never made cheesecake before. Can you use honey to sweeten it instead of sugar? I'm trying to make it a bit healthier Do I need to use a springform pan or can I just use a pie pan? Suggestions and recipes are welcome! I'm also gluten free, so I'll either skip the crust, or just crush up some GF cookies (I know, not TF)

[cristeen]

You can absolutely use honey to sweeten it. And I pretty much always use a glass dish for it - springform is fiddly and tends to leak water. And I always make it crustless.

That said, I don't follow a recipe, but I use roughly 1.5-2 lbs of cream cheese, whip it until it's smooth, add honey to taste (it doesn't take a whole lot, really), about 5 eggs, one at a time, and about a cup of sour cream, vanilla if you want it. Bake at 300 in a water bath for roughly an hour, or until just set in the middle. It's actually really easy - much easier than many people make it out to be. Cool it away from any drafts to avoid cracking, but if it does crack, you can top it with lemon curd or sweetened sr cream or even jam to hide the cracks.