Key Lime Cheesecake

Incredibly successful
Ingredients

• Crust:
  
  
  
  • 12 graham crackers
    
  • 1/2 tsp salt
    
  • 1 stick butter
    
  
  
• Filling:
  
  
  
  • 16oz neufchatel cream cheese (2 packages)
    
  • heaping 2/3c granulated sugar
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 3tbsp key lime juice plus a little more to taste
    
  • 1tbsp lime zest plus more to taste (we used a lot)
    
  
  

Preheat the oven to 350. Crush the graham crackers with the salt. When they're ground fairly finely (we used a cuisinart) add the melted butter. Spread evenly and then press into the bottom of an 8.5" springform pan. Make sure the crust is really good and compacted. Bake for about 5 minutes or until set.

Meanwhile, just beat all of the other ingredients together. We used a whisk and did it by hand, though a kitchenaid would do wonders at this. Pour filling into cooled crust. In a separate pan with deep sides, add some water. Put it in the oven on a low rack and let it sit (oven closed) about five minutes to create a humid chamber. Now add the cheesecake onto an upper rack. Bake until the filling is set but still jiggles a little in the middle when you shake it, about 45 minutes. Let it cool completely and then cover with foil and refrigerate at least three hours before serving. Overnight is better. Serve!

Thoughts:This turned out great. The crust didn't release very well from the first slice, but I think there are ways to work around that. Otherwise, I would say this was just the ideal cheesecake. I just hope I transcribed the recipe correctly (we didn't write it down and it was sort of made up and cobbled together from a few recipes).

Disaster Index: 1/10