Peaches and Cream Cheesecake

This past weekend I took a request from my parents on what to bake. Their choice was the Peaches and Cream Cheesecake from my Juniors Cheesecake Cookbook.

Now Juniors cheesecakes have a sponge cake crust, which is excellent, but very time consuming in my opinion. So I chose to make your typical graham cracker crust for the base of this cheesecake. The recipe I use for the graham cracker crust is as follows:
1 C. (6 crackers) of graham cracker crumbs
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter
Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Cover bottom and all the way up the sides with aluminum foil. Mix all ingredients together until crumbly and press into pan. Bake 10 min. at 325 degrees. Cool.

This particular cheesecake has a peach filling (naturally) that is like a peach pie filling and is then covered (after cooling) with a cinnamon crumb topping. You could even add both of these to ice cream and it would make an excellent dessert.

Peach filling:
10 oz. dry-pack frozen whole peaches (not in syrup), thawed (I could not find these at my local store and so I used 3 fresh peaches instead)
1/2 cider or apple juice
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon
Drain the peaches on paper towels (important). Cut into bite sized pieces. The recipe suggests leaving about 5 slices whole to decorate the top of the cheesecake with, but mine started turning brown and so I skipped it. Pour the cider or apple juice into a small saucepan and whisk in the cornstarch, sugar and cinnamon. Bring to a full boil, stirring continuously. About a minute after it boils it will start to thicken and turn a deep golden color. Remove from heat and add the peaches. Cool.

Cheesecake filling:
3 8 oz. packages cream cheese (room temperature)
1 1/3 C. sugar
1/4 C. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 C. whipping cream
Put one package cream cheese, 1/3 cup of the sugar and the cornstarch into a mixing bowl and cream together. Add the remaining packages cream cheese one at a time making sure to scrape down the bowl after each addition. Add the remaining sugar and the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time making sure to beat well after each addition. Beat the cream in just until blended. Gently pour mixture over the crust. Spoon peach filling over the top and almost to edges of pan.
Place the cheesecake in a large shallow pan containing 1 in. of hot water. Bake at 350 degrees about 1 1/4 hours until the edges are light brown and the top is slightly tan. (Mine should have baked longer than the 1 1/4 hours as my center did not set up completely - so be sure to have the top lightly browned as your guideline). Remove from the water bath and place on a wire rack to cool for 2 hours. Cover loosely with saran wrap and place in the fridge to finish cooling for at least 4 hours.

Crumb Topping:
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/3 C. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
grated rind of 1 large lemon (about 1 tsp)
1/2 C. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces
Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9x13 pan. Mix the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and lemon rind together. Add cut up butter and work in with your fingers until crumbly. Spread out in prepared pan and bake for 15 min. Be sure to toss the mixture 2-3 times and remove when it becomes a light golden brown. Let it cool on a wire rack for half an hour and then brake into small crumbs.

When decorating the cheesecake, remove the sides of the springform pan carefully. Top with crumbs covering the entire cheesecake. Decorate with reserved peach slices (if you choose do so). Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!