Holiday Cheesecake Recipes

In the Jewish religion there is a holiday called Shavuot. One of the customs or traditions associated with this holiday is eating dairy foods such as cheesecake. I'd like to share a few very simple cheesecake recipes with you.

This first recipe is a basic cheesecake:

16 ounces of cream cheese, softened
8 ounces of sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 ounces of Cool Whip
1 graham cracker crust (ready made)

Mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. After it's mixed well, add in the Cool Whip. Pour into pie crusts and chill. If you like fruit on top, you can add cherry pie filling for a wonderful flavor.

We happen to love pumpkin in my house. We always look forward to winter as we know pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread will soon be in our kitchen. This is a simple pumpkin cheesecake recipe using canned pumpkin:

1 graham cracker crust (ready made)
1 egg yolk (to brush the pie crust)
16 ounces of cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
3 /4 cup sugar
1 can of pumpkin
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger

Brush the pie crust with the egg yolk. Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Mix together the cream cheese, sugar and eggs. Your filling should be smooth and without lumps. We use an electric mixer to do this. Add in the pumpkin, cinnamon and ginger. Mix well. Pour pumpkin mixture into the pie crust and bake about 45 minutes. Middle should be set. Allow to cool and then refrigerate for several hours. Cut and serve.