The Ultimate Cheesecake

My mother passed this recipe to me many years ago.  It is the richest cheesecake that you can make.  I save it for special occasions when I want to share a show stopping dessert that tops off a dinner or a party.  I have included a recipe for a pineapple glaze, or you can thickly spread sour cream on top. Or if you want to make this for Christmas as I did this year I put candied cranberries on top. Ether way this  cheesecake is the star of the show!

Crust:
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup butter, softened

Filling:
5 pkg(8-oz) cream cheese softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 1/2 grated orange peel
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
5 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream

Pineapple Glaze:
2 tablespoon sugar
4 teaspoon cornstarch
2 cans(8 1/4-oz) crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, undrained
2 tablespoon lemon juice
        
Sugared cranberries

2 cups fresh cranberries

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 cup water 

Crust:
Preheat over to 400F.  Grease the inside of 9-inch springform pan(3 inches high). Remove side.  Make crust:  In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, lemon, peel, vanilla.  Make well in center; with fork, blend in yolk and butter.  Mix with fingertips until smooth. Form half of dough into a ball and place on bottom of springform pan. Place wax paper on top; roll pastry to edge of pan.  Remove paper. Bake 6 to ;8 minutes or until golden.  Cool.  Meanwhile divide rest of dough into three parts.  Between waxed paper roll each part 2 1/4 inch wide and 9 inch long. Assemble springform pan with the crust on the bottom. Line sides fo the pan with pastry strips, over lapping ends. Remove waxed paper.  Preheat oven 450F.

Filling: In large mixer bowl, blend cheese, sugar, flour, peels and vanilla at high speed.  Beat in eggs and yolks, one at a time: beat until smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with spatula.  Beat in cream.  Pour into pan.  Bake 10 minutes. Lower oven to 250F. Bake 1 hour longer.  Remove pan to rack to cool, 2 hours. Make glaze.

Glaze: In small saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch. Stir in remaining ingredients. Over medium heat, bring to boiling, stirring; boil 1 minute, or until thickened and translucent.  Cool.
Spread surface of cheese cake with glaze; refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.

Sugared Cranberries: Bring 1 cup sugar and water to a simmer in a saucepan. Simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Pour simple syrup into a heatproof bowl and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. Add cranberries and stir to coat. Refrigerate cranberries in syrup overnight, stirred a couple times to coat with syrup. 

Remove cranberries from syrup and roll in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. You'll need to roll them a few times to get a couple layers of sugar on them.

Set cranberries aside to dry for a hour or so.

To serve: Loosen pastry fro side of pan with spatula.  Remove sides of springform pan.  Top with either Pineapple glaze or sugared cranberries. Serves 16