Strawberry Cheesecake

If you have been following along, you knew something strawberry was coming from my Grandma's recipe box.  If you haven't been following along, but you've been in a grocery store lately, you aren't surprised to see a strawberry recipe.  As I made the Strawberry Cheesecake, there were a couple of thoughts I had about my Grandma.  The first was this...I really don't think my Grandma ever made this.  I think she saw this and cut it out, planning to make it some day, but that day just never came.  I say this for 2 reasons..first, I must have talked or thought about making a cheesecake at least 200 times before and I never did it (I think I inherited that from her...how else could I explain it) and second...this was a lot of work and I just think my Grandma was too busy to make something like this.  When you see the picture of the whole pie, you'll see what I mean.  The other thought I had about my Grandma when I was making this was how amazed she would be about the size of a strawberry today...I think she would suggest that it "just isn't right, what they've done with these strawberries".  We all must agree, they are probably "over engineered".  Regardless, I do know, my Grandma would appreciate and enjoy this lovely  Strawberry Cheesecake, almost as much as Bubba (I think he gave me more than an 8 on this, again, based on the consumption scale).
Strawberry Cheesecake
1 cup graham-cracker crumbs
1/4 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 pkgs (8-oz. size) cream cheese, room temperature, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1/4 cup milk
6 eggs, room temperature
2 pints fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
2/3 cup strawberry or red-currant jelly, melted
1 tablespoon kirsch or rum (I didn't have either so skipped it)


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In medium bowl, toss graham-cracker crumbs, brown sugar, butter and nutmeg together.  Press mixture onto bottom of 9-inch spring-form pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Cool in pan on rack.
2.  Make filling:  Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.  In large bowl, with electric mixer at high speed, beat together cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.
3.  Blend in flour, vanilla, orange rind and milk until mixture is smooth.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.
4.  Pour mixture over baked crumb crust in pan.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 250 degrees F.  Bake 1 hour longer.
5.  Leave cake in oven, with heat turned off and door shut, about 20 minutes.  Remove from oven.
6.  Cool on rack until room temperature, then refrigerate cake 3 hours or longer.
7.  Prepare strawberry topping:  Slice enough dry strawberries to garnish.  Arrange sliced and whole strawberries on top of cake.
8.  To Glaze;  Combine melted strawberry jelly and kirsch, cool slightly.  Brush strawberries with glaze.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes 12 servings.


Here's a picture of the whole cheesecake and her recipe card.  The recipe was cut out from some magazine or newspaper and neatly glued to a recipe card.  Typical of several recipes in her recipe boxes.