Divine Yogurt Cheesecake

Yes, that's really the name of this recipe on the Betty Crocker website. It is, possibly, the most accurate use of that particular adjective ever. I used to refer to cheesecake as ambrosia. I have, I think, finally found a recipe that makes that less hyperbole and more downright fact.

In short, this is the best cheesecake I've ever made. It's also one of the easiest and quickest cheesecakes I've ever made, which, to my way of thinking, makes it just about perfection in dessert form.

I made it for our TriMu Thanksgiving Feastivities yesterday and it turned out so much better than I expected that I was almost sad to share it, even with some of my closest friends. Had I "quality assurance tested" it beforehand, I'm not sure it would have been available for the group by dessert time.

Equipment:
1 spring form pan
1 large mixing bowl
1 electric mixer
Food processor or some other means of mixing the cookie crumbs and butter into crumbly goodness.
measuring cups and spoons
1 cookie sheet (the kind with sides, not those flat ones)

Ingredients:
1 box vanilla wafer cookies, crumbed
4 tbsp butter or margarine
24oz cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
6oz yogurt (you can use a flavored yogurt if you want to give the cheesecake a hint of some other flavor, but I just used plain so as not to distract from the cheesecake flavor)
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
Cooking spray or a little bit of oil for the pan

Step 1: Heat oven to 300 degrees. Spray spring form pan with cooking spray or coat lightly with oil. Fill the cookies sheet with water and place it on the oven rack just below the center. (The cheesecake is going to go on the center oven rack just above that. Assuming you have two oven racks. If you don't, skip the cookie sheet.)

The cookie sheet of water is there to prevent the cheesecake from cracking while you bake it. I'm not sure how much use this actually is. My cheesecake did not crack during baking. Of course, it then cracked while it was cooling, so...

Step 2: Mix cookie crumbs and butter in the food processor. Hint: you can just toss the cookies straight from the box into the food processor, which will crumb them as it mixes them with the butter. Press crumble into the bottom and slightly up the side of the spring form pan. Refrigerate while making the filling.

Step 3: In the large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese on medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and eggs. Beat again until smooth. Stop periodically and scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything gets mixed properly. Add yogurt and flour. Beat again until smooth.

If you are the type who likes to taste doughs and batters before baking despite raw egg dangers, now would be a good time to do that. Though, I warn you, indulge at your own risk. You may not be able to stop once your start.

Step 4: Pour the filling over the crumb mixture in the spring form pan. Smooth it out gently so it fills the entire pan evenly.

Step 5: Bake on the center oven rack for 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes until the center is set. Cool 30 minutes.

Step 6: Without removing or releasing the side of the pan, run a knife or spatula along the side of the cheesecake to loosen. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Recipe adapted from: www.bettycrocker.com. Not much of an adaptation, actually, as the original recipe was damn near perfect all on its own.