Cheesecake

We were snowed in last Saturday, so I started baking away.  (and it looks like we will be snowed in again this weekend.  Ugh, enough snow already!)

Instead of making the good old cheesecake using recipe from Philadelphia Cream Cheese's website, I did a little bit of experimenting with this one. 


Basic Ingredients:

• 2 pkg of cream cheese (8oz each)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 pre-made graham cracker crust

Experimental Ingredients:

• 1 lemon - zested and juiced.
• frozen raspberries

Here's how you make it...

• Beat sugar, vanilla, and cream cheese
• Add eggs and beat some more. 
• You would then pour this mixture into the pie crust and bake if you're making a basic cheesecake.
• I, on the other hand, mix in the lemon juice and zest. 
• Bake at 325°F for 40 minutes if you are making a basic cheesecake.
• I decided that I would top it with some frozen raspberries since we had some in the freezer.  So I took the cheesecake out after 30 minutes, and topped with raspberries, and baked for another 5-10 minutes.  (I couldn't remember exactly how long)

Here's the final product.  It doesn't look terribly pretty.  It actually tastes more like a lemon pie.  I love lemon, so I think it's delicious.  But the combination of lemon and raspberries are simply too tart for my sister's taste. 

Room for Improvement:
So I think I'm going to use a little bit less lemon juice.  And maybe add a little bit more cream cheese, or maybe a bit of whipping cream.  hmm...I don't know.  I will experiment some more in a month or so.


Any suggestions from all of you out there to help improve this cheesecake?