Strawberry Almond Cheesecake

Vanilla wafers, almonds, sugar and butter processed and pressed into bottom of springform pan. Crust is baked and cooled. Strawberries are placed over crust and covered with cheesecake filling prepared from cream cheese, sugar, heavy cream, gelatin, sour cream, lemon juice and vanilla. Cheesecake is chilled and garnished with strawberry puree, blueberries and star fruit before serving.

Ingredients -

2 cups Vanilla Wafers
1/2 cup Natural Almonds
1 cup Sugar
4 tablespoons Butter, melted
5 cups Strawberries
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
2 (.25 ounces each) packages Unflavored Gelatin
3 ( 8 ounces each) packages Cream Cheese
3/4 cup Sour Cream
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1/2 cup Blueberries
1/2 Star Fruit, sliced

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In food processor, combine wafers, almonds, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Stir in butter, press into bottom of 9-inch greased springform pan. Bake 8 minutes Cool.

3. Halve 2 cups strawberries, line pan edge.

4. Pour cream into saucepan, sprinkle with gelatin. Let sit 5 minutes, heat 2 minutes.

5. Beat cream cheese 2 minutes add remaining sugar, gelatin mixture and next 3 ingredients. Beat 1 minute.

6. Pour 2-1/2 cups batter into crust.

7. In food processor, puree 2 cups strawberries and stir into remaining batter, add to pan.

8. Chill 3 hours. Top with remaining fruit.

Cheesecake Making Tips -

Cheese in Cheesecake

While most cheesecake is prepared from cream cheese, the texture of the cheesecake will depend largely on the cheese that is used, and excellent cheeses for making cheesecakes include cream cheese, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, cheddar cheese and Swiss cheese.

Cheesecake Making Tips -

Almonds

Natural almonds are low in sodium. Rich in vitamin E, the almond also has good amounts of magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, fiber and is a good source of healthy monounsaturated fat.