Seldom Fail Cheesecake

I got this recipe from Mom, who got it from Bon Appetit or some such.  This recipe dates back to the late 60s, early 70s.  The good old days, when small brown furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were small brown furry creatures from Alpha Centauri and eating a piece of dessert could be expected to take a week off your life expectancy. 

The only important thing about this recipe is temperature changes.  Unless you do something really silly, the only thing that can go wrong is letting the cake cool too quickly, in which case it will crack open.

Ingredients

Crust

1 and 1/3 cups of finely crumbled vanilla wafer cookies

1/3 cup melted butter

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling

5 x 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened

1 and 3/4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons flour

3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind

3/4 teaspoon grated orange rind

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

5 eggs at room temperature

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup heavy cream

Topping - Discretionary

The original called for a mixture of apricots and green grapes.

I was always more partial to blueberry or strawberry.

I am planning to experiment with cantelope slices with a ginger syrup

Directions

Preparing the crust:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees

Mix ingredients well.  

Press over the bottom of 9 inch by 3 inch springform pan

Making the batter:

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until light and fluffy

Combine the next six ingredients and add to cream cheese (beating constantly)

Add eggs and yolks, one at a time.  Make sure each is well assimilated

before adding the next.

Gently stir in the cream.

Add to prepared springform pan.

Baking:

Bake for 10 minutes in a 500 degree over

Turn oven down to 200 degrees DON'T OPEN THE DOOR

Bake for 1 hour at 200 degrees

Turn oven off.  Let the the cake cool in the oven for 1.5 hours.

Remove from oven.  Let cool to room temperature.  Move over to the fridge.