- If you're tired of dense,
flavorless cheesecakes or have no idea how to bake one at home with a perfectly smooth top, then you're gonna love this video. Hey, I'm John Kanell and
you're watching Preppy Kitchen where I teach you how to make
delicious homemade dishes to share with your family and friends. Today we're making this
amazing, cloud-like confection that is so easy and just beyond delicious. Let's get started. First off, we're making a
super easy graham cracker crust and if you don't have
graham crackers around, you can basically use any cookie you like. Oreos? Sure, digestive biscuits? Yes, everything works,
all cookies, really. Okay, I'm just gonna- (snapping)
(clattering) Give those a chop. (grunts)
(clattering) I'm gonna use about 16
to 18 of these crackers. It's kind of up to you how
thick do you want the crust. And a cup of toasted pecans and always toast your pecans. It is so important to use
toasted nuts when you bake. It makes a huge difference. They're very fragrant. One 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. You can lower this if you want. You don't have to use any sugar if you're using some sweet cookies, but graham crackers are
just kind of a little sweet. All right, so we're
going to pulse this up. (blending) And you wanna have fine crumbs, basically. Once you have a nice crumbly mixture, we're going to drizzle
in some melted butter. Go for about five tablespoons. You can kind of eyeball it, though. The butter's a binding agent, so if you don't need more
you don't have to add it, but if your mixture's dry,
add a little bit more. (blending) All right, so take a
little bit of the mixture with your spoon, and if
you can push it together and it forms a little
ball, that's about right. I don't need to add more butter to this, but you could if you love butter. It smells really nice. And by the by, you don't
have to use a food processor. You could just crunch these up in a bag, chop the pecans really finely and then mix with melted butter by hand. In you go. Okay, let's even it out
and we're gonna use, you can use a cup. You can use a tall glass. Just move it out towards the edges, and the key is to get it up high. Don't worry about the bottom because the bottom's easy to fix. You wanna press the sides in. Get a nice vertical glass
and just press, press. If it spills over a bit, just use your thumb as
a guide to hold it down. My crust is almost ready
but the last part is you're just gonna go one
more time around the edge, and this time you're
gonna press the top down with your thumb a little
bit more to help compact it. Otherwise, it'll be really
crumby on top, which is fine, but you'll get crumbs
on the top of your cake. You'll call me crazy, but
from past experiences helps. This is gonna go into the oven at 350 for just under 10 minutes. You'll smell it. You'll see a little bit of a golden edge, and it's ready to come out. That's all that has to
happen, so don't overcook it. And if you're super
paranoid and forgetful, just toss it into the
fridge and skip the bake. Better than a burnt crust. For the filling, you will
need a la Mrs. Crockum, and you can write a comment if you know who that is and love her too. We're gonna need four and a 1/2 packages, or 36 ounces of cream cheese. So that's the four ounces,
package after package, and this is totally and completely room
temperature cream cheese. If you're using cold cream cheese, it is much more likely to be kind of lumpy and just not mix in totally
for your cheesecake, and a cheesecake without
cracks is a cheesecake with a completely homogenous
filling, so be careful. All right, let's give this a little whip. (whirring) See how nice that is? All right, I'm gonna add in
one and 3/4 cups of sugar now. You can reduce the
sugar a bit if you want. You could totally take out half a cup, but the cheesecake is very tangy and the sugar is a nice balance. And this is a big cheesecake. Okay, so not at all done, but I'm gonna scrape the bowl down because there's a lot of
unmixed nonsense on the side. And then just let this whip up until it is completely mixed in. Okay, mix it up.
(whirring) Now is as good a time as any to add in half a teaspoon of salt. A little bit more balance. All right, let's take a look at this. (gasps) What is just creamy
delicious nonsense over here? Well, this is cream cheese
and sugar mixed in nicely. We're ready for our next step. I'm just gonna just address
the bottom of the bowl and make sure there's no
little lumps hiding in here. This spatula's gonna look crazy, so just warning you, it's
not gonna get any better. It's a big batch. If cream cheese and sugar is your jam, check out my How to Make
Cream Cheese Frosting video. It goes so well on carrot cakes, hummingbird cakes, chocolate cakes. Every kind of everything
right into your mouth. Okay.
(whirring) All mixed up nice and smooth and now it's time for 3/4
of a cup of sour cream. This stuff is so good and it's one of my favorite things to eat. I get a lot of questions. I mean, I don't eat it by the spoonful, but it's really good in things
and as a condiment as well. There's a lot of questions
I get about substitutions, and if you're using this for most cakes, you can use a full-fat yogurt. A little bit more tangy, but a very similar moisture content. Now it's time to mix this
in along with two teaspoons or even a little bit more
of a nice vanilla extract. (whirring) Okay, this looks delicious. Right now I'm going to start
sprinkling in some flour. Just a little bit to bind it together. How much you ask? Three tablespoons, it's not
nice to get clumps of flour, so you wanna add it in gradually. (whirring) Nice and slow. (tapping)
(whirring) (laughs) Is this totally mixed? No.
(thudding) We have to scrape the
bowl down one more time, but this is really nice. It's not lumpy and that
flour's getting mixed in well. What's gonna help things
along is our last component, which is the eggs. We can go back to mixing and add in the eggs and
yolks one at a time. (whirring) Instantly, it becomes so much silkier. It's kind of amazing. (whirring) More glossy, loosens the texture up. It's very nice. (whirring) All right, last yolk. (whirring) That's a lot of cheesecake batter 'cause we're making a big cheesecake. (tapping) This is the consistency you want. Smooth, wonderful, loose, glossy batter. Last mix, go get your
crust and let's fill it up. (whirring) I'm ready to pour my smooth as silk batter into my prepared crust. Look at this. What? Are these clouds from heaven? (laughs) No, it's a giant cheesecake. So you can fill it up pretty high. It's not gonna rise. If you have any extra batter, and I have a little bit of extra batter, I can use that to make delicious
little cheesecake cupcakes. This will all self-level in
the oven, so don't go crazy. I was just being me. I'm gonna bake this on a baking sheet so I don't have to worry
about grabbing the cake, kind of manhandling it. It's not gonna drip or anything, but it's just so much
easier to take it in and out and kind of mar the crust at the surface. Trust me, I've been there. Right, this is going into the oven at 350 for just 10 minutes, and
we're gonna turn it down to 300 and bake for an
additional 40 minutes. It'll be wobbly in the middle, a little bit puffed. Okay, into the oven, 350. You can top your cake with some berries. You could top it with dollops of whipped cream and more berries. Or if you wanna go a really quick and easy route that looks crazy beautiful and tastes pretty good too, the canned cherry fillings
at your supermarket, some brands are actually pretty good, so just pour a little
bit on top and enjoy. If you liked this recipe, check
out my easy cake playlist. Tons of easy, delicious
cakes to delight the palette. Speaking of which, it's time for a bite. Look at that texture. It's like clouds. (upbeat music) That is so good. It's like light, fluffy clouds
that just melt in your mouth and topped with whipped cream, there's nothing that could be finer. If you liked my videos, hit
the Like button and subscribe and I'll see you in the next video.
