Grandma Joan taught me how to make a cheese cake with this very easy recipe when I first got married. It quickly became a family favorite and was requested for birthday celebrations. Over the years I added more cream cheese because I liked the richer flavor. I increased the sugar to make it sweeter, and added an extra egg to make it lighter.

2 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ Cup sour cream
2 Tablespoons butter
8 oz cream cheese
graham cracker pie shell
cherry pie filling

Blend in blender: egg, sugar, vanilla, sour cream. Keep the blender running and add melted butter and cut up pieces of the cream cheese, blending gradually until smooth. Pour into 9-inch graham cracker crust and bake at 325 for 35 minutes. Chill all day. Before serving, we usually top with a can of chilled cherry pie filling, but any pie filling or ice cream topping would taste delicious. But we would still call it Grandma’s Cheesecake.

MINI CHEESECAKES: (Batter makes approximately 12-16 cheesecake cupcakes) Line cupcake tin with paper or foil cupcake liners. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Pour batter into each liner, 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Remove carefully from tins and refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish with a spoonful of pie filling, syrups, or chocolate chips, etc…

GRAHAM CRACKER CRUST
9 whole graham crackers
¼ Cup sugar
6 Tablespoons butter

Put crackers in double plastic bags and crush with rolling pin until fine. Stir in sugar and melted butter. Press into pie tin. No baking necessary.