"Busy-Day" Lemon Cheesecake (1959) ★★

8:00 AM , , , , , , , 0 Comments



Today's recipe is actually sort of relevant, as I've been super busy lately! I have been meaning to post something but I just haven't been able to follow through - so sorry! I came across this recipe, which I had pinned a while back, and I thought it would be perfect. Seemed safe enough and also quick and easy.

So what am I so busy with? Well, for starters I finished my undergraduate degree! Which I started back in 2009, ha. I'm pretty proud of myself, though, to be honest. Although a bit nervous to be done school and having to actually start real real life now.



I also started a new job in January, which has been keeping me pretty busy lately, especially since school ended at the beginning of April.

Lastly, and most excitingly, I was recently accepted into the JET Programme to be an assistant language teacher in Japan! This was the craziest thing to me and a total life-changer. I have been to Japan before on my high school exchange in 2008, but this is something completely different. I won't receive my placement until May or June, but I am now super busy with cleaning the house, preparing to rent it, sorting through years and years of crap, and getting necessary documents submitted. I am scheduled to leave at the very beginning of August, which seems both way too soon and so far away. This move will undoubtedly bring a lot of changes to this blog. I will likely be without internet for some time - who knows how long really. On top of that, in Japan ingredients for North American recipes will probably be either unattainable, somehow different, or expensive. I may try to do some stuff on Japanese food history if possible, but honestly my Japanese is probably not good enough to read modern recipes, let alone old ones! Ideally I would like to continue to update this blog, but I can't say for sure how often that will be, as I'll also be pretty busy and exhausted. If you're curious, you can find my JET blog here, although it won't be very interesting until we actually leave.

Anyway, this is not really a personal blog, so enough about me! Onto this totally 1950s recipe!

Original Recipe:



“Busy-Day” Lemon Cheesecake


1 large (8 oz) package cream cheese
2 cups whole milk
1 package Jell-O Lemon Instant Pudding
1 8-inch graham cracker crust


Soften cream cheese, blend with 1/2 cup milk. Add remaining milk and the pudding mix. Beat slowly with egg beater just until well mixed, about 1 minute. (Do not overbeat.) Pour at once into graham cracker crust. Sprinkle graham cracker crumbs lightly over top. Chill about an hour. Serve to 8 delighted people — a real party dessert that you can make so easily — thanks to Jell-O Instant Pudding.

P.S. It takes the special qualities of Jell-O Instant Pudding to make this luscious cheesecake. Cooked pudding will not give satisfactory results with this recipe.




The Verdict:


Well, firstly my cheesecake had lumps. This is because I attempted to beat together the cream cheese and milk at the same time. It is better to beat up the cream cheese first, then slowly add milk. Otherwise it may not incorporate nicely. I will also note that I used skim milk powder + water in place of the whole milk. Its all we keep around, as we never drink milk and only use it occasionally when baking or cooking. I'm cheap and would rather do this than waste a bunch of real milk. I added extra powder to make it extra milky. That works, right?

For the sake of authenticity, I even used a pre-made graham cracker crust. It made me sad, though. It just smelled wrong.

As for the taste, I was kind of disappointed. I discovered that I don't like lemon pudding. I was expecting the bright flavours of lemon Jell-O gelatin, but the pudding was kind of blah and there was no punch of flavour like I was expecting. Eating it actually made me feel sick. Little Y said it was yummy at first, but after a few bites she came over and spat it out on my plate. Not a winning review. That's not to say its inedible, I just didn't like the flavour at all. I wonder how chocolate would taste...It was really creamy and light, though.

Modernized Recipe:


(Adapted from Jell-O advertisement, found at Click Americana)

Original recipe is easy to follow, just make sure to beat up the cream cheese by itself and slowly add in the milk.

Anje graduated with a Honours Bachelors degree in History with a minor in Museum Studies. She currently lives and works in Japan's least populous prefecture as an assistant English teacher.

0 comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)