First Place Cheesecake

Baking the crust prior to assembling the cheesecake makes a nice solid crunchy base that allows the cheesecake to hold it shapes and serve beautifully. Often graham cracker crust recipes use sugar. This recipe however did not specify the use of sugar and with the sweetness of the filling I did not miss the additional sweetness.

First Place Cheesecake

Crust
 9x13 pan...so this really serves more than four unless you really like your sweets!

28 Graham Crackers
1 1/4 cup melted butter

Okay, you know the drill... smash the crackers, mix in the butter and press into the 9x13 pan. Reserve a small amount for topping.

Bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes, remove and cool to room temperature then refrigerate until ready to fill.

Filling
1 pkg. orange jello
1 cup hot water
1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 - 13 oz. can chilled condensed milk

Mix jello with hot water and stir well to dissolve. Let stand for 15 minutes. Cream sugar, cheese and vanilla. Beat for 5 minutes with mixer. Add cooled jello and mix 3 more minutes. In a seperate bowl beat the condensed milk until light and add to mixture.

Pour into the cooled crust and top with remaining crumbs.

This can be switched up easily by just changing the jello flavor.