Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350ºF (176ºC).

For the crust, mix sugar, graham crumbs, and melted butter until it resembles wet sand. Put graham mixture into a springform pan, and press around to cover the bottom. Bake crust for 10 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 250ºF (121ºC).

To make the cheesecake layer, it is important to mix the ingredients in the correct order, otherwise, you’ll end up with weird chunks. Trust me, I’ve done it many times. Also, throughout this whole time you should only mix on low speed. You don’t want to incorporate too much air into the cheesecake, otherwise it will rise and deflate after cooled.

Put room temperature cream cheese into a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add sugar, scrape down sides. Add lemon zest. Keep scraping down sides.

Add sour cream and vanilla next, and let mix for a few minutes. Keep scraping down sides.

Add eggs last, scrape down once more. Put filling in prepared pan and place in oven. You also want to put another oven safe pan (like a cake pan) on the bottom rack of the oven and fill it with water so the steam can keep the cheesecake moist while baking.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool for 8 hours or overnight. After completely cooled, run a small knife around the edge of the spring form and pop the sides off.

For the lemon curd, put a pot with an inch of water over medium heat. In a metal or glass bowl, mix lemon juice, sugar, and eggs. Cook over double boiler for 7–10 minutes, or until mixture thickens and doubles in size. Once cooked, add cubed cold butter a little at a time until completely incorporated.

Cool the lemon curd for 4 hours so the butter in the curd can set up and solidify again.

For the beautiful meringue, put egg whites into a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip on medium to start, while slowly incorporating sugar. When all sugar is mixed in, whip on high speed until you reach stiff peaks.

Put meringue into a piping bag fitted with your favorite piping tip and cover the entire top of the cheesecake. Toast the meringue with a torch.