I found a recipe on line at EatingWell that is pretty similar to Coconut's recipe except it uses greek yogurt (or regular yogurt with some of the whey drained off like for yogurt cheese) in place of half the Neufchatel cheese. I think I'll do that. With only my DH and me at home, we need to have something that is healthier but I don't feel we have to go overboard. The Eating Well recipe uses egg whites instead of whole eggs and uses melba toast and olive oil in the crust. I think I'll use whole eggs and graham crackers because I love a graham cracker crust. I've seen some recipes that use some nuts and two tablespoons of butter in the crust instead of 1/4 cup butter and I think I may do that. I looked at the Cook's Illustrated recipe, but it uses cottage cheese for part of the cheese. I've made a cheese cake with that once before and I wasn't totally satisfied with it. But the fresh strawberry topping from that recipe looks like a winner so I think I'll use that. Lou, I like my cheese cakes dense and creamy I think. I may try your recipe another time. It looks like it is crustless - is that correct? I tested the pan by putting in some water. It leaks out slowly where the two ends of the sides meet. I guess that's pretty hard to avoid. I'm hoping that the cheese cake batter is enough thicker to not leak out.

I've found that a cheesecake is more likely to crack if it has air in the batter (it expands when it cooks) and if it's cooked too fast. What I do is mix the ingredients just until they're blended, and not a second more, then cook it at 225 or 300. For my preference, it's done when the outside of the cheesecake is set but the center (2-3" in diameter) still jiggles when you tap the side of the springform with the flat of your fingernail. The larger the area of "jiggle", the creamier the cheesecake will be when it cools. Then I carefully remove it from the oven. The center of the cheesecake finishes cooking from the heat around the sides. This makes a creamy but set cheesecake. To have it more NY style (cakey), you need to bake it a little longer. I haven't had one crack in years doing this -- incorporating as little air as possible while mixing, cooking very slowly, and removing it when the center is still jiggly. And I should say this works only if you like creamy cheesecakes. I don't know how to prevent cracking if you want it "well-done"!

My dinner was a huge success! I'm a beginner with lots to learn and you have all been wonderful. We sliced the bones off the roast, salted liberally, and tied the ribs back on 2 days before cooking (another Serious Eats, Food Lab article - scroll down to SALT). I read that the salt will draw the moisture out at first, but then it will reabsorb the moisture along with the salt, carrying the seasoning deep within the meat. This was the only thing I did differently from a few weeks ago when I ran my trial run, and this roast was far superior. It was the same cut of meat (choice), from the same store (CostCo), and cooked the same way. So it must have been the 2 day seasoning. I let the roast sit on the counter for 2 hours, then used the Serious Eats Food Lab recipe to cook low and slow - it took 4 1/2 hours for the 11lb roast to reach 122. I did make a mistake here - instead of removing the roast from the roasting pan to sit for an hour (like I did 2 weeks ago), I simply tented the roast in the pan. I think the pan caused the roast to continue to cook. I used the same probe and oven as 2 weeks ago, so unless it went bad in that time, this has to be the reason it was overcooked. However, the flavor was fabulous, so I really have no complaints. Following the Serious Eats recipe - it did go back into the oven for 10 minutes at 500 to develop a beautiful sizzling crust. I made 2 pans of Yorkshire puddings. When everything came out of the oven and my guests were serving themselves, I popped the second pan in and proudly served a second helping to all at the table 30 minutes later. What I learned from this is the pan makes a HUGE difference! I bought a new muffin pan since I didn't have 2 and the new pan the YP's rose so high and popped right out unlike my old pan where they still looked OK, but I had to use a knife to work them out. I made my Au Jus ahead of time by making a rich stock from browning bones, oxtails, veggies for a couple of hours and them simmering them for 24 hours. I did this 2 weeks ago and froze it. Yesterday I let it simmer for another couple of hours and added any Jus from the meat before serving. I'm so glad I did this! Not only was it easier on me, but I never would have had enough Jus otherwise. Everyone took a little Au Jus cup on their plate and I put the rest into gravy boats for the table - most of which was used. I'm very proud of my dinner and I couldn't have done it without the help from all of you on this forum. :-) Thank-you! Jeri

Wow! I had no idea such a thing existed! Off I go now to see if I can find some for deeper pans. Otherwise, maybe stack. Thanks!