New Cheesecake Recipe - Its a Keeper they say

So, last week Allie posted a recipe from her friend, Shirley, for Pineapple Cheesecake along with a picture.  It looked so light and fluffy that I couldn't resist trying it.  Well, it was absolutely delicious.  Of course, I had to fiddle with it a little, because one of the three of us doesn't like pineapple.  So, I just omitted the pineapple and put in a little lemon zest and juice for flavoring.  We didn't have any graham crackers either, so I used ginger snaps instead along with a few crushed up toasted almonds for a little nutty kick.

Here's my version recipe if you'd like to try it....

Lemony Cheesecake
          Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.

    Crust:
3 cups crushed graham crackers or ginger snaps (or a mixture of both)
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp sugar

    Filling:
2 8oz. packages cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon zest
 juice of one lemon (optional)

Crust:  Mix together the crushed crackers, melted butter and 2tbsp sugar. Pat filling along the sides and the bottom of a 9" pie plate

Filling:  In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until fluffy.  Add cream cheese.  Beat, beat, and beat some more until as light as possible.  Add vanilla, sugar and zest and beat beat beat some more.  You just can't beat this mixture too much.  Place mixture on top of crust and sprinkle with set aside some of the cracker mix to sprinkle on top.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, or until middle of cheesecake is well set.  Refrigerate until cold.