Lion House Cheesecake

The Lion House on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, was built by Brigham Young in 1856 and is often associated with soft and flaky Lion House dinner rolls, honey butter, cheesecake and more. My sister, Julie, who has greatly influenced my cooking, was the first one to introduce this recipe to me. She has been making Lion House Cheesecake for a few decades, following it exactly as it is written.

I love how people tend to associate certain foods with specific people or occasions. I baked a Lion House Cheesecake for my son, Christopher, on his 18th birthday, so it reminds me of him. Our son, 20, is now a missionary in Thailand and I haven’t seen him in a little more than a year. We flew his birth mother from Colorado to Texas to reunite with him and meet our family for the weekend that he turned 18.

The last time she had seen Christopher was when he was a newborn and she placed him for adoption with my husband and me. We have continued to have an amazing relationship with Dalena and are so thankful for her. Christopher looks a lot like his birth mother and her two cute daughters.

This beautiful cheesecake has been chosen to be one of two desserts served at our upcoming church Christmas party this weekend, so this is my trial run. I will be making TEN more cheesecakes tomorrow.

I’m pleased with how it turned out, and am more ecstatic that there isn’t a crack on the top. I tried a technique which suggests placing a shallow pan of water on the rack beneath the cheesecake baking in the oven and it worked! Success!

Lion House Cheesecake

Crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, rolled fine
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Thoroughly mix ingredients. Press firmly into a 9-inch or 10-inch pan, lining bottom and sides, set aside. Make filling.

I used a 10-inch springform pan, lightly buttered, to make it easier to serve.

Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese well. Add sugar a little at at time; add eggs one at a time; add vanilla. Combine thoroughly. Pour into crust; fill to within 1/2 inch of top to allow room for topping. Bake 60 minutes at 300 F degrees.

Topping:

2 cups sour cream
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whip sour cream; add sugar gradually; add vanilla. Pour over pie and return to oven Bake for 10 minutes at 300 F degrees.

This was after cooking for an hour and it separated well from the edge.

The pieces seem too big when I cut it into eight servings. Instead of eyeballing the cuts like I did here, dividing into eight is much easier than ten, so I bought this handy slicer to help make lines on the top. Wish me luck! I’ll be topping each slice with a homemade raspberry sauce.