Grandma Donna's Cheesecake

When I was a girl, my mom and grandma frequently made this dessert. I am pretty sure I haven't had it since I moved away from home. It had been a while. We usually ate this with store-bought cherry pie filling as the topping. Since my garden is bursting with strawberries, I made a simple strawberry syrup/glaze instead. I like baked cheesecake, but they are a little too rich for me. This dessert is lighter (relatively speaking) and I like that the crust is not the traditional graham cracker crust. It uses nuts and usually I am not a nut person (at all), but I really like this crust.



Crust:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup butter

Mix together and pat into a 9x15" pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and crumble crust and then pat into pan again. Let cool.

Filling:

8 oz. pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 pkg. Dream Whip, prepared according to directions on package

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add prepared Dream Whip and powdered sugar and blend together well. Spread over crust.

Topping:

Use canned fruit toppings, pie fillings, or make your own. I made mine using approximately 2 cups strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. cornstarch blended with 1 tsp. water. I brought the mixture to a boil and then reduced the heat and let it simmer until it became a little bit thicker.