SoNo Cheesecake and my Say Yes Cheesecake

This recipe is from John Barricelli.  It’s from his “The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter, 2010).  The SoNo in the title is for the chef’s South Norwalk Connecticut bakery.
When I first saw the name of the SoNo cheesecake I thought it said, "Say No Cheesecake". I thought, who would say no to cheesecake? I like to call my cheesecake, with changes I've made, "Say Yes Cheesecake". The original recipe has apricot jam covering it with raspberries on top and chopped pistachios around the side and is baked in a water bath. Mine is gluten free, often with a nut crust, and uses a special cultured sour cream that has twice the fat as regular sour cream and I bake it with steaming hot water in a roasting pan underneath the cheesecake to put moisture in the water. I also use more eggs but lately I've been thinking its too much and I'll try less again. I initially bake it at a high heat, then turn it down low for a much longer time.

http://www.projectfoodie.com/cookbook-recipes/recipe/sono-cheesecake.html

http://www.poiresauchocolat.net/2011/02/raspberry-and-pistachio-baked.html  metric, European


This post was created in 2011 but never got posted. I didn't notice that it was a draft and so I went ahead and posted it.