Black Berry Ginger Cheesecake

Pre heat oven to 350

Fill a casserole 13 x 9 baking pan 3/4 of the way full with water and place on lower rack of oven.

Ingredients

3 cups crushed ginger snap cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 small lemon

1/2 c of orange juice

1 stick of butter - softened

1/2 tsp ground ginger

4 8 0z packages softened cream cheese

4 large eggs

3 pints of Blackberries

 Crush the ginger snaps approx 60 ( 3 cups crushed is what you need) in a plastic bag with a rolling pin or pulse in a food processor, mix with softened butter and push into the bottom of one large (14") cake pan covering the bottom at about a 1/4 ' thickness and coming up the sides approx half way in height. Set aside

 Mix cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar, vanilla , juice of lemon and ground ginger in kitchen aide or food processor until creamy and well blended, add one egg at a time incorperating each.  Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour.

while the cheesecake is baking , clean blackberries and mix 2 pints with the remainig 1/2 c of sugar and 1/2 cup of orange juice stir and smash berries over medium heat until a sauce is reduced to a syrup of blackberry liquid heaven. Cool in fridge. 

 After cheesecake and syrup are both well chilled pour syrup/ sauce in a pool in center and surround with fresh berrys. Enjoy !

If you choose to do individual servings  as pictured this will make 8 small tart pan size cheesecakes , reduce baking time to 35 minutes.