Layered Lemon Cheesecake with Brown Sugar Almond Crust

For over ten years, I have declared this Turtle Cheesecake with Chocolate, Caramel and Pecans to be the best cheesecake I have ever tasted. Well, there is a new cake in town. We had some friends over for dinner and I wanted to make something a little different. Fruit was requested over chocolate and I looked around for inspiration.

Naturally, I couldn't leave well enough alone. The brown sugar and almond crust combined with a seriously kicked up lemon flavor to create a dessert that far exceeded my expectations. The lemon changes everything, this is like no other cheesecake I've tasted before. The layers are unexpected and the sweetly tart lemon glaze balanced the barely sweetened sour cream layer and a less than traditionally sweet cheesecake. I absolutely LOVED this dessert.

The comments ranged from "ah-ma-zing" to "what are the layers? these are awesome!" to "phenomenal crust" to "the glaze on top absolutely makes this cheesecake." Hyperbole and excessive enthusiasm aside, this is a FANTASTIC dessert that jumped immediately to the top of my Favorite Sweets List.
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