The secret ingredients that make Angela Lansbury’s little-known cheesecake recipe work

In 1997, Tom Culver, the set costumer on “Murder, She Wrote,” had an idea. He wanted to collect recipes from the show’s cast and crew, bind them into a cookbook and sell it. The proceeds would benefit AIDS patients, specifically children and those in hospice.

Culver writes in the introduction to the eventual “The Murder, She Wrote Cookbook” that when Angela Lansbury, who starred in the series as the iconic sleuth Jessica Fletcher, was approached about the project, she enthusiastically responded by saying, “Start collecting!”

Culver did, eventually publishing 350 recipes, ranging from cast regular William Windom’s (Dr. Seth Hazlitt) caviar and grits to actress Tippi Hedren’s baked seafood salad.

“From key grip to best boy, everyone on the show has a fabulous recipe to share,” the description of the book reads. “And if you want to know just what a best boy (or a gaffer or grip) does, there’s a section at the back of the book explaining what happens behind the scenes of a TV show. With ‘The Murder, She Wrote Cookbook,’ planning a meal doesn’t have to be murder.”

Volumes of the original book are a little difficult to come by, not to mention pricey. Gently used copies now run anywhere from $93 to $199 on Amazon. But devoted fans of the show — as well as of Lansbury, who died Tuesday at the age of 96 — might be tempted to track down a copy because it contains a recipe from the star herself.

This isn’t necessarily a surprise. In a 2018 interview with Larry King, Lansbury said simple pleasures, such as cooking and gardening, were what made life worth living.

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“Everything that is given to us as human beings to indulge ourselves in,” she said. “In our lives, that’s what interests me.”

As such, “Jessica’s Cheesecake” is a dead-simple cheesecake recipe (you can see a photograph of it here) with a few surprise ingredients that elevate it into something truly special. It has the basics: graham crackers, sugar, butter, cream cheese and eggs. These are combined and baked into a standard cheesecake.

But then Lansbury calls for a whopping two cups of sour cream, which is in turn whipped with a little sugar and almond extract, providing a slightly fruity, almost marzipan-esque flavor. This fluffy topping is dolloped and spread across the top of the cheesecake and then chilled.

When removed from the refrigerator, it looks like the kind of cheesecake you would see on the silver screen — perhaps slowly rotating in a sparkling diner display case while an enterprising sleuth reviews her case notes over a cup of coffee at the next table over. It’s the platonic ideal with a little extra drama thrown in. Do yourself a favor and grab a slice before your next “Murder, She Wrote” viewing.

“Murder, She Wrote” is currently streaming on Peacock and other digital platforms.