November 28, 2011

Brown Sugar Cookie Crust Cheesecake

1Featured Cakes and Cheesecakes, cheesecake, chocolate 0

Did you survive the Holidays? Eat too much? Shop too much? Get a face full of pepper spray while trying to secure a $2 waffle iron?

(I already have a waffle iron, and I hope you do, too. Pepper spray sucks.)

No matter…I hope you had a great long weekend full of friends and family, and of course – FOOD.

Every year we have a huge Thanksgiving meal at my parents house, It’s my mom’s side of the family, and it’s always a great time. My cousins are crazy! This year I decided to take a cheesecake, since I was still on a high from the raspberry coconut version I made last week, and I decided to play a bit with my tried and true recipe.

Not much, mind you, I love that recipe and it never lets me down.

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I usually don’t put a crust of any kind on my cheesecakes, but I decided to at least give it a shot. Not graham cracker, not Oreo, I went full on chocolate chip cookie. I had some dough left from the Mrs. Fields clone, but you could certainly use your own recipe, or even a store bought refrigerator dough for that matter. It was fantastic! I simply pressed it into the bottom of a 9 inch springform and then poured the prepared batter on top of it. I feared it may burn, but no worries, it was great! Because I added this crust, I wanted to richen the batter a bit, so I used some brown sugar in place of all white sugar. Great idea – it was just enough, and I intend to adapt my recipe to include it from now on!

To decorate this deliciousness, I pressed mini Nestle chocolate chips around the edges. I also made a little bit of chocolate ganache and drizzled it on the top, before piping a few tall puffs of whipped cream. Chocolate embellishments went on top and a few cookie crumbs sprinkled about for good merit and I called it done!

I do encourage you to try this cheesecake recipe…it has honestly never let me down. Ever. Let me know what you think!

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Brown Sugar Cookie Crust Cheesecake

Rating: 5
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Yield: 12-15 Servings

Ingredients

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
4 – 8-ounce packages cream cheese at room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
1 split Vanilla Bean, scraped
3 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease or butter a 9-inch springform pan. Wrap the pan in heavy duty aluminum foil so that it is waterproof.
Press cookie dough into the bottom of the pan. For store bought dough, it will take roughly half the roll.
Place one 8-ounce package of the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the sugar, and the cornstarch in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until creamy, about 3 minutes, then beat in the remaining 3 packages of cream cheese.
Increase the mixer speed to high and beat in the remaining sugars, then beat in the vanilla, salt, and vanilla bean. Blend in the eggs one at a time, beating only until completely blended. Lastly, mix in the sour cream and heavy cream. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Place the springform pan in a large shallow pan containing hot water that comes about halfway up the sides of the pan. Bake the cheesecake until the top is lightly browned, about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the oven with the door propped open.
Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it’s completely cold, at least 4 hours or overnight. Remove the sides of the springform pan. Decorate as desired.
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