Vanilla Bean Cheesecake & Winners Announced…

by Jamie on August 3, 2009

If you follow my blog, you may remember that I have a thing for cheesecake. It’ s textural thing for me…the thick and creamy filling and crunchy, buttery crust is just a magical combination. Since I was announcing the givewaway winners in this post, I wanted to provide you with another recipe that utilizes vanilla beans. I made an orange version of this cheesecake back in April for the Daring Bakers Challenge and the results were absolutely delicious. This recipe uses heavy cream in the cheesecake base which imparts a fluffier texture than my other recipe that uses sour cream. The added Beanilla vanilla bean takes the cheesecake into the realm of pure foodie bliss due to it’s amazing taste, aroma and gorgeous black flecks. If you are looking for an amazing cheesecake, look no further and give this one a try! I topped this with a homemade bluberry sauce which can be found by clicking here.

Now for the winners…
The 40 vanilla beans goes to Smitten Sugar!
The 5 vanilla beans and vanilla paste goes to Megan of Delicious Dishings

Congratulations, Smitten Sugar & Megan!!!! I want to personally thank Beanilla for providing this awesome giveaway and also thanks to each and every one of you for entering and tweeting! I was so impressed with all of your recipes and comments that I am going to try a few out and post them on my blog…if I choose your recipe recommendation, I will send you 5 Beanilla Vanilla Beans, so stay tuned for the recipes!

Remember…even if you didn’t win, you can still save 10% at Beanilla’s website by entering the code “bakingaddiction” at checkout. Check out the site, I am certain you will be surprised how affordable these amazing beans are in comparison to grocery store beans! Vanilla Bean Cheesecake
adapted from: Abby’s Infamous Cheesecake

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake:

Crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
3 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract (I used Beanilla Vanilla Paste)

Cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, and alcohol (if used) and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Notes/Tip: When I make cheesecakes I always try to use a waterbath; however, I have had issues with water seeping into my foil wrapped pan. This seepage has really pissed me off on a couple of occasions, so I decided to remedy the issue by placing the foil wrapped cheesecake pan in an oven bag before placing it into the water. I have also used crock pot liners and they worked just as well. I also let the cheesecake completely cool in the oven, this really seems to help with the cracks…in fact I have not gotten a crack since.


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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

1 ♥Deeba @Passionate About Baking♥ August 3, 2009 at 10:35 am

Congrats to you lucky girls. Of course I am envious, but am so glad for you!! That's a fab cheesecake Jamie. WOW!!

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2 delightfullysweet August 3, 2009 at 10:51 am

Congrats to everyone who won! The cheesecake looks amazing. Really want to head home right now and make it!

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3 Bethie August 3, 2009 at 11:35 am

Congrats to the winners!! The cheesecake looks wonderful.

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4 Smitten Sugar August 3, 2009 at 12:29 pm

How exciting, its my first time to win since entering the blogging world! Yeah…how fun!

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5 Nicole August 3, 2009 at 2:28 pm

Sounds wonderful! I have a question though; in the directions you mention lemon juice but I don't see it in the list of ingredients so I am wondering how much lemon juice to add. Thanks!

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6 Baking Momma August 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm

Great job winners! Cant wait to see what you used them on!

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7 Jamie August 3, 2009 at 2:39 pm

Nicole-

That was bad editing on my part, I left out the lemon juice, but forgot to remove it from instructions. Thanks for the heads up, it's removed now! :)

-Jamie

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8 Marthe August 3, 2009 at 3:05 pm

Congrats to the winners!!

That cheesecake looks sooo tempting, I'd really love a piece!

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9 Megan August 3, 2009 at 5:08 pm

That cheesecake looks gorgeous! And I'm so excited for the vanilla beans. Thank you so much!

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10 Ingrid August 3, 2009 at 6:23 pm

Darn it! Ya win some ya lose some. Better go grab my visa card. :)

Btw, thanks for hosting such a cool giveaway, Jamie!
~ingrid

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11 Jennifer August 3, 2009 at 6:31 pm

Congrats to the winners!! :) lucky ladies!
That cheesecake looks sooooo good!!!! I love vanilla bean and blueberries! perfect!

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12 Pamela August 3, 2009 at 6:52 pm

See…I knew I'd need a napkin ever since you tweeted about this recipe. Fantastic. That blueberry sauce looks incredible, too!

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13 Michelle August 3, 2009 at 9:04 pm

Gorgeous cheesecake! I got a tip from watching the Food Network one day. Instead of doing the water bath, you can take a glass 9×13 pan and fill it halfway with boiling water — place it in the oven underneath the cheesecake pan. It prevents cracks but you don't have to worry about a soggy cheesecake!

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14 NikiTheo August 4, 2009 at 6:39 am

Cheesecake is my fav too!!! Yours looks delic!!!

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15 Sudeshna August 4, 2009 at 6:47 am

The awesome look of the cheesecake dragged me here from FoodandFizz. Can you please tell me if I'll be able to prepare this in a microwave?

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16 lisamichele August 4, 2009 at 9:38 am

Dang, I always either forget to enter these giveaways, or never win..lol Regardless, being able to look at and drool over your gorgeous baked creations, like this amazing cheesecake, is reward enough!

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17 Kimberly May 4, 2010 at 3:58 pm

thanks so much for this recipe and all the wonderful tips. this cheesecake recipe was the BEST ever!

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18 Kim (Liv Life) July 12, 2010 at 5:52 pm

I guess I’m a bit late discovering this recipe, but after our Coconut Cheesecake failure from yesterday my son has requested a Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. This one looks to fit the bill! It’s prepped and ready for the oven…. looks like a success tonight!
Thanks for the recipe!

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19 Jamie December 11, 2010 at 11:18 am

When you put the cheesecake in the oven bag, is the top of the cheesecake covered by the plastic? I’d like to try this method, but I don’t know exactly how to use the bag. Thanks so much!

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20 Jamie December 12, 2010 at 4:23 pm

Jamie-
Thanks for stopping by! Nope, you don’t have to cover the cheesecake with the bag. I did a video tutorial of the process that you can check out here. Happy Holidays!
-Jamie

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21 Julissa March 17, 2011 at 11:34 am

Do you cover the cheesecake?

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