Daring Bakers Challenge; Cheesecake

Vanilla Bean Creme Brulée Cheesecake :-)

Picture #1

"The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge."

I was really excited when I learned that the challenge was cheesecake.

I L-O-V-E cheesecakes. My stepdaughter makes a mean Amaretto cheesecake too...delish.

For this month challenge I tried to recreate the Madagascar Vanilla Bean Creme Brulée cheesecake I had in Toronto... I think I somewhat succeeded, not the same, but a keeper for sure. Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

Crust:

1 1/2 cups Oreo crumbs

about 4 tbsp. melted butter

Cheesecake:

3 sticks of cream cheese,

8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature

1 cup sugar (I used gold colored organic sugar)

3 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. vanilla extract (I used the innards of a vanilla bean)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F 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, lemon juice, 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 (see note at bottom) before adding water. See Pic #2

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

OOPS! My oven mitt put a dent into the cake

***To avoid a soggy crust, I wrapped the bottom of the pan with 2 layers of plastic wrap, then 2 layers of Heavy Duty foil. After baking the cake, I removed it immediately from the water bath, peeled the foil and plastic film and put it back in the oven on a different rack. I left the water bath in the oven, to create humidity for the 1 hour rest.

Once Fully chilled I sprinkled white sugar all over the top and fired it with a blow torch, see picture # 3

Then I drizzled a caramel sauce on top, consisting of boiled sugar, water, and a bit of cream. See Picture # 1

Et Voila!

Picture #2

Picture #3