This recipe is for a silky smooth, creamy cheesecake texture NOT NY cheesecake style. In this post I'll go over crust options and water bath baking. Once you've made a couple cheesecakes this way you will feel confident to start changing up the crust, adding in mix-ins and toppings.
Crust
1 3/4 cup crushed cookies (graham crackers, vanilla wafers, biscoff cookies, ginger snaps, Oreos)
*it takes about 14 whole graham crackers to equal 1 3/4 cups
5 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar (I only add sugar if using graham crackers, not with cookies)
Mix your crushed cookies, butter and optional sugar together well and press firmly into the bottom of a buttered 9" springform pan and about an inch up the sides.
Bake the crust for 8 minutes at 350º
*when assembling your crust you have 3 options:
press all crumbs firmly on the bottom
press crumbs firmly on the bottom and up the sides of the buttered pan
press all crumbs firmly on the bottom and line the edges with whole cookies
Cheesecake
3 bricks cream cheese
1 cup sugar
8oz sour cream
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth. If you didn't allow your cream cheese to come to room temp you just need to mix it longer to take the chill off so you do not have lumps in your cheese cake.
Add in sour cream, eggs and extract, mix until well combined and pour over crust.
How I assemble the water bath
I place my springform pan in a 9" silicone pan and set that down inside a roasting pan and fill with water.
Do not use the method of wrapping your springform pan in foil, it always leaks!
I have also read that you can wrap a crockpot liner bag around the bottom of your springform pan but have never tried this. This would be ideal if you do not own a silicone pan to fit your springform pan into.
Since cheesecake is somewhat of a custard consistency, baking in a water bath ensures it bakes at an even temperate and helps keep it from cracking.
Bake cheesecake for about 1 hour at 350º. Take out of oven and allow to cool in water bath for another hour. Chill in fridge for 3 hours or overnight before serving.
You can get creative with this recipe and add in mix ins. For example you could swap out a similar consistency item for the sour cream like 1 cup of pumpkin or 1 cup of mashed banana. You can add in chopped nuts, chocolate chips or chopped candy bars. You can top the cheesecake with pie filling or chocolate ganache or candied nuts. The combinations are endless.
Chocolate ganache topping:
Microwave 8oz chocolate with 4oz heavy whipping cream, stir until completely melted and pour over the top of a baked cheesecake.
You can use 4oz of butter instead of whipping cream or 1/2 cup cool whip.
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