Three Flavored Cheesecake Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 325°F.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs; beat just until blended.
• Pour into crust.
• Bake 40 min. or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan with parchment paper.
• Place white chocolate in top of a double boiler over simmering water. Stir frequently, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to avoid scorching, until chocolate is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly. Mix in cream cheese and egg yolks.
• Beat egg whites in a large glass, metal, or ceramic bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold in the cooled white chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared springform pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Turn the oven off, leaving cheesecake inside for for a further 15 minutes.
• Remove cheesecake from the oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature, about 1 hour. Chill before serving, about 3 hours.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread hazelnuts on a baking pan. Bake until golden brown and fragrant, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer nuts to a clean kitchen towel. Rub nuts vigorously, removing loose skins. Set aside to cool.
• Reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch springform pan. In a small saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter; set aside.
• Using a food processor, pulse graham crackers into fine crumbs, yielding about 1 cup crumbs. Place in a medium bowl; add 1/4 cup sugar, and set aside. Place 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts in the food processor; pulse until fine but not powdery. Add to graham-cracker-crumb mixture. Using a fork, add melted butter; stir to combine. Put crumb mixture in the bottom of pan, and press evenly around the bottom and halfway up the sides, about 1 1/2 inches.
• Bake crust until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Place cream cheese and goat cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add 1/2 cup sugar, orange zest, flour, salt, and Frangelico, if using; mix until combined. Add egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add mascarpone cheese and orange juice; mix just until batter is combined and smooth. Transfer batter to a large mixing bowl, and set aside.
• Place egg whites in the clean bowl of the electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment. Beat on medium speed until frothy. Increase speed to medium high, and gradually add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, 1 teaspoon at a time. Continue beating whites until stiff but not dry.
• Using a hand whisk, mix one third of the whipped egg whites into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in remaining whites. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
• Bake cheesecake until the top is golden brown and center has barely set, about 60 minutes; the top should be cracked and will sink upon cooling, forming a "bowl." Transfer cheesecake to a wire rack to cool completely. Chill several hours or overnight, then unmold cheesecake.
• Combine orange sections, honey, and dried lavender in a medium bowl. Coarsely chop remaining 1/4 cup hazelnuts, and add. Spoon topping into bowl on top of cheesecake. Garnish with lavender blossoms.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 for standard baking, or 375 for a convection oven.
• Melt butter, and mix crust ingredients, press into the bottom, and up the sides of a springform pan. You can use whatever size you have from 8 to 12 inches, the smaller the pan, the higher the cake, but I like a wide, low one, too. Chill the crust while you make the filling.
• Cream together cream cheese and sugar.
• Add eggs one at a time.
• Add extracts and zest, mix well, be careful not to incorporate too much air, so you don't get cracks on the top of the custard.
• Pour filling into crust. For better texture, you may choose to first wrap the pan in foil, and place into a large baking dish of hot water. The recipe works both ways, but I like the results from a waterbath.
• Bake the cheesecake for an hour, then turn off the oven, and don't open it for 30 minutes.
• If using sour cream topping, spread it on top of the cheesecake ten minutes before the hour bake time is up.
• Cool cheesecake completely, and refrigerate for a few hours before slicing. Fishing line makes a great slicer, since the cheesecake will be very sticky to your knives.
• Variations: This is the fun part. As long as you stick to the basic proportions, you can do lots of flavors. I'm up to 17 personally.
• Use chocolate cookie crumbs for the crust, leave out the lemon, and add 1/4 cup pf cocoa to the filling for chocolate cheesecake.
• Add a teaspoon of lime zest to the crust, leave out the cinnamon, and sub 1/4 cup key lime juice for vanilla and lemon in the filling for key lime cheesecake.
• Sub one of the packages of cream cheese for a can of pumpkin, add cinnamon, ginger, and clove to the filling, use gingersnap crumbs for the crust. This one is especially good if you add a lot of cinnamon to the sour cream topping, and drizzle the slices with some caramel sauce and more gingersnap pieces.
• Leave out the lemon, and sub one of the packages of cream cheese for a cup of peanut butter, use a chocolate cookie crust, and top it with chopped up peanut butter cups.
• Use a chocolate crust, leave out the lemon, and use mint extract and green food color in the filling for grasshopper cheesecake. Add chocolate chips if you like.
• Sub the sugar in the filling for 1 cup brown sugar caramelized with 1/2 a stick of butter for a caramel cheesecake.
• Sub half the sugar in the crust for sweetened flaked coconut, leave out the cinnamon, sub vanilla and lemon for rum extract and lime, make sour cream topping with half sour cream, half Thai Kitchen coconut milk (it's the only one I've found thick enough) add the juice of the lime instead of lemon and more flaked coconut to topping. this is the one my brother always wants instead of a birthday cake.
• If you try your own variant, I'd love to know what it was, and how it turned out. Have fun!

Steps:

• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F Mix melted butter. crumbs, and sugar. Pat in 9 inch springform pan.
• 2. Bake in oven 10 min. Cool.
• 3. Mix softened cream cheese, butter in mixer on medium with paddle attachment until smooth.
• 4. Turn speed down to low and add sugar and flour and mix. Then add 4 eggs one at a time until combined.
• 5. Add vanilla, orange and lemon extract and mix until just combined. Pour in springform pan, wrap in foil,and put in ovenk. Also put a pan of hot water in a pan on bottom rack.
• 6. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes then lower tem to 225 degrees and bake for 1 hour 10 min.. Then turn off oven and let set in oven 2 hours.
• 7. After 2 hrs remove from oven and run a knife around edges to loosen. Do not removal sides until completely cool, refrigerate overnight.
• 8. Can decorate with fresh strawberries dipped in chocolate and chocolate drizzle. 16 servings.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Mix graham crumbs, butter and 1/4 cup sugar; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
• Beat cream cheese and remaining sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Add sour cream and vanilla; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.
• Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate cheesecake 4 hours.
• Top with pie filling before serving.