Cranberry Vanilla Cheesecake
Crust:
12 vanilla sandwich cookies, broken into pieces (such as Vienna
Fingers)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
Filling:
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
1/2 cup whipping cream
Cheesecake:
3 (8oz) packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
4 large eggs
Topping:
1 12-oz bag fresh or frozen cranberries
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup frozen cranberry juice cocktail, thawed
1/4 cup water
For crust: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350o. Wrap
out-side of 9 inch springform pan with 2 3/4 inch-high sides with
foil. Blend cookies, butter and sugar in processor until crumbs
stick together. Press crumbs on bottom and halfway up sides of
prepared pan. Bake crust 10 minutes. Set aside. Maintain oven
temperature.
For filling: using tip of small sharp knife, scrape seeds from
vanilla beans into small saucepan; add beans. Add cream. Bring to
simmer over medium heat. Set aside uncovered, and cool to room
temperature. Discard beans.
Blend cheese, sugar and salt in processor until
very smooth, stopping often to scrape down sides of work bowl. Add
vanilla cream mixture, blend. Add eggs; process 5 seconds. Transfer
filling to crust.
Bake cake until sides puff slightly and center is
just set, about 50 minutes. Place uncovered hot cheesecake directly
into refrigerator and chill thoroughly, at least 6 hours or
overnight.
For topping: Stir all ingredient in heavy medium saucepan over
medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil 3 minutes.
Press mixture through sieve set over large bowl, pressing firmly on
solids. Spoon warm topping over cold cake; spread evenly. Cool until
topping is set, at least 2 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead, cover
and keep chilled.) |