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Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel
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Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel Topping

A traditional Cheesecake made decadent with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel Topping
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
chill4 hours
Total Time5 hours 45 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: caramel, cheesecake, chocolate
Servings: 12 Servings

Ingredients

For the Crust

  • 4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs See link to recipe in "notes"
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 4 oz melted butter

For the Filling

  • 2 lbs cream cheese softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 vanilla bean
  • 1/4 cup milk

For the Sour Cream Topping

  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 Tbsp white sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

For the Salted Caramel

  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 2 Tbsp water
  • 1 cup cream
  • 2 oz butter
  • 1 tsp fleur de sel plus 2 tsp more for optional garnish

Instructions

For the Crust:

  • Bake the cookies following Smitten Kitchen's recipe (link in notes) or buy them. If you choose to bake them, make sure you roll out the dough as thin and evenly as possible before baking. I divided the batch in half and then rolled the dough out to 1/4 inch thick onto a silpat with plastic wrap on top (this keeps the dough from sticking to the rolling pin). The cookies can be baked the day before. Break them into pieces and store covered.
    Chocolate Crust
  • Put the cookies or cookie pieces into a food processor and pulse until they are fine crumbs. Remove the crumbs from the bowl, measure out 4 cups of crumbs, and put them back into the food processor. Add the flour and pulse to combine. Add the melted butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs have the consistency of wet sand.
  • Press about 2 cups the crust into the bottom of the 9'" springform pan and then the rest up the sides of the pan to the top edge. You should use all of  the crust mix.

For the Filling and Baking:

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees
  • Put the milk in a small pot. Split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds inside. Put both into the pot with the milk. Heat the milk until it's hot, but not boiling. Turn off the heat and let the vanilla and milk steep for 15 minutes. Remove the vanilla pod and if it's softened more by being in the milk, you may be able to scrape out more seeds. If so, whisk them into the milk.
    Milk with vanilla bean
  • For the filling, put the cream cheese into a mixing bowl (I use a KitchenAid stand mixer, but you can use a hand mixer if you have one). Add in the sugar and beat until combined with the cream cheese and very smooth. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl, and with the mixer on, slowly beat in the eggs one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with a spatula. Turn it on again and add in the milk with the vanilla beans, beat until it's all combined and there are no lumps.
    Mixing the cheesecake filling
  • Pour the filling into the pan with the crust. Place the pan on a cookie sheet lined with foil (sometimes the butter in the crust melts and runs from the pan).
    Unbaked cheesecake
  • Bake for 55 min-1 hour at 325 degrees until set but still soft and jiggly in the center.

For the Sour Cream Topping:

  • While the cheesecake is cooking, mix together the sour cream, sugar and vanilla. When the cheesecake is done, remove from the oven for 10 minutes, but leave the oven on. After 10 minutes, spread the sour cream topping on the cheesecake and return to the oven for 10 more minutes. Remove, place on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 1 hour. Refrigerate before adding the caramel topping for at least 4 hours. The cheesecake can be made up to two days in advance.

For the Caramel Topping:

  • In a small, heavy bottomed pot, melt the sugar with water. Cook over high heat until deep amber in color. Remove from heat, and carefully whisk in the cream (it will bubble up). Whisk in the butter, and if the caramel has cooled too much to melt the butter, return to a low heat and whisk until it is all incorporated. Whisk in the 1 tsp fleur de sel.
  • Allow the caramel to cool and pour over the top of the baked and cooled cheesecake. Once the caramel is set, garnish the top with flakes of fleur de sel.
  • Note; If you are making the cheesecake in advance, I recommend you save the salt garnish until right before serving because if refrigerated, the moisture in the refrigerator will melt the salt.

Notes

This is the link to Smitten Kitchen's chocolate wafer cookie recipe that I used for the crust: https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/03/homemade-chocolate-wafers-icebox-cupcakes/
Here's an Amazon link to the type of Springform pan I use.