Description
A friend of mine couldn’t make up her mind between banana cream pie and cheesecake for her birthday, so I came up with this rich and creamy concoction. The vanilla cream topping takes a little extra time to make but it really completes the dessert!
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups vanilla wafer crumbs
- ½ cup ground walnuts
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
- 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 ⅛ cups white sugar
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed
- ¼ cup banana liqueur
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons unflavored gelatin
- 3 tablespoons cold water
- 1 cup milk
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream, chilled
- 12 vanilla wafer cookies
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. In a medium bowl
- mix together the vanilla wafer crumbs
- ground walnuts
- and melted butter. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- In a large bowl
- stir cream cheese to soften. Mix together 1 1/8 cup sugar and flour; stir into the cream cheese until smooth. Stir in eggs
- one at a time
- mixing until well blended after each one. Stir in sour cream
- mashed banana
- banana liqueur
- and 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla. Pour over the crust in the springform pan.
- Cover the bottom of the outside of the cheesecake pan with aluminum foil to prevent water from the water bath from seeping in. Place springform pan inside a larger pan. Place the whole thing into the preheated oven
- and fill the outer pan with hot water.
- Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven. After the time is up
- turn the oven off
- but leave door closed. Leave cheesecake in the unopened oven for 1 hour. Before removing from the water bath. Run a knife around the outer edge of the cake to keep it from shrinking away from the center and cracking. Let cool to room temperature
- then refrigerate until chilled
- at least 3 hours
- or overnight.
- In a small bowl
- sprinkle the unflavored gelatin over the cold water
- and set aside to soften. Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until hot but not boiling. Meanwhile
- whisk together 1/3 cup sugar and egg yolks until smooth and frothy. Whisk about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg yolk mixture
- then pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining milk. Cook over low heat
- stirring constantly with a spatula
- making sure that the mixture does not burn on the bottom
- until it is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the heat. Stir the softened gelatin into the hot pastry cream until dissolved
- then stir in vanilla. Pour into a bowl
- place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface
- and refrigerate until cooled
- about 1 hour.
- When the pastry cream is cooled
- whip heavy cream just past soft peaks. Stir pastry cream to soften
- then fold in the whipped cream. Place vanilla wafers on top of the cooled cheesecake
- then spread the vanilla cream over the entire top. Chill until serving. Run a wet knife around the outer edge of the cake before removing the sides for a cleaner look.
Prep Time: 35 mins
Cook Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 4 hrs 35 mins
Servings: 12