Butter Cookie Cheesecake

 

 

It's birthday time at our house; within the next three months we'll celebrate five birthdays!  Six if you include the dog! A tradition in our house is that the birthday person gets to pick their own birthday cake and what I'll make for dinner.  First up is my son's and as usual, he chose seafood and cheesecake.  I asked if he wanted a flavored cheesecake, but no, he wanted a plain one.  I said are you sure you don't want a chocolate one or a strawberry one?  Nope, just a plain one!  Even though this is a plain cheesecake, I did try a different crust.  It's made with butter cookies and it was a nice change from the ordinary graham cracker crust.  

 Ingredients are as follows:

Crust:
30 butter cookies (I got mine at my local grocery store)
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
1 Tbsp. sugar


Filling:
24 ounces (three 8 ounce packages) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 C sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
8 ounces sour cream 
 1/2 C half-n-half


Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees; grease a 9" springform pan.


Chop up the cookies until you have a fine crumb mixture. (I showed you a few of the cookies whole so you have an idea of what they look like.)

Stir in butter and sugar.  Press into the bottom of the pan; set aside.

Whip the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Beat in eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated.

You'll end up with a silky smooth batter.

Add vanilla, sour cream and half-n-half; stir until combined. 

Pour batter into prepared crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 minutes.  Do not open your oven door during this time!  Turn the oven off.  Open the oven door about an inch and allow the cake to cool (in the oven) for an hour.

Remove from oven and continue to cool in the fridge for a few hours. 

Slice, serve and enjoy!