ALTON BROWN’S AWESOME CHEESECAKE

By foodiva

Ingredients

• Crust:
• Ingredients
• 33 graham cracker squares, crumbled
• 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus additional, for brushing the pan
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• Filling:
• 20 ounces cream cheese
• 1 1/4 cups sour cream
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 yolks
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sour-cream-cheesecake-recipe.html?oc=linkback

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from cookiemadness.net

Preparation

Step 1

Some cheesecakes are denser and have more of a pull to them. This one is thick, but creamy and very smooth. It’s from Alton Brown who bakes it in a 9×3 inch cake pan and uses a water bath. Since I don’t own a 9×3 inch cake pan (mine are all 9 by 2-ish), I had to use a regular 9 inch springform pan wrapped in foil. I also changed the flavorings a bit and added an extra half hour to the original cook-time – that part is imperative.

, but make sure you add 30 minutes to the cook time.

My “secret” flavoring combo is 2 teaspoons of vanilla plus 1/2 teaspoon orange extract plus 1 teaspoon lemon juice. The orange extract doesn’t taste like orange – it just adds a little “Hmmm, what is that?” background flavor. Alton uses 1 tablespoon vanilla and none of the other stuff.

I like the addition of the orange extract and lemon juice just ads a little something.

Wow, this looks really yummy. My grandmother always added lemon to her cheesecake, but never the orange. I am going to give it a whirl. How do you buy a bunch of cream cheese by accident? Just wondering:)

That cheesecake looks so good!! It happens to be one dessert that I CANNOT resist so I better not make it while trying to lose a few pounds!

Oh, and did you use name brand cream cheese? I’m cheap and often buy the store brand, but think for a cheesecake I would likely buy the Philly full-fat kind, as I think that might actually make a difference.

That doesn’t make me an expert, however.

With 2 lb of cream cheese in the fridge, I decided it was time to make a cheesecake. I have made Alton’s recipe before and liked it, but I was up to try something new. When I came to your site to see you had recent success with Alton’s, that sealed the deal – can’t beat a classic.

This time I used 0% Fage in place of the sour cream, used the vanilla, your suggestion of lemon juice, and a tsp of almond extract. Having no graham crackers in the house, for the crust I put 1 cup grape nuts with 4 tbsp unsalted butter, 1 tbsp almond butter, and a pinch of kosher salt in a food processor until it looked like crust. I pressed it into the bottom of a spring form pan (8.5″) without baking it first.

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