Cheesecake in Various Flavors

These recipes comes from a Kraft cookbook titled, A Taste of Heaven. Very good and easy!

Oreo Cheesecake

1pkg (1 pound 2 oz) Oreo cookies, divided
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
4 pkgs. (8 0z each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 325. Line 13x 9 pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Place 30 cookies in food processor; cover. Process 30 to 45 seconds or until finely ground. Add butter; mix well. Press firmly onto bottom of prepared pan.

Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time beating just until blended after each addition. Chop remaining cookies. Gently stir 1 1/2 cups of the chopped cookies into cream cheese batter. Pour over crust; sprinkle with the remaining chopped cookies.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Lift cheesecake from pan, using foil handles. Cut into 16 pieces to serve. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

Makes 16 servings.


Other variations:

Graham cracker crust: Mix 1 cup graham cracker crumbs, 3 Tbsp. sugar and 3 Tbsp. melted butter together. Then press crust mixture onto the bottom of foil-lined 13x9 baking pan. Bake 10 minutes at 325.

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake- Mix the 5 italicized ingredients from the recipe above (that is the core recipe). Then Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time beating just until blended after each addition. (So far this is the same as the above recipe, minus the crust and added Oreo cookies). Pour into graham cracker crust.

Then puree 2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries in a blender or food processor. Gently drop spoonfuls of pureed blueberries over batter; cut through batter several times with knife for marble effect. Bake the same as above recipe.

New York Style Cheesecake- make a graham cracker crust. Then mix the 5 italicized ingredients from the recipe above adding 1 more package of cream cheese (8 0z), 3 Tbsp. flour and 2 more tsp. of vanilla. Mix filling the same as above and pour into crust. Bake same as above. After cheesecake is cool, top with cherry pie filling (1- 21 oz. can) before serving.

Or instead of the cherry pie filling, swirl 1/3 cup seedless strawberry jam into the batter for a marbled effect and then bake (you can substitute 1 bag (16 oz) frozen fruit, thawed, drained and pureed, for the 1/3 cup jam).


Tiff's notes: I have made all three of these Cheesecake variations and they are all delicious and easy to make. I really like baking them in the 13x9 pan with the foil (easy clean-up). However, you can always use the traditional spring form pan if you choose.