Banana Cheesecake

Go Bananas!

I don’t know about you, but cheesecake is one of my all-time favorite desserts.  It doesn’t even matter what flavor it is, you can never go wrong.

I made this recipe a couple nights ago for a second Easter dinner.  Right now, I am living in Idaho with good family friends as I finish up my last clinical externship.  For those of you who haven’t been to Idaho, I would highly recommend visiting!  It truly is a hidden gem; but more on that in future posts.  Anyhow, since I ended up going home for Easter weekend, I decided I would make my gracious hosts a second Easter dinner.  We have a nice arrangement where in exchange for rent, I get to make them dinner on the weekends.  Between you and me, I think I got the better end of the bargain 😉 .  Seriously though – I get to cook and bake instead of paying rent!  If only all lease agreements were that nice…

Now back to the cheesecake.  For whatever reason, I’m not the biggest fan of bananas.  I can’t seem to pinpoint the reason why though as I don’t particularly dislike either their flavor or texture.  However, when it comes to bananas in desserts, whether it be banana bread, banana pudding, or banana cream pie, I’m all in.  Things invariably seem to taste better when they’re made into a dessert, right?  This cheesecake has a lovely vanilla wafer crust, the perfect complement to all banana desserts.  It then has a thick layer of divine banana cheesecake and is finally topped with loads of whipped cream and some more vanilla wafers for garnish.  I found that the ripe bananas made my cheesecake a little brown on top, so I decided to strategically cover the top of my cheesecake with decorative whipped cream.  It worked like a charm.

Helpful Hints

A couple tips and tricks to make your cheesecake-making experience more smooth sailing.  First, I always stick a pan of water on the lower rack of the oven.  This generates steam which prevents your cheesecake from cracking.  If you want to be ambitious, I suggest using a water bath to guarantee that it won’t crack.  However, I usually opt for the pan of water since I sometimes find it tricky to wrap the cheesecake sufficiently to prevent it from getting soggy in the water bath.  I will admit though, my cheesecakes crack about 50% of the time around the edges using this method.  However, it is not substantial cracking and it’s typically in areas that I can decorate over.

If you want to be adventurous and use the water-bath method, check out Lindsay’s website at Life Love and Sugar.  She walks you through a great video tutorial on how to make a water bath for your cheesecake.  You can find the link to this tutorial at the end of the recipe.

I find it helpful to allow the cheesecake to cool in the fridge overnight.  I always find that the longer it has to chill, the more the flavors marry together, becoming richer and more distinctive.  If you are under a time crunch though, I would say allow it to chill for four hours at the very least.  But again, the longer it has to chill, the better it will taste.

A final tip specific to banana desserts that I think is worth mentioning.  You know those annoying strands on the outside of a banana that are a little crunchy and sometimes get stuck in your teeth?  Those are called phloem and their role is to disperse nutrients to the banana as it grows.  For baking purposes, I find it helpful to remove these prior to mashing the bananas.  That way, I don’t encounter any strands when I go to take a bite of cheesecake.

Although cheesecake is a heavier dessert, I find that the banana flavor and whipped cream lighten it up a bit, making it a perfect dessert on a warm sunny spring day.  Or any day for that matter – after all, it is cheesecake.

Blessings on your home and table,

~Natalie

 

Banana Cheesecake

Serves 12

Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups vanilla wafers crumbs
• 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
• 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Cheesecake:

• 24 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mashed banana (about 2 medium-sized)
• 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Whipped Cream:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

Crust:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Place vanilla wafers into a food processor and process until you have 2 1/2 cups of crumbs.  Alternately, you can place them in a gallon-sized bag and crush them with a rolling pin.  Stir in granulated sugar.
3. If using a food processor, stream the melted butter through the top to thoroughly integrate it into the crumbs.  Otherwise, use a fork to stir in the butter.
4. Press cookie crumb on the bottom and up sides of a well greased spring-form pan lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake 10 minutes and let cool.  Set aside.

Cheesecake:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Place softened cream cheese into a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add sugar and mix well.  Next, beat in the sour cream.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just incorporated.  Add vanilla.
4. Beat in mashed bananas and then add the flour.
5. Pour cheesecake into the cooled crust and place in the oven.  Let bake for one hour.
6. At the end of one hour, turn off the oven, but leave the cheesecake inside for another 30 minutes with the oven door closed.
7. At the end of those 30 minutes, open the oven door, and let the cheesecake remain in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.
8. Refrigerate the cheesecake for at least 8 hours.

Whipped Cream:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat together heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar on high until stiff peaks form.
2. Pipe whipped cream on top of cheesecake.  I used a Wilton 2D tip.

 

*Life Love and Sugar’s water bath tutorial.