banana's foster cheesecake

How To Make banana's foster cheesecake

• 1

  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
• 2

  Finely process the banana chips and combine with crushed graham crackers. I say its about 1 1/2 cups of graham crackers, but for a 9 inch springform pan I find one regular sized box of graham crackers will fit the bill. Mix in the brown sugar and cinnamon until well combined. Melt the butter then add to the graham cracker mix. Blend well (I start off with a spoon and usually finish by hand= but be careful, the butter can be hot) I use a 9 inch springform pan and don't usually grease it as the butter from the crust is sufficient to keep the cheesecake from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Firmly press the graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the pan and then work your way up about halfway to 3/4 of the way up the side of the pan. Just because it might be easier now than later, I line outside of my springform pan with aluminum foil. If you have the wide foil this works perfectly for a 9 inch pan. Why? Because you're gonna be baking this cheesecake in a hot water bath and the foil is a good protection against water getting into the pan.
• 3

  Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once melted add the brown sugar and cinnamon. Let the brown sugar dissolve well before going on. This may take a few minutes but don't leave and keep stirring. Add the rum (or rum extract/water mix) and the banana liqueur. Be mindful, you are adding liquid to hot melted sugar so be careful and add the liquid slowly. Let this mixture cook down for a couple of minutes- you're cooking off the alcohol here, folks so let the heat do its job. Mix in your bananas. There is no need for things to look pretty at this point. This layer is going to be covered by about three inches of cheesecake so nobody's gonna see it anyway. Cook the bananas down for about three minutes and remove from heat. Remove the bananas from the mixture using a slotted spoon. Spoon the bananas across the graham cracker crust. Reserve about a cup of syrup/bananas for the next step.
• 4

  On to the cheesecake. Cream the cream cheese and sugar together. Then add the eggs one at a time blending well after each addition. Add the cup of heavy cream, vanilla extract, banana liqueur and the syrup from the banana foster layer and mix well. (BTW, I said it was 1 cup of banana foster syrup, it'll be whatever syrup is left after your remove the bananas) In a separate bowl, mix the instant banana cream pudding with the two cups of heavy cream (try not to stop at this point and just pig out on the pudding because it's really good!) I found using the whisk attachment of my mixer did a great job here. (Yes, I think you can use cook and serve pudding just as well here). Combine the pudding mixture with the cream cheese mixture until well blended. Pour the mixture into the springform pan. Put the pan into a larger pan and then pour hot water into the out pan until it comes about halfway up the outside of your springform pan. Place the pan in the over and cook for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes. This is an approximate time and you will want to start checking after about 45 minutes(different ovens will cook differently). Remove from the oven and let cool. After it is cooled, place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours though overnight is best.
• 5

  After removing the cheesecake from the fridge run a small paring knife between the edge of the pan and the cheesecake to loosen it before releasing the spring.
• 6

  In a saucepan, melt your butter then add the brown sugar and cinnamon. As before make sure the sugar is completely dissolved then carefully add the banana liqueur, vanilla and banana extract and rum (or rum extract/water combo). Yes, this recipe is slightly different from the one above. Once you've cooked the syrup for a few minutes carefully add the bananas. Cook the bananas for about 2-3 minutes then remove from heat.
• 7

  At this point you can either remove the bananas and arrange them on the top of the cheesecake then pour the syrup on top or slice the cheesecake and put the bananas foster on the individual slices. Either way, I hope you enjoy this little taste of New Orleans.
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