Decadent cheesecake layered with Crème Brûlée!
This is one amazing cheesecake that you can’t go on without trying!
Delicious smooth cheesecake on top of the classic and elegant Crème Brûlée and some caramelized sugar on top!
I was just thinking about what inspires my recipes. Ingredients at the store, pictures of food, culture, art, smells or “nothing in the fridge so you are forced to get creative”. Smell is probably one of my bigger inspirations for recipe creating. Have you ever smelled something and could actually taste it?
Ingredients:
For Crust:
1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
5 tbs butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
For Cheesecake:
2 8-ounce packages of Cream Cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 Tablespoons corn starch
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
Crème Brûlée
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
4 tbs of sugar
1/2 cup of extra fine sugar for burning
5 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
~ Grease a 9-inch spring form, set aside. Preheat the oven to 300.
For crust:
1. Crush the graham crackers in the food processor. Mix in the sugar. Stir in the melted butter and vanilla. Mix very well. Press graham crackers into the pan, evenly, all over the bottom and about half way up the side.
Cheesecake:
1. Start beating the cream cheese with a mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes.
2. Add the vanilla extract and the heavy cream into the cream cheese. Add the eggs, one at the time, beating after each addition.
3. Add the sour cream, sugar, corn starch and vanilla extract. Make sure that all ingredients are well combined.
4. Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan with crust. Place in the oven while making the Crème Brûlée custard. (about 13-15 minutes)
Crème Brûlée:
1. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine heavy cream and 4 tbs of sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally until just starting to boil. Set aside.
2. Beat the egg yolks and vanilla until smooth and light. Pour in hot cream very slowly (if you do it too fast, you will cook the eggs), a little bit at a time. Do not stop beating the mixture.
3. Pour the mixture over the cheesecake. Here is where it got really interesting for me! I guess, I poured it a little too heavy, the creme brulee custard broke through the center of the cheesecake and the layers literally switched places! The creme brulee ended up on the bottom and cheesecake on the top! It was AWESOME!
4. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
5. When chilled, take out of the refrigerator and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of extra fine sugar over the top. Using a cooking torch, move the flame continuously over the surface in a smooth and even motion until the sugar is melted and golden brown.
Ingredients
- For Crust:
- 1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 5 tbs butter melted
- 1 tsp vanilla
- For Cheesecake:
- 2 8- ounce packages of Cream Cheese at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup whipping cream
- 1 Tablespoons corn starch
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Crème Brûlée:
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 4 tbs of sugar
- 1/2 cup of extra fine sugar for burning
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- ~ Grease a 9-inch spring form, set aside. Preheat the oven to 300.
- For crust:
- Crush the graham crackers in the food processor. Mix in the sugar. Stir in the melted butter and vanilla. Mix very well. Press graham crackers into the pan, evenly, all over the bottom and about half way up the side.
- Cheesecake:
- Start beating the cream cheese with a mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla extract and the heavy cream into the cream cheese. Add the eggs, one at the time, beating after each addition.
- Add the sour cream, sugar, corn starch and vanilla extract. Make sure that all ingredients are well combined.
- Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan with crust. Place in the oven while making the Crème Brûlée custard. (about 13-15 minutes)
- Crème Brûlée:
- In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine heavy cream and 4 tbs of sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally until just starting to boil. Set aside.
- Beat the egg yolks and vanilla until smooth and light. Pour in hot cream very slowly (if you do it too fast, you will cook the eggs), a little bit at a time. Do not stop beating the mixture.
- Pour the mixture over the cheesecake. Here is where it got really interesting for me! I guess, I poured it a little too heavy, the creme brulee custard broke through the center of the cheesecake and the layers literally switched places! The creme brulee ended up on the bottom and cheesecake on the top! It was AWESOME!
- Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- When chilled, take out of the refrigerator and sprinkle with 1/3 cup of extra fine sugar over the top. Using a cooking torch, move the flame continuously over the surface in a smooth and even motion until the sugar is melted and golden brown.
Notes
Leslee McDonald says
I would recommend using a ‘Bain marie’ or water bath for the Cheesecake while it bakes…especially when using a convection oven. I always use the bath for cheesecakes and Creme brulee, I am a baker for a living and all we use in restaurants are convection ovens. The bath prevents the cracking over the top, the mixing of layers, and helps bake evenly. Ifor the cakes are still.not baking completely, then it is an issue of too much mixture in the pan.
This recipe cheesecake sounds amazing.
lyuba says
Hi Leslee!
I do use Bain Marie now. This was one of my early (very early) cheesecakes and I didn’t use that technique back then. I definitely love all the benefits from the water bath 🙂
Ridge says
In my quest for the perfect cheesecake, I ran across this recipe. Like most people, here, I found this recipe to be enticing, but it does have some stiff competition; my last cake was a coconut/lemon cheesecake. It drove several people insane. So, I got up this morning and followed these instructions to a “T”. Right now, the cake is in the fridge cooling and waiting for the sugar and torch. (It took an extra 16 minutes to get the color and “done-ness” to where I wanted it to be.) It didn’t achieve the height that is apparent in the photo(s). But, I’m looking forward to serving it tonight.
Will let you know, ok?
Ridge says
Okay. The deed was done. The overall response to this cheesecake produced more positive responses to its texture than its flavor, which was lacking, in spite of three doses of vanilla. I used a good, organic vanilla extract, but that didn’t do the trick. Using whole beans might have made a difference. Maybe not. Physically, as I stated above, it didn’t obtain the height seen in the photos. The Crème Brûlée did its job, but the cheese seemed to sink under the weight of the Crème Brûlée. As stated above, I had to add 16 minutes to the baking time to achieve the desired results, but some of that time could have been used in the first round of baking the cheesecake, only. This may have made it dense enough to withstand the weight of the top layer (which, by the way, stayed on top!). The most flavorful component was the caramelized sugar on top. The over-all cake needed an edge, flavor-wise. Now that the cake is baked and there’s some left from last night, I’m going to add an organic peach syrup. I’ll try this recipe again with the syrup infused and baked into the cake.
There’s potential, here…the kind that makes you dizzy and levitates you several inches above your seat. I think that, even if it was baked flawlessly, it would still have been flat, taste-wise. Am thinking that Peach in the cheese and lemon in the Crème Brûlée might do the trick.
I’m lowering the recipe to a “3”, leaving some room for improvement. Thanks. Was fun to make.
lyuba says
Hi Ridge!
I just realized that I didn’t noticed your comment. I’m so sorry!
First, thank you for your thorough breakdown!
Vanilla and creme brulee are not a popping kind of flavors, I agree. It is a mild cheesecake. To add more flavor pops, you can absolutely add vanilla bean to both cheesecake and creme brulee parts. A caramel drizzle would be a nice compliment to this cheesecake as well. If you want to take in another way, you can make the cheesecake part lemon flavored and have a lemon/creme brulee flavor combination.
I agree on the improvement 🙂 It’s been quite a few years since I first made this cheesecake. Check out my newer cheesecakes for some that may interest you.
Janice says
How do you make sure creme brulee is done?
lyuba says
Hi Janice!
A couple of thoughts:
Did you try to cut it before it was cooled and refrigerated? 15 and then 45 minutes should be enough to cook through but you can absolutely try adding 10-15 more minutes. Then, turn off the oven and crack it open. Let it sit in the oven for about 10 minutes.
Definitely make sure it’s cooled on the counter for about an hour and then in the refrigerator for about 4 hours before cutting.
I hope it all works well!
Janice says
In regular oven. Not convection oven
lyuba says
I bake everything in a regular oven too. The original oven I made it in didn’t even have a convection setting 🙂
Chyral Blossom says
Honestly speaking my mouth is full of water…..this cheesecake is absolutely outrages.
lyuba says
I hope you will feel the same way after trying it, Chyral! 🙂
Linda says
I make this all the time, it’s a crowd favorite at our house. I add vanilla bean paste to the cheesecake and custard to amp up the vanilla flavor, as you mentioned Cream Brûlée isn’t a flavor forward dessert. But I serve mine with fresh berries lightly tossed with sugar .
LyubaB says
Yum! That sounds delicious!