Crème Brûlée Cheesecake

Source

**For the crust**
Cooking spray
9 graham crackers (1 sleeve), finely crushed
6 tbsp. melted butter
1/4 c. granulated sugar
pinch of salt
**For the filling**
4 (8-oz.) blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 c. granulated sugar
3 large eggs and 2 large egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1/4 c. sour cream
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
**For the topping**
1/3 c. superfine sugar
Raspberries, for serving
Preheat oven to 325° and grease an 8″ or 9″ springform pan with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, butter, sugar, and salt. Press into bottom of prepared pan and up the sides.
Make filling: In a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar together until no lumps remain. Add eggs and egg yolks, then stir in vanilla bean paste and sour cream. Add flour and salt and beat until just combined. Pour mixture over crust.
Wrap bottom of pan in aluminum foil and place in a large roasting pan. Pour in enough boiling water to come up halfway in the baking pan.
Bake until center of cheesecake only slightly jiggles, about 1 hour 30 minutes. Turn off heat, prop open oven door, and let cheesecake cool in oven, 1 hour. Remove foil and refrigerate cheesecake for at least 5 hours and up to overnight.
When ready to serve, sprinkle superfine sugar on top and carefully torch until caramelized. Serve with raspberries.
**My own notes:** If you have had bad luck with **cracks** in your cheesecakes, you can take the following tips. 1) You can use a water bath to help gentle, even cooking. 2) Don’t open the door while it’s baking! 3) When it’s done baking, don’t take it out—just turn the oven off and crack the oven open, so that it cools in the gentlest way possible.
They don’t do this, but I usually pre-bake my crumb crust at 350 for about 8-10 minutes, just to firm it up.
When I bake cheesecakes I cook them at a lower temperature than this—300F or even 275F. I’ve found that gives great texture results with no cracks. However, I haven’t tried changing the cook temp on this specific recipe, so you’re best off following it as written.
If you don’t own a **torch**, you can use your broiler but it’s much harder to achieve even brulee without any burned spots. A torch makes things easier, and they’re so much fun, so consider spending $25 and getting one.