Banana Pudding Cheesecake
A baked cheesecake inspired by classic Southern banana pudding, with a vanilla wafer and pecan crust.
Ingredients
| 1 1/2 cups | 360 ml | finely crushed vanilla wafers |
| 1/2 cup | 120 ml | finely chopped pecans |
| 1/4 cup | 60 ml | Challenge butter, melted |
| 17 | vanilla wafers | |
| 2 | ripe bananas, diced | |
| 1 | ripe banana, mashed | |
| 1 tablespoon | 15 ml | lemon juice |
| 2-3 tablespoons | 30–45 ml | light brown sugar |
| 3 | Challenge cream cheese, softened (8-ounce packages) | |
| 1 cup | 240 ml | granulated sugar |
| 3 | large eggs | |
| 2 teaspoons | 10 ml | vanilla extract |
| — | whipped cream and vanilla wafers for garnish |
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, stir together crushed vanilla wafers, chopped pecans, and melted butter. Press into bottom of a greased 9-inch springform pan.
- Stand 17 vanilla wafers around edge of pan with rounded sides facing outward. Press them gently into the crust.
- In a small saucepan, combine bananas (both diced and mashed) and lemon juice. Stir in brown sugar, using 2 tablespoons if your bananas are super ripe and 3 tablespoons if they are medium ripe. Cook over medium heat until brown sugar dissolves, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
- Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.
- Gradually add granulated sugar.
- Add eggs, one at a time and stopping to scrape down sides of bowl after each addition. Do not over beat. Only beat until most of yellow disappears before adding next egg.
- Beat in vanilla extract.
- Stir banana mixture in until evenly mixed. Pour batter into springform pan on top of crust.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until center is almost set. Jiggle the pan to check.
- Turn oven off, open door about 6 inches and leave cheesecake in oven to cool for about 1 hour.
- Remove cheesecake to counter to cool for another 30 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours before serving.
- Garnish with whipped cream and vanilla wafers.
Notes
If you're a huge fan of vanilla wafers, try adding 1/2 cup coarsely chopped vanilla wafers to the batter.
You can leave the pecans out of the crust if you wish. Add maybe 1/4 cup more vanilla wafer crumbs.