Shelly's Recipe

NEOPOLITAN CHEESECAKE

Category: Cheesecake

Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup toasted coconut
1/4 cup diced macadamia nuts, toasted
1 stick butter, melted
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Basic Cheesecake
3 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)

Add-ins
4 oz chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1 vanilla bean
1 cup strawberry puree, strained of seeds

Preheat oven to 350. Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and blend until smooth and creamy.

Divide the batter into thirds. Mix melted chocolate with one-third of the batter and pour onto crust. Add the innerds of the vanilla bean to a third of the batter and pour over chocolate batter. Add the strawberry puree to the final third of the batter and pour strawberry flavored batter over the vanilla layer.

Tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.