Cheesecake Bake-off!!

Awesomeness has occurred!!  Tonight definitely got everyone on a sugar high!  It was my home ward's third annual cheesecake bake-off, and my first time being able to actually go, so I made a cheesecake!  It was my second time ever making a cheesecake, my first attempt being an Australian cheesecake that was quite bitter.  I actually had to adapt this most recent cheesecake from a cheesecake bar recipe into an actual cheesecake recipe, which took some effort, and it certainly didn't win any prizes.  I did, however, get a compliment on the brownie cheesecake crust.  The cheesecake I made was a chocolate chip cookie dough brownie cheesecake recipe, given below.  The picture is first of the bars that the real recipe makes, and then the second picture is of the already-sampled cheesecake that I made for tonight (I forgot to take a picture before-hand).  Then the adaptations follow.

Ingredients:

Chocolate chip cookie dough

- ½ of 1 package Nestle Toll House pre-made cookie dough

Cheesecake

8oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Brownie (adapted from Alice Medrich)

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4oz. unsweetened chocolate
• 1 ¼ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup all-purpose flour

Instructions:

Cookie dough preparation

Crumble half of cookie dough mixture.

To make cheesecake

Add all ingredients in a bowl and beat until blended. Set aside.

To make brownie

1. Place butter and chocolate in a double boiler or a bowl over simmering water. Stir frequently until mixture is melted. Remove chocolate mixture from heat and stir in sugar, vanilla and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until each is incorporated before adding the next. Stir in flour and beat with a wooden spoon until mixture is glossy about 1 minute. Set aside.

Assembly

1. Pour 3/4 of brownie mixture into pan. Layer cheesecake mixture on top. Sprinkle crumbled cookie dough on top of cheesecake layer. Pour remaining brownie mixture on top. Use a skewer or a fork and drag it through the brownie and cheesecake mixture to create a swirled top.
2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees F. Brownie will will be fudgy and cheesecake layer will be creamy.

Adaptations: I used the same cookie dough, but instead of making an entire layer of just cookie dough I did little pieces here and there to keep it from having too much of a cookie texture.  Then, I still made the entire brownie mix, but I put less than half of the mix on the bottom for a thinner crust and none on the top so that the finished product didn't come out too cake-y after being baked.  There was quite a bit of brownie mix left over, which my brothers proceeded to then eat.  I doubled the cheesecake part of the recipe to make it more cheesecake-y because with the original recipe, the cheesecake seemed like the least important part.  I baked it at the same temperature for the 30 minutes the recipe says to and it turned out pretty well, I think.  Try it for yourself and adapt it to your liking!  :-)