Snickerdoodle Cheesecake

While I mostly intend on featuring desserts that showcase the best fruits of the season, I recently made this snickerdoodle cheesecake and it is just too good not to share.

Sweet, creamy cheesecake meets soft, cinnamon cookie in this really easy cake. No fussy water bath is needed. The creamy cheese filling is lightly kissed with warm cinnamon and vanilla. It’s baked into a shortbread cookie crust and the top is sprinkled with that familiar snickerdoodle cinnamon sugar.

This cinnamon cheesecake is surprisingly light and not overly sweet.

The crust, both top and bottom, is pretty amazing. The bottom crust is a simple, buttery, shortbread cookie crust. And while there is technically no crust on the top, the sprinkling of cinnamon sugar added before baking results in the same cracked and craggy top that you get in a snickerdoodle cookie. The top actually looks like a big snickerdoodle cookie, doesn’t it?

But you will really like this sweet, creamy filling. Just a hint of cinnamon gives it a perfectly warm flavor. And the cheesecake filling on top of the cookie crust really brings all the flavors of my favorite snickerdoodle cookie.

So if you are a fan of cheesecake and snickerdoodle cookies, this is a perfect dessert for you!

Ahhhh, kindness. What a simple way to show another struggling soul that there is love to be found in this world.

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Snickerdoodle Cheesecake

Author: Anne @ A Salad For All Seasons

Serves: one 9 inch cake

A light, sweet, creamy cheesecake kissed with a hint of cinnamon and baked into a buttery shortbread cookie crust.

Ingredients

one 10 ounce package of shortbread cookies, finely crushed ( I used Lorna Doone's)
½ a stick of salted butter, melted
2 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
8 ounces of sour cream
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons of all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, divided

Instructions

Place the shortbread cookies in the bowl of your food processor and pulse until you have course crumbs like sand.
Tip these out into a bowl and add the melted butter.
Mix together with a fork until the crumbs now look like wet sand and will hold together when you pinch a clump between your fingers.
Line the bottom of a 9" springform pan with the cookie crumb mix, patting it down evenly and pressing it up about 1½" along the side of the pan as well.
There is no need to butter the pan, since the crumb crust will be buttery enough.
Set this on a rimmed baking sheet and put it to the side while you prepare the cheese cake filling.
Make sure your oven rack is in the center position and preheat your oven to 350°F.
With an electric mixer, blend the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar together on medium speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy and free of lumps.
Add the flour, vanilla extract, and ½ a teaspoon of the ground cinnamon.
When all of these have been incorporated, add the beaten eggs and blend until the mixture is smooth and all of the ingredients have been combined.
Pour this mixture over the crust in your prepared pan and smooth the top.
In a small bowl, mix the Tablespoon of sugar and the remaining ½ a teaspoon of cinnamon. Sprinkle this evenly over the top.
Bake this for about 45-50 minutes.
What you want to look for is that about a 2 inch area along the outside rim is set when you jiggle the pan slightly.
Let the cheesecake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes.
Then release the sides of the springform pan and let the cake cool for another 30 minutes. Remove the ring from the pan, cover and chill for at least 4 hours before serving.
The cake will sink a bit in the middle and while it's chilling in the fridge, some of the sugar and cinnamon mixture will naturally be absorbed. So I sprinkled it with a bit of sugar before serving.