Baked Cookies+Creme Cheesecake—Prototype 9:
 
This latest prototype's changes include, among other things, replacing Bran Buds with regular All-Bran and omitting the salt.

The Back To Nature chocolate sandwich cookies, as used in my latest cookie+creme cheesecakes (at least up to this point), have done well in filling the void resulting from the discontinuance of the Nature's Promise version by Stop & Shop. But as I mentioned in Prototype 6, I was also disappointed about that brand of chocolate chip cookies being cut off as well. But the day after I baked my 9th prototype presented here, I spotted those cookies at Stop & Shop again, and that made me happy for my brother Eric's sake.
 
Yogurt Cheese:
Prepare ahead of time 3 pounds of yogurt cheese, derived from three 32-ounce containers of nonfat yogurt. If the resulting yogurt cheese falls below 48 ounces, add back enough of the whey (that was strained out from the yogurt) to make up the difference.

Crust:
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, melted
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
8 oz. (1 cup) yogurt cheese (see above)
3/8 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz. finely ground All-Bran

Pour this crust mixture into bottom of greased springform pan (9 to 9 1/2 inches) and pre-bake without tub at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, then cool enough to comfortably touch at least the pan's upper sidewall.

Batter:
4 tablespoons melted or softened butter
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons arrowroot
40 oz. (5 cups) yogurt cheese (see above)
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs

Cookies:
Chocolate sandwich cookies (with vanilla creme centers), about 2 dozen (Back To Nature Classic Creme Cookies recommended)

Expect about 7 cups of the resulting batter, but do not add this to the pan all at once. Rather, this needs to be done in five installments. Wrap the pan in foil just before adding the first installment. Minimize the foil's disturbance in order to minimize its leakage risk.

For each of the first four installments, gently scoop about 1 1/2 cups of batter into the pan. Add about 6 cookies (don't bother breaking them up—keeping them whole is fine and, in fact, recommended), ensuring that they are fully coated and—as much as possible—immersed. After adding an installment, bake the pan with its contents for 15 minutes. For each of the first three installments, bake at 325 degrees. For the fourth installment, reduce the temperature and bake at 300 degrees. For all four installments here, bake with the pan in a tub filled with at least 1/4 to 1/2 inch of boiling water, but (to reduce spillage risks) do not fill the tub all the way at this point, because the whole tub-and-pan assembly is going to need to be removed from the oven (in order to comfortably add contents to the pan) between installments.

After all this is done, there should be about a cup of batter left, with 60 minutes of baking time reached at this point (15 minutes for each of the first four installments). Now comes the fifth installment—carefully add the last of this batter (do not add any more cookies at this point) on top of the pan's other contents. Try to fully coat the entire surface, especially wherever cookie pieces may be showing. Next, return the entire pan-and-tub assembly to the oven. At this point, fill up the tub generously with boiling water. Resume baking at 300 degrees for another 55 minutes (based upon usage of a 9 1/2" pan).

Afterward, shut the oven off, and leave its door slightly ajar, with the cheesecake still inside—and in the tub—for an hour. Next, remove the cheesecake from the oven and tub, and—if desired—add a border of chocolate chips around the edge of this cheesecake. Continue to cool it down at room temperature for another two hours. After doing so, remove the cheesecake from pan and refrigerate.
 
This was another great success at Living Hope Church. Only a couple of slices were left, and I took those home.
 

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