After baking, a second layer of cream cheese with whipped topping and extra vanilla is added for an elegant special occasion dessert. This creamy vanilla cheesecake has a vanilla wafer crust.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 hrs 55 mins |
| Total Time: | 6 hrs 15 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 16 servings |
Ingredients
- 40 NILLA Wafers, crushed
- 3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted
- 4 (8 ounce) packages PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened, divided
- 1 cup sugar, divided
- 4 teaspoons vanilla, divided
- 3 eggs
- 1 (8 ounce) tub COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Mix wafer crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan.
- Beat 3 pkg. cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp. vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.
- Bake 50 to 55 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool completely in pan.
- Beat remaining cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer in large bowl until well blended. Whisk in COOL WHIP; spread over cheesecake. Refrigerate 4 hours. Remove rim of pan before serving cheesecake.
- Need a sweet treat to serve a crowd? Try this rich, creamy dessert! Since it serves 16 people, it easily fits the bill.
- Prepare recipe as directed, using a vanilla bean and reducing vanilla extract to 2 tsp. Use sharp knife to gently split 1 vanilla bean pod lengthwise in half, then scrape seeds into cheesecake batter. Add 1 tsp. vanilla extract to the batter and use remaining extract to flavor cheesecake topping as directed.
- Garnish with fresh berries just before serving.
Reviews
Excellent, note to those who say it isn’t good because it’s not the dense NY cheese cake: The title is Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake that indicates it’s light and fluffy. It is perfect.
Creamy, light, fluffy delicious treat!!! My entire family stated that this is definitely a new favorite!
I made this for Father’s Day and it was a delicious, creamy cheesecake. Even my son who doesn’t like cheesecake, had seconds. I made as directed and served with cherry pie filling. All agreed we would make it again!
Love the nilly wafer crust. Very easy to make and super creamy. Did make my own whipped cream.
This recipe is excellent! I have also made this with an Oreo crust! Also, Graham cracker using butter and chopped pecans in the crust!
I made it and it was delicious
Made it exactly as written and it was delicious! The best cheesecake I’ve ever made. Definitely recommend!
Delicious
I make this every Christmas and thanksgiving! My family loves it!
This is SUCH a good recipe! I made my first cheesecake 3 months ago using this recipe. At that time, i had only been baking for about five months or so. For an beginning baker, the cake turned out wonderful! Ive made two of these cheesecakes so far, plain vanilla, and peppermint. Trying my kuck with chocolate today! All in all, I definitely recommend this recipe, even if you are a beginner!
My husband says this is delicious. I find the taste to be rather bland. The texture is superb though and the instructions were very easy to follow.
My husband says this is delicious. I find the taste to be rather bland. The texture is superb though and the instructions were very easy to follow.
I was only able to find reduced fat Nilla Vanillas. Made the crust dry and we all felt the cheesecake didn’t have a lot of flavor. I would prefer the top layer to be half as thick. Made it for a birthday with sprinkles on top. Made it really pretty at least
This is a great tasting cheesecake and so simple to make. I have made it twice and the second time I cut ingredients in half because there were only two of us. I did use two eggs but will only use one large one next time. I also cut the baking time by 9 minutes. I used one package of Dream Whip topping mix instead of the cool whip which worked perfectly and tasted as good. I used the a 7″ springform pan.
Did this for my daughter’s thirteenth birthday. Absolutely fabulous!
Stuck to the recipe and it turned out great. Everyone enjoyed it.. Even requested I make it again..
Everyone thinks I’m some kind of miracle worker now. This recipe is amazing. Even non fans of cheesecake are head over heels for this. So delicious. Thank you
Great – i used peppermint cool whip at Christmas next year I would I would subutute pepermint for vanilla flavoring and top with chocolate sause
I just made this last night and my husband loved it. I would say add more vanilla or sugar to the cheesecake batter but it was awesome!!
very good
This turned out just like the picture. The only change I made was to make the crust one and a half times thicker because it seemed a bit chintzy. I also baked it in a water bath as I always do(using the temperature and time given-50 minutes), turning the oven off and letting it sit with a cracked door for about an hour before setting it on the counter to cool completely- then refrigerating overnight, and it was the perfect consistency-super creamy and smooth from the edge to the middle. I struggled with getting the top layer to spread nicely, and finally I found that the easiest way to get it nice and smooth like in the picture is to use an offset spatula to spread it evenly with a very light hand. The bottom layer is not very sweet, but combined with the sweetness of the top layer it is the perfect amount. I am pretty sure that this recipe will please my friends who do not prefer the heavier cheesecakes. I normally like to make sauces for the tops of my cheesecakes, but since this cheesecake has the lighter top layer, I did not want to cover it up, so I topped it just like the photo with fresh blueberries and they were perfect together. One more positive: it cuts like a dream into beautiful firm pieces.