Planet Hollywood's Bananas Foster Cheesecake

Yield: 8 servings.

Crust:

1 1/2 cups Nilla Vanilla Wafer Cookie crumbs

Butter for greasing baking pan

Flour for dusting baking pan

1/2 cup melted butter, clarified

Batter:

2 pounds cream cheese

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

8 ounces granulated sugar

8 ounces sour cream

Fosters sauce:

4 ounces butter

4 ounces brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 ounces banana liqueur

1 lemon

1/2 of an orange

Garnish:

Mint springs

Powdered sugar

1. Combine ground vanilla wafers and clarified butter. When the mixture is the consistency of moist cornmeal, you've added just the right amount of butter. When squeezed it should hold together easily.

2. Rub inside of a springform pan with butter. Dust sides and bottom with flour, discarding any powder that does not stick. Using your hands, tamp down the butter-wafer mixture forming a short wall up the side. When the mixture is even and all holes are filled in, bake the crust at 300 F for just a few minutes to set the shell.

3. For the filling, beat cream cheese until smooth. With machine running, add granulated sugar, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides. With the machine running, add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla paste or extract and sour cream. Pour batter into prepared, cooled pan and level off with a spatula. Bake at 300 F for 40 minutes.

4. For the sauce, in a small sauté pan, cook brown sugar and butter slowly until the mixture liquefies. Add lemon juice, banana liqueur, orange juice and cinnamon. Bring mixture to a boil and then simmer for 10 minutes and cool. In another sauté pan, sauté banana slices in sizzling butter. When browned on one side, douse the fruit with some of the Fosters sauce.

5. Cut cooled cheesecake into 8 portions. Top with Fosters sauce. Dust with powdered sugar and add a sprig of mint.

Source: Orlando Sentinal