Philadelphia Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake

Saw this in a magazine ad. It was in an issue of Every Day with Rachel Ray. There is nothing "simple" about the recipes in her magazine. Don't get me wrong, they look REALLY tasty, but just not practical in our household. Hard to find ingredients, lots of prep, ingredients my kids probably wouldn't be willing to try, ingredients that I may never use the rest of... anyways I find it comical that the only recipe that I will probably ever make from her magazine was just an advertisement. Oh well. Enjoy!

PS-I'm usually hesitate about cheesecake. I've had trouble with it before, being underdone or overdone, cracking, etc. But this was super easy. And it even looked pretty too.

40 NILLA Wafers, crushed (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 Tbls butter or margarine, melted
4 pkg (8 oz) Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened, divided (I used the 1/3 less fat)
1 c sugar, divided
1 Tbls plus 1 tsp vanilla, divided
3 eggs
1 tub (8 oz) COOL WHIP, thawed

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix wafer crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan.

Beat 3 pkg cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and 1 Tbls 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 minutes 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. Garnish with fresh berries if desired.