Absolutely! You can scrape the beans from 1 whole vanilla pod as a substitute for the homemade vanilla extract in this recipe. However, I choose homemade vanilla extract because I still get the bean seeds into my cheesecake, but get MUCH more flavor from that one bean by putting it into my homemade vanilla. For me, it is a more economical and quick, fuss-free option when making vanilla bean cheesecake. For lots of great info on choosing vanilla beans check out my Homemade Vanilla Extract post.