Irish Cream Caramel Cheesecake
Super yummy and creamy from Fine Cooking #104
Equipment
- 1 Springform pan
Ingredients
Crust
- 8 oz chocolate cookie crumbs
- 3 Tbs sugar
- 7 Tbs unsalted butter melted
Filling
- 4 – 8 oz packages of cream cheese at room temperature
- 2 Tbs flour
- pinch salt
- 1¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tbs pure vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs at room temperature
- 3 Tbs Baileys
Caramel sauce
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 Tbs water
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 Tbs unsalted butter
- pinch salt
Instructions
Make the crust
- Position rack in center of the oven and heat the oven to 375°F.
- In a medium bowl, stir the cookie crumbs and sugar. Mix in the melted butter until the crumbs are evenly moist and clump together slightly. Transfer the mixture to a 9 inch springform pan and press evenly onto the bottom and about 2 inches up the sides of the pan ( to press, use your fingers or a flat bottomed glass).
- Bake until the crust is fragrant and slightly darkened, 9-12 minutes. Let the pan cool on a rack and lower the oven temperature to 300°F
Make the filling
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, flour and salt on medium speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl and the paddle frequently, until very smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Make sure the cheese has no lumps.
- Add the sugar and continue beating until well blended and smooth. Add the vanilla and Baileys and beat until blended, about 30 seconds. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until just blended. (Don't overbeat once the eggs have been added or the cheesecake will puff too much and crack as it cools).
- Pour the filling into the crust and smooth the top.
Bake the cake
- Bake at 300°F until the center jiggles like Jell-O when nudged, 55-65 minutes. The cake will be slightly puffed around the edges, and the center will still look moist.
- Set on a rack and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 8 hours.
Make caramel sauce
- In a 2 qt saucepan, combine the sugar and water and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is clear, 2-3 minutes. Increase the heat to medium high and cook without stirring until the sugar begins to turn golden-brown around the edges. Gently swirl the pan over the heat to even out the color, and cook until the sugar turns golden-amber, 3-5 minutes.
- Off the heat, carefully add the heavy cream, butter and salt. Cook, whisking constantly over medium low heat, until well blended and smooth. Set aside until the caramel had cooled slightly, 15 minutes.
- You can pour on top of cooled cheesecake and spread evenly our serve on the side to pour on when eating. Refrigerate extra sauce and warm up before using.
Notes
The original recipe has lots of flavor options, but this is the one I made. I’ll add others as I make them 🙂
If you can’t find chocolate cookie crumbs, use a food processor to grind some up. I used Barilla Pan di Stelle – Cocoa biscuits and Iced sugar stars, it was good.
I might use slightly less butter in the crust (6 Tbs) and more Bailey’s (5 Tbs) next time. The butter oozed out of the pan (make sure you have foil underneath to catch it) and the Bailey’s flavor was not very obvious.
