Brown Sugar and Toasted Pecan Cheesecake

No leakage through the 4 layers of Heavy Duty tin foil..nice crunchy crust!

Look Ma, No cracks! Yeah

And I saved the food porn photo for last! I love drippy shots.

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge

.......and I now pronounce you Brown Sugar and toasted pecan cheesecake and wife.

Whhhhhaaaaa??, you might be saying, but Leslie I thought you were married to the flourless chocolate cake from last months challenge? Well after a few of you had commented that you were already married to the chocolate cake, I divorced that cheating bastard and have since moved on to bigger and better things. Me and this cheesecake are getting along just fine thank you very much.(And I had him first).

Here in Tampa we have a Cheesecake Factory and they make some FANTASTIC cheesecakes. Well let me just say, and I don't mean to toot my own horn(toot toot), this was the best cheesecake I have ever eaten. EVER. PERIOD!

I actually have never made cheesecake before. Sure, I have done the no bake minis before, but those aren't truly cheesecake. I was a bit nervous going into this one, only because I have heard of the cracking on top and the water from the water bath seeping into the spring form pan and getting the crust all soggy. Well again(toot toot) I had no cracking and no water seepage.

I used the Extra Heavy duty foil(the one that is really long), so 1 sheet wrapped around the whole pan.

In my true fashion of using nothing fancy and with the ingredients I had on hand, I decided to make my cheesecake simple with simple changes to the ingredients. But the changes I made made it outstanding.

For the crust, I used brown sugar instead of white and added 1/4 to 1/2 cup of toasted ground pecans.

For the filling, I used 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup toasted ground pecans.

Caramel Sauce

(Joy of Cooking)

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Place the sugar in a heavy saucepan and pour the water evenly over. Heat over medium heat until the sugar has completely dissolved, swirling the pan by the handle to stir (don’t use a spoon.) Don’t let the mixture come to a boil before the sugar has dissolved completely. Once it’s dissolved, turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil, cover the pan, and boil for 2 minutes. Uncover the pan and continue to boil until the syrup starts to darken around the edges. Now, start swirling the pan by the handle until the syrup turns a deep amber color, then remove it from the heat and add the pieces of butter, stirring until the butter melts. Next, stir in the heavy cream (if the sauce becomes lumpy, set it over low heat and stir until smooth.) Finally, add the vanilla.
Cool and store in the fridge in an airtight container. To reheat, spoon the amount you want into a microwaveable container and heat for 20-30 seconds

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:

2 cups / 180 g

graham cracker crumbs

1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted

2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:

3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature

1 cup / 210 g sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)

1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. Set crust aside.
3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a spring form pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!