Bourbon Praline Cheesecake

This is a recipe I have had for over 30 years!! The Bourbon Praline Cheesecake is one of our favourite cheesecakes & this year it is going to be our New Years Eve 2022 dessert!

My friend Wendy Carter gave me this recipe, Bourbon Praline Cheesecake, (her recipe had rum in it, but I changed it to bourbon0 while we lived in Yellowknife! I lived there with Murray after we got married in 1979 until we moved to Edmonton In 1986. Wendy taught me many things about cooking and baking in those years! I knew nothing really.about being in a kitchen & Wendy was an inspiration to me. I still remember many of the delicious dishes she made that we ate! We used to decorate birthday cakes together, bake & decorate sugar cookies for my son’s pre-school, so many delicious & fond memories! I asked Wendy if I could put her name to this cheesecake & she said I could..so thanks Wendy!!

I doubled the ingredients for the crust since I love a thick graham wafer crust & I added Bourbon instead of rum that is in the original recipe.

I will cut into the cheesecake to show all of you what it is like & give it a taste taste for you too!! So glad to have an excuse to get into this! Then I am going to save the rest for Friday!

I can’t stress enough how delicious this is! I hope you try it! Let me know if you do and what you think about it!

Here is a tip I heard about using a springform pan… Put the base into the ring upside down so that it is easier to remove whatever delicious thing you have baked in there!

Here is the recipe IF YOU CAN NOT HAVE NUTS, MAKE THIS WITHOUT ! IT WILL STILL BE SO GOOD!

Ingredients

Crust ( doubled for a thick base…if you want you can halve the amounts for a thinner base)

2 cups graham wafer crumbs

1 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup melted butter

Filling

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese ( 3 – 250 g pkg of cream cheese) ROOM TEMPERATURE

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp Bourbon or you can use Rum

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Topping

2 tbsp maple syrup

pecan halves to trim the cake … I used 25

Whipping cream, icing sugar & bourbon to serve with the cheesecake

Method

Preheat the oven to 350f

1 10 inch springform pan

Make the Crust

1. Mix the graham wafter crumbs, chopped pecans, sugar & melted butter together in a bowl . Evenly press the mixed ingredients firmly into the bottom of the springform pan. Put into the refrigerator to chill while you ,make the filling.

Make the Filling

1. Using a food processor ( you can use a mixer if you do not have a food processor) cream the cream cheese, sugar & flour together until smooth and there are not any cream cheese lumps! Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary with a spatula.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time, mix after each egg, then add the vanilla & rum, mix
3. Now, mix in the chopped pecans using a spatula
4. Remove the crust from the fridge & pour in the filling. Gently tap the springform pan on the counter to smooth out and settle the filling in the crust
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, then open the oven door and let the cheesecake cool in there until it is room temperature
6. When the cheesecake is cool, brush with the maple syrup then garnish with pecan halves. To remove from the pan, use a knife around the edges of the pan than loosen the ring and remove.
7. Chill completely before serving . I whipped up some cream, add some icing sugar & a bit of bourbon to it to serve with the cheesecake!