Baileys Irish Cream Cheesecake

[SandyM]

In case it got lost on the #1/#2 Signature Dish post, here's the recipe, as requested. Please note - I haven't tried to lighten this up yet:

Crust:
10 whole graham crackers, broken into pieces
1-1/4 cups pecans
1/4 cup sugar
8 Tbsp. unsalted melted butter

Filling:
1-1/2 lb. cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup Baileys Irish Cream
1 tsp. vanilla
3 oz. white chocolate (Lindt), broken into pieces

Topping:
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1-1/2 oz. imported white chocolate, grated
pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325º. Lightly butter 9" springform pan. Finely process graham crackers, pecans and sugar in food processor. Add butter and pulse. Press onto bottom and 2" up sides of pan. Refrigerate 20 minutes.

Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Whisk eggs, Baileys and vanilla in a separate bowl until just blended. Beat egg mix into cream cheese mix. Finely chop white chocolate in food processor using pulse. Add to cream cheese mix. Transfer to crust-lined pan. Bake until edges of filling are puffed and dry looking, and the center is just set, about 50 minutes. Cool on rack.

Mix sour cream and confectioners sugar in small bowl. Spread on cooled cake. Garnish with pecan halves and shaved white chocolate curls. Refrigerate 6 hours, or until ready to serve.

[MrsReber]

Sandy, this sounds awesome! I may have to try it myself- I assume the alcohol will bake off after 50 minutes? I hope I hope! Bailey's is one of my favorite things. Hubby drank all of my last bottle since I can't drink it right now. I'm sure they'd be amused at the liquor store to see me walking in there buying alcohol with my big belly!

[schuh]

I am so glad you posted this! I have been wanting a dependable recipe for Bailey's cheesecake for about 10 years, which leads to a story...

My DH (then boyfriend) and I went out to dinner once and he had a Bailey's cheesecake that he absolutely loved. I decided that I wanted to make one for him. The opportunity came when we were going to a party that required us to bring a dish related to our ethnic origin (I'm Irish, of course). I decided to try the Bailey's cheesecake out of a recipe book put out by Bailey's itself. It was a very complicated recipe as I recall. There was regular gelatin in it (which I had never used before -- I think I still have that same package in my cupboard). It also called for whipping cream and folding it in at some point. Well, I overwhipped the cream and it curdled. My then-boyfriend, who is watching this whole thing and suppressing gales of laughter, was then sent out (at midnight or so) to get more heavy cream. In the end, after tons of work late at night, the cheesecake looked beautiful and tasted like ... nothing. You couldn't taste the Bailey's at all. It didn't even taste like cheesecake. It was the most blah tasting dessert I have ever made. I have never, ever, tried to make a Bailey's cheesecake after that -- and I'm skittish about cheesecakes in general.

So, SandyM, if this is your Signature Dish and you can vouch for the recipe, maybe I'll redeem myself in the eyes of my husband and make a successful Bailey's cheesecake!

[Linda in MO]

Thanks SandyM! This looks scrumptious!

[Wendy w]

Sandy, I'm a drooling http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/tongue.gif . Thank you for posting this!!!

[MrsReber]

Sandy, I'm giving this a try. It's baking in the oven right now and I did attempt to lighten it just a bit. I only used 5 Tbs of butter for the crust and used a few less graham crackers. Then I used the light cream cheese. I thought about using 2 eggs and 2 egg whites instead of 3 eggs, but it was too late. I'd already cracked them. I plan on using light sour cream for the topping, too. The batter tasted pretty good. I bought 2 of those little airplane bottles of Bailey's since I didn't have a lot of cash on me. They asked if I wanted a bag and I said no. Wonder what they thought of this pregnant woman stuffing airplane bottles of alcohol into her purse? The cake has another half hour to go. Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I figure if it works for me, I'll bring it wherever we get invited for Easter. Somebody is bound to call us about dinner.

[SusanL]

Mrs. Reber- Here's the invitation - Easter dinner is at my house this year -don't forget the Bailey's Cheesecake, about 2ish http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/wink.gif

[Linda in MO]

MrsReber, how did the cheesecake turn out?

[kwormann]

DOes anyone think the recipe would be good with Kahula? My MIL LOVES Kahula!

Kim

[SandyM]

Sorry everyone - I typed this as I was heading for bed, leaving bright and early the next morning to go out of town this weekend.

Susan - I think the alcohol cooks off because it doesn't have a true "alcohol" flavor - at least I don't think. In fact, I forgot to add that I always am generous about adding Baileys to the recipe, because I love love love the taste, and the 1/3 cup that it calls for just never seemed like enough. That's just me, though. Everyone's tastes are different.

My family requests this at every opportunity, but I'm very very anxious to find out what others think. Please, be honest. And again, I apologize for the oversight.

[woodsl]

Originally posted by kwormann:
DOes anyone think the recipe would be good with Kahula? My MIL LOVES Kahula!

Kim

Kim,

I think it would be great with Kahlua. Since your MIL loves Kahlua, I am passing on two recipes that have Kahlua in them.

Kahlua Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 small pkg instant chocolate pudding
1 cup oil
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup Kahlua
1/4 cup vodka
4 eggs

Mix all ingredients. Bake in a greased and floured Bundt pan for 50 - 60 minutes at 350 degrees. I have never tried to lighten this recipe (I love to try lowfat recipes, but I am not brave enough to try and lighten a recipe myself). If you do, let me know how it turns out.

Chocolate-Kahlua Trifle

This is a layered dessert - layers of Kahlua Cake, chocolate pudding, Cool Whip and chopped toffee or Heath candy bars. I make it in a Trifle Bowl - it is very pretty and elegant this way, and people think you spent a lot more time than you actually did making this dessert.

1 Kahlua Cake (see above)
Chocolate pudding (instant (can be sugar free)), cooked a mix or homemade) - enough for a large chocolate pie
8 ounces toffee of Heath Bars, chopped*
8-ounce carton Cool Whip

If you use cooked chocolate pudding, either from a mix or homemade, you must let it cool completely before assembling this dessert or it will melt the Cool Whip.

To assemble the dessert: Place one layer of cake (cut in chunks) in the bottom of a Trifle bowl, top with 1/2 of the pudding. Top pudding with 1/2 of the Cool Whip. Sprinkle 1/2 of the chopped toffee over the Cool Whip. Repeat with another layer, ending with chopped toffee. Refrigerate until serving. (You will not use all of the cake in the dessert – you will have a couple of pieces left over.)

* I have made this using either Heath candy bars or Russell Stovers Toffee; I thought the Russell Stovers Toffee was better. The Russell Stovers Toffee comes in an 8 oz. (I think 8 oz) box. I think it's called butternut toffee (it is covered with crushed almonds).

I just noticed that CL published the following dessert called Mocha-Chocolate Trifle which is very similar to this dessert.

Mocha-Chocolate Trifle

1 pkg light devil's food cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
2 T oil
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
3 cups cold fat-free milk
1 (3.9-ounce) pkg chocolate instant pudding mix
1/2 cup Kahlua
1 (8-ounce) carton fat free Cool Whip
1/2 cup chopped reduced-fat chocolate toffee crisp bars (about 4 bars) (such as Hershey's Sweet Escapes)

Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl; beat at medium speed until well blended. Bake in 13x9-inch baking pan coated with cooking spray at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool completely.

Combine milk and pudding mix in a medium bowl and prepare according to package directions.

Tear half of cake into pieces and place in bottom of Trifle bowl. Sprinkle half of Kahlua over cake. Top with half of pudding, Cool Whip and chocolate bars. Repeat another layer. Chill for 4 hours before serving.

Yield: 16 servings (about 1 cup): Calories 269 (14% from fat); Fat 4.2g; Protien 4.1g; Carb 48.4g; Fiber 1.1g; Chol 16mg; Iron 1mg; Sodium 476mg; Calc 93mg.




[This message has been edited by woodsl (edited 04-01-2001).]

[emilycat]

woodsl,

You have made my evening! I, too, love Kahlua; these recipes look amazing! Thanks!

Emily

[MrsReber]

Can you believe we have still not tasted this cake? It's been in the fridge for 24 hours and we haven't touched it! But we will tonight. It's on the agenda for dessert. The thing is I get so full so fast that I have to wait a couple of hours before I can eat dessert. One thing I didn't do was add the white chocolate on top. Oddly enough, I could not find white chocolate anywhere in my supermarket. Go figure. I had some white chocolate chips, which I added to the cream cheese mixture and then I sprinkled some mini chocolate chips on top. It sure looks awesome! Yes, I love Bailey's, too, so I probably added a little extra. This is the only way I can enjoy it for a while. I will let you know tomorrow how it is. Of course, I had a baking frenzy yesterday so we did have some blueberry crumb cake and home made strawberry ice cream for dessert since the cheesecake still had to cool.

SusanL- thanks for the invite!! So far we still haven't been invited to dinner with family.

[woodsl]

MrsReber,

I am impressed. I don't think a cheesecake has ever lasted in my frig for 24 hours without me cutting into it. I can't wait to try this cheesecake because I too love Bailey Irish Cream. Let us know how yours turns out.

Sharon

[MrsReber]

Here's my review of the cheesecake- very yummy! Hubby liked it, but says he can't taste the Baileys. Folks, do not go by his opinion. I will not let this man make me a mixed drink because it will be 75% alcohol and he'll still say "I can't taste the alcohol!" I don't mind not tasting the alcohol, but with the cheesecake, I might add a little more. Maybe I should've added all of my 2 airplane bottles. Also, I think it was plenty moist so next time, I'd even use one non fat and 2 low fat cream cheeses. I might even cut down more on the crumbs for the crust, but then I believe my spring form pan is an 8 inch pan instead of 9 inch so that may have something to do with it. I'm sure the cake will not last long now that it's been touched. I had this crazy idea that I would freeze some of it, but hubby thinks that 1/4 of the cake equals one slice. I did really like the mini chocolate chips on top, too.

Thanks Sandy! I'm always looking for a new cheesecake to make. So far our favorites are the CL lemon swirl (last April) and the CL black forest cheesecake (I believe last June or July). Sandy, your's was by far the easiest to make!