Wednesday Recipes: By Request, Pecan Praline Cheesecake

This recipe is in my cookbook--if you haven't received your copy, stick around. It's one of the gifts I give to readers on Christmas. I had an alumna post on my Facebook recently, asking for the recipe of a cheesecake with candy on top. I think it's either this one or the Reese's (posted on December 18, 2024). Either one is delicious!

Elizabeth’s praline cheesecake (from Post and Courier, 11/16/05) served to Psi Chi, 12-05

For cheesecake:

1 ½ lbs. cream cheese (3 8-oz. pkg.) softened all day       

½ cup sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar                                      

1 cup sour cream

3 eggs

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl, and slowly add sugars. Scrape bowl and add sour cream and eggs, beating after each one. Refrigerate.

For crust:

½ stick butter (4 tbsp.)                                                                    

½ cup chopped pecans

1 cup graham crackers

Melt butter. Grind up pecans and graham crackers (I added vanilla wafer crumbs because I already had some ground). Add butter and stir. Pack onto sides and bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan (or 10-inch if you want a less tall cheesecake). Pour the cheesecake mix into the crust. Set aside.

For pralines:

1 cup sugar (maybe less to cut the sweet taste)                   1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar.                                              1/3 cup cream

½ stick butter                                                              1 cup chopped pecans

Cook sugars, cream and butter in a heavy bottomed sauce pan until it reaches the soft ball stage (when you drop a small amount into a glass of cold water and the ball is soft but doesn’t fall apart) or 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat. Add nuts and mix together. Ladle about half the praline mixture over the cheesecake, swirling over the top.

Quickly scoop the remaining praline mixture into a piece of parchment or waxed paper, making individual patties 1 ½ to 2” in diameter. Set aside.

Bake the cheesecake at 200 degrees for about 1 ½ hours, or use a water bath a 300 degrees for about an hour. (I cooked longer until the cheesecake was mostly firm). Let cool before refrigerating. Garnish the finished cheesecake with whipped cream and a small amount of the remaining pralines.

Enjoy!