December Recipe: Maple Bacon Cheesecake

So I have been falling a bit behind with my monthly recipies, but since we are all in the x-mas baking spirit, this is one I had to share with you. At my place of business we also close out the holiday season with a "baked goods potluck. This year I was looking for something a bit different and though why not just google "bacon" and "cheesecake" and see what comes up..

Surprisingly enough there were a few that came up, but the one that caught my eye, was the "Maple Bacon Cheesecake". This is the best of both worlds, something sweet, yet has that bacon salty crunchy goodness as well. So if you want to make your friends and families mouths drop.. check out this recipe..

Ingredients:

- 2 x 8oz packs of cream cheese
- 5 eggs
- 1/4 cup of heavy cream
- 1  cup maple syrup
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar (for the bacon)
- 1lb Bacon (maybe more if you want to really load it up)
- 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp Butter or Margarine
-  Crushed Graham Crackers
- 1 Spring-form baking pan (8inch)

(Candied Bacon!)

Step 1: Getting started

wrap the spring-pan in tinfoil and give it a slight greasing. Preheat the over to 375 degrees

Step 2:  The Crust

in a mixing bowl hand mix your graham cracker crumbs with the butter/margarine, you are looking for a "packing snow" consistency, so if should slightly hold together. Push it down into the pan until packed firmly.

Step 3: The Filling

with a hand blender or a stand mixer, blend your room temp cream cheese with 1/2 cup of the maple syrup (save the other 1/2 cup for the topping). Add in the cream and the vanilla continue to blend.

Add the eggs one at a time and make sure they are all fully blended prior to adding the next one. Once all are blended you can pour the mixture onto the crust. Give the pan some taps to get out all of the bubbles. (this is not a perfect science)

Step 4: Into the Oven

while the oven is preheating (375 degrees), place a shallow baking dish full of water on the lower rack to heat up. (Cheesecakes need moisture). Once the over is ready add the cheesecake to the rack above the water pan. Cook the cheesecake for about 30 minutes..

Check on the cheesecake after 30 minutes, you are looking for a slightly wet or glossy look, but a firm cake. If not there yet, give it another 5 minutes.. Once done, turn the oven off and leave the cake in the over for another 20-30 minutes to set.

Step 5: BACON!

while the cheesecake is cooking you can prep the bacon. I like to cook some of it standard, and some of if candied. For the candied bacon you can either oven roast or just pan fry with brown sugar. Give the pieces of bacon a nice dusting of brown sugar and toss in the pan . Fry to your preferred doneness or bake in the oven at 325 degrees (watch constantly to avoid burning). No cook time is supplied as it will depend on the bacon thickness. Then crumble. Leave them bacon on a paper-towel to get off excess grease and then pop in the freezer for a quick cool.

When the cheesecake has rested you can drizzle some maple syrup on top and sprinkle the crumbled bacon.. let cool in the fridge for 10-12 hours.. If you are making it a head of time and want to freeze it, i recommend doing so prior to topping it, then adding the Bacon prior to serving

Tip: If you plan to cut your cheesecake into squares, do it when froozen or as cold as possible. Cheesecake is hard to cut once it starts to loosen up

(I made this square to serve in bite size peices to a large group)

Let me know what you think!