Bacon. Cheesecake.
More accurately, candied bacon cheesecake.
Whoa.
This is decadence, my friends!
I wanted to do a bacon cheesecake for the sheer audacity of it, to watch feathers being ruffled. I wanted to experience…stinkeye…when I laid it out on the dessert table.
Bacon cheesecake indeed…(to jump to the easy recipe card, click here.)
I looked at a lot of recipes, a Guiness Stout recipe caught my eye but I couldn’t find it again. Most of the recipes were, you know, cheesecakes featuring bacon. I wanted to explore new territory.
How about combining groups of flavors to see if they might create something different?
Okay then…what flavors work together to create a great traditional meal?
How about Thanksgiving? Let’s see…turkey, stuffing (my Dad used to put bacon (or breakfast sausage) in the stuffing), mashed potatoes, gravy…sweet potatoes.
Breakfast? French toast, maple syrup, orange juice, bacon, maybe a pastry with almonds or pecans…
All these flavors whirled around in my head. No love for sweet potatoes, they were usually around at Thanksgiving and only in recent years did I even venture a taste. But something about the flavor and consistency of mashed sweet potato…would it go with bacon? Would bacon and sweet potato together work with maple syrup?
I checked the Flavor Bible and bingo.
Flavors working:
Bacon. Sweet potato. Pecans. Maple syrup.
Bacon sweet potato cheesecake will make you a renegade
Here’s the deal. If people figure out you’ve brought a sweet potato cheesecake, you’re going to get some outright refusals. They sound like this: Sorry, I don’t like (eat) sweet potatoes. Folks will lower their eyes and edge away from the desserts.
And bacon is a whole ‘nother story.
You know the story.
How you handle the ethics of the situation is up to you. You may want to bake another (more mainstream) cheesecake in addition and bring half of each to the party.
It’ll only increase your mystique.
But here’s the good news:
It’s like the Lemon Lemon Tart Cheesecake: you’ll have a narrower group of devotees but they will be…fanatic.
Folks will come up to you with a strange light in their eye, maybe rubbing their jaw slowly, and ask….You haven’t made any bacon cheesecake lately, have you? Are you sure?
By the way, if you want to view the YouTube video, click here
Some bacon cheesecake points to consider:
The bacon cheesecake is labor intensive, and will require dedication. You’ve got to bake and hull the sweet potatoes, and the road to candied bacon is a long one.
Not for the faint of heart.
But the rewards are great, I wish you well, let’s get started!
EQUIPMENT LIST
oven thermometer
cheesecake moat (alternative water bath)
9″ Fat Daddio two piece cheesecake pan. The best pro cheesecake pan you’ll ever own
Baker’s Joy
measuring cups/spoons
Pyrex custard cups or small bowls
small mixing bowl (2)
large mixing bowl
paddle attachment
big wooden spoon
wire whisk
cooling rack
1/2 hotel pan with grid insert
2 quart saucepan
big sharp knife
small thin-bladed knife
carving fork
big serving spoon
small offset spatula
pastry brush
large offset spatula
teflon spatula
cutting board
aluminum foil
micro grater (fine)
INGREDIENTS
CRUST:
2 sticks butter, room temp
1 cup flour
1 cup almond flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspooon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup toasted chopped almonds
BATTER:
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes give or take
1 brick Philly
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
SOUR CREAM TOPPING:
2 cups (1 pint) sour cream @ room temp
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
CANDIED BACON:
20 ounces thick cut bacon
3/4 cup light brown sugar
6 tablespoons plain rice vinegar
6 tablespoons maple syrup
fresh ground black pepper to taste
GARNISH:
maple syrup (grade B if you can find it)
confectioners sugar
CRUST PREP:
TOAST THE PECANS:
Spread the pecans on an aluminum-foiled sheet pan and toast them for 5-7 minutes at 350. Watch them carefully, at 7 minutes they may be starting to burn.
Chop ’em up with the big sharp knife.
MIX THE CRUST:
In a large mixing bowl combine the cup of flour, cup of almond flour, butter, pecans, vanilla, almond extract, and salt.
Stir with the big wooden spoon until smooth.
PREP THE FAT DADDIO:
Put the two-piece pan together and Baker’s Joy the bottom. Put a 9″ parchment paper circle in the bottom then Baker’s Joy the inside of the whole setup, walls and all.
BAKE THE CRUST:
Spatula the crust mixture into the Fat Daddio and spread it evenly around the bottom with the small offset spatula.
Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the crust turn golden.
Remove to cooling rack.
NOTES ABOUT THE CRUST:
This is a shortbread crust, similar to the crust for the Lemon Lemon Tart Cheesecake. The sweet potato cheesecake recipe is from Galatoire’s Restaurant in NOLA by way of the New York Times: it calls for a standard graham cracker crust and I’ve baked it that way many times.
The shortbread crust adds a lot to the cheesecake, the pecans work with the bacon and sweet potato, but I also feel the traditional graham crust makes the whole flavor profile…tighter. Feel free to use either approach.
I’m calling this an almond/pecan crust but it only has pecans. The almond part comes from the almond flour and almond extract.
I’ve been mixing the crust batter in a large mixing bowl using a wooden spoon but it will go quicker and easier using the stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
BAKE THE SWEET POTATOES
400 oven.
Pierce 4 medium sweet potatoes with the carving fork and bake them on an aluminum-foiled sheet pan for 50-60 minutes. You can use a regular dinner fork to pierce them but you’ll get better penetration with the carving fork.
They’re done when you can stick ’em with a dinner fork and it slides right in.
3 sweet potatoes will give you ballpark 2 cups of mashed; I bake 4 potatoes just in case.
CINNAMON AND NUTMEG
The potatoes take awhile so now’s the time to prep the cinnamon and nutmeg. Sure, you could just go to the spice rack and be done with it, but where’s the fun in that?
Freshly grated cinnamon and nutmeg will make a world of difference. Ever had Fever Tree ginger beer? That raw grated flavor jumps out at you. It’s something like that with freshly prepped cinnamon and nutmeg. They improve everything. The flavors won’t be overpowering but they bump up the whole recipe.
Use a Microplane grater over a cutting board or, better yet, over a piece of parchment paper. The cinnamon sticks will require some elbow grease but a whole nutmeg is almost buttery and you’ll be done in no time. I went way over the 1/8 teaspoon mark before I could stop myself.
Bargain cinnamon sticks at Walmart, I had to go to Whole Foods to find whole nutmeg.
MIX THE BATTER
All the ingredients should be at room temperature, it’s okay if the sweet potatoes are still warm.
Wets go first, dry ingredients last, so line ’em up that way.
Stand mixer with paddle attachment on slow speed.
Cut the sweet potatoes in half and scoop out the insides with the big serving spoon. I used to use a melon baller but with the big spoon you can get everything out in one good swipe.
Mash slow speed with the paddle attachment until smooth, but don’t over beat. The key to cheesecake is to get things smooth but not to incorporate air. Air causes cracks.
Just incorporate the Philly brick.
Slightly whisk the eggs and just incorporate them.
Add the evaporated milk; just incorporate.
Add the sugar, brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt right on top of each other and keep mixing to just incorporate.
Stop the mixer, detach the paddle, spatula the sides of the bowl and mix the batter a little bit more by hand.
THE MOAT
Bake cheesecake at 350 or above and you’re flirting with cracks. This recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and that will go a long way toward crack prevention. But for extra insurance a waterbath is recommended.
I don’t like waterbaths. The whole idea of $20+ worth of ingredients in a pan with holes in it surrounded by water…
Not my cup of tea.
Soooo…….
For this effort we’ll be trying something new. Something different…exploratory. We’re going to hang out with the likes of Lewis and Clark, Vasco de Gama, etc.
The cheesecake moat.
I’d seen this thing online but never bought one. It looks like one of those circular cat toys with the ball that races around the perimeter. But bigger. Aluminum.
I wasn’t even sure if it would work, and it took awhile to arrive, but let me tell you how I felt turning that big flat UPS box over in my hands.
I felt like Cheech Marin in the first album. “Handle it by the edges, man…I waited three weeks to get this.”
Can’t wait to see if it works.
LET’S GET STARTED
Bring a 2 quart saucepan of water to the boil.
Oven at 350.
Pour/spatula the batter into the Fat Daddio on top of the shortbread crust. Firmly rap the pan a couple times on the tabletop to help any bubbles escape.
Center the Fat Daddio in the cheesecake moat. Using a plastic funnel, carefully fill the outer ring with boiling water. This setup is a waterbath where the water doesn’t actually touch the sides of the cheesecake pan.
As Hank Kingsley would say, “This is exciting, isn’t it?”
Place the whole setup directly on the center rack, bake for 45-55 minutes, check to make sure the edge is set but the batter is still jiggly in the center.
WHILE THE BACON CHEESECAKE IS IN THE OVEN WE CAN…
Prep the sour cream layer.
Prep the candy coating for the bacon.
Lay out the bacon.
Told you this was a mission, right?
Don’t worry, the results will be worth it!
SOUR CREAM LAYER
Whisk the sour cream, sugar and vanilla in a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
CANDY COATING
Many of the candied bacon recipes out there are variations on “brown sugar brushed on the bacon” and that’s it.
But “sugar only” provides a monotonous sweet note …maybe something more complex would work with the sweet potato and maple syrup. The allrecipes take on candied bacon is what I was looking for: rice vinegar and cracked black pepper to add some contrasting notes to the whole thing.
Combine the brown sugar, rice vinegar and maple syrup in a small mixing bowl. Mill some cracked pepper in there, not too much. Whisk it up. Set it aside.
BACON PREP
Let’s talk about the bacon for a quick second.
The recipe calls for 20 ounces of bacon and that should do it. The more finely you chop the bacon the better it will cover the top of the cheesecake. That being said, for this recipe I found a 24 ounce package of thick cut bacon and candied the whole thing.
It adequately covered the top of the cheesecake but just barely: I should have chopped the bacon more, plus a couple of pieces never made it to the cutting board…(and they were delicious).
A 1/2 size hotel pan is 18 X 13; it snugly fits in the oven. You can do the whole batch of bacon on one setup if you cram the slices on there.. If you can’t, you may have to use a second (smaller) sheet pan to do all the bacon in one shot.
Soooooo…..
Line the sheet pan with aluminum foil and drop in the grid. Lay the bacon strips out, it’s okay if the edges touch but don’t overlap them. Set aside.
PULL THE CHEESECAKE
When the cheesecake is done baking, when the edges are set but the center is still jiggly, remove from oven but leave it in the cheesecake moat.
Immediately run a small sharp knife between the walls of the Fat Daddio and the cheesecake to free the edge. Crack prevention.
And by the way…the top of this cheesecake is as smooth as a freshly Zambonied rink. No cracks. Looks like the cheesecake moat has done it’s job!
Keep the oven at 350
SOUR CREAM LAYER
While the cheesecake is still warm, spread the sweetened sour cream mixture around evenly with the small offset spatula.
Right back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Pull the cheesecake and again run the knife around the perimeter to free the edge.
Take the Fat Daddio out of the moat and set it on a cooling rack on a cooling rack, let it cool to room temperature. Once it’s at room temp, cover loosely with aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
CANDY THE BACON
Oven at 350.
Put the hotel pan with the bacon into the oven.
Bake for 10 minutes, then carefully pull out the pan and flip each piece of bacon. Bake for another 5 minutes.
Pull out the pan and brush each piece of bacon with the candy mixture. Flip the pieces and coat the other sides.
Return to the oven for 5-7 minutes.
Pull the pan and repeat the basting, return to oven for 5-7 minutes.
Repeat the basting process, doing both sides, until the bacon is crispy. This can take another half hour.
Chop the bacon into small pieces. It’s gooey and takes a long time but go slowly and carefully.
While the cheesecake is still in the pan spread the chopped bacon evenly over the top.
REMOVE THE FAT DADDIO
Center the Fat Daddio on top of an inverted flat base small mixing bowl.
Press evenly around the edges of the pan to loosen things up, then start pressing down toward the tabletop.
Nice and easy!
Whoa.
It’s…alive!
SERVE THE BACON CHEESECAKE
Cut slices with the big sharp knife. You have to kind of work the blade through the bacon on top, so work slowly and carefully.
Even so, you’ll get bits of bacon that catch under the knife and make the edges of the pieces ragged. Not to worry!
As always, the flavors will open up as the cheesecake heads toward room temperature.
Garnish each piece with a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup, then dust with confectioners sugar.
Enjoy with a cup of hot coffee and a couple chapters of Farewell My Lovely. See if you can figure out why Raymond Chandler hated Hemingway so much.
If you do figure it out, please email me, max@cheesecakemax.com
Pinkies up!
Pairings:
Guiness Stout. Stone Imperial Stout. Smoked stout. Chardonnay. Pinot noir. Syrah. Hot coffee. Cappucino. Espresso. Fever Tree ginger beer.
LINKS
Bacon cheesecake YouTube video
Fat Daddio 9×3 2-piece cheesecake pan
What To Drink With What You Eat
