Pecan pie cheesecake

As a child, my dad always insisted that pecan pie was "gross" to try to keep my sisters and I from trying it and liking it, since it was his favorite dessert and he wanted to keep it to himself.  His strategy worked for a little while, but now I find myself employing it since I share his favorite.

Pecan pie says Christmas to me almost as much as pumpkin pie says Thanksgiving, so I knew I wanted to keep this tradition alive, but I also wanted to give it my own twist.  I had also promised Tall Dark and Nerdy that I would make him a cheesecake (his favorite) sometime soon.  When I came across a recipe combining the two, I knew I had to try it!

My kitchen doesn't have a 9" springform pan, which the recipe called for, or a 9" round pan, so we used an 8" square cake pan.  With the small pan, we realized that we had way more cheesecake filling than we needed, so we quickly made another crust (this time using 1 3/4 cups of wafer crumbs for a thicker crust) and ended up with one pecan pie cheesecake and one plain cheesecake, both were absolutely delicious.  

Ingredients:

Crust:

Plain cheesecake on left, pecan pie cheesecake
on right.  Pyrex of water to keep crust from
getting mushy on bottom rack.

  1 1/4 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
  1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  1/3 cup butter, melted

Pecan filling:

  1 cup sugar

  2/3 cup dark corn syrup

  1/3 cup butter, melted

  2 eggs

  1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cheesecake filling:

  3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

  1 1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar

  2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

  4 eggs

  2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Crust:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine wafer crumbs and brown sugar.  Stir in melted butter.  Press into bottom and up sides of a 9" springform pan (or double crust recipe and use two 8" pans).  Bake for 6 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Pecan filling:

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly.  Pour into crust and set aside.

Cheesecake filling:

Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese at medium speed until creamy.  Add brown sugar and flour and beat until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.  Stir in cream and vanilla.  

Pour over pecan filling.

Fill pyrex dish with very hot water and place on bottom rack of oven.  Bake cheesecake in middle of oven for 1 hour.  

Turn off oven and leave cheesecake in oven with the door closed for 1 hour. 

Remove from oven and run a knife along the outside edges to loosen cheesecake from sides of pan.  Let cool.  Chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Don't be dismayed by how many steps there are in this recipe, it is totally worth it!  Having my sister beside me made this quick and easy, while she made the pecan filling, I made the cheesecake filling, and we were done in a jiffy, all while dancing to Aaron Carter Radio on Pandora.  

The dark brown sugar in the cheesecake filling gives it a beautiful color and taste, and left people unsure of which cheesecake was better!

Adapted from Heidi's So-Called Life