Chocolate Glazed Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake

miss gracie's Note:

This is one of my all-time favorite cheesecake recipes, and I am a cheesecake lover! It was originally published in Bon Appetit about 10 years ago. It is simple, yet looks and tastes fabulous. Perfect for a holiday dessert since it can be made ahead of time. I see there are several recipes in Zaar for Bailey's Irish Cream that could be used in this recipe.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

For Crust

• 6 whole graham crackers
• ¼ cup butter , melted

For Filling

• 3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese , room temperature
• 7 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons sour cream
• 6 tablespoons baileys irish cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For Glaze

• ½ cup whipping cream
• 9 ounces semisweet chocolate , chopped
• chocolate curls (optional)

Directions:

1. For crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Finely grind graham crackers in a food processor.
3. Add butter and blend until combined.
4. Press crust mixture onto bottom (not sides) of a 9-inch diameter springform pan.
5. Bake crust until golden brown, about 8 minutes.
6. Remove pan from oven, and maintain oven temperature.
7. For filling: Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl until smooth.
8. Beat in flour.
9. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until combined.
10. Mix in remaining ingredients.
11. Pour filling into crust (cake will not fill pan).
12. Bake 10 minutes.
13. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees.
14. Continue baking cheesecake until set, about 40 minutes longer.
15. Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes.
16. Run a sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cake.
17. Cool.
18. Chill overnight.
19. For glaze: Bring cream to simmer in a heavy medium sized saucepan.
20. Reduce heat to low.
21. Add chopped chocolate (I use chocolate chips!) and stir until smooth.
22. Cool glaze to lukewarm.
23. Release pan sides from cheesecake.
24. Place cheesecake on rack set over a baking sheet.
25. Pour glaze over cheesecake, spreading with a spatula to cover top and sides, allowing excess to drip onto sheet.
26. Refrigerate until glaze sets, about 30 minutes.
27. Transfer cheesecake to platter.
28. Garnish with chocolate curls, if desired.

Reviews

[P4]

Miss Gracie - this was terrific! The texture was really silky and - well - I'll be honest. I didn't expect to like it. I was making it and then realized that there were only 2 eggs in the recipe. I thought that just couldn't be right. I ALMOST added another egg because I thought this cake would turn out like a huge block of cream cheese. But I restrained myself because I already had made 2 changes to the recipe; I didn't want to change it totally (my changes: omitted the sour cream because I don't like that taste in my cheesecakes - I used heavy cream instead. The other change was structural - I cut the recipe in half and made a 6" cake instead of a whole one since my family is so small). I was also nervous about not baking it in a water bath, which I always do with cheesecakes, but I thought I'd try it and see. It was beautiful when I took it out of the oven, not a single blemish or crack. And the taste and texture are WONDERFUL!!! Truly, it has a great texture - very silky, almost like a really fine custard. Was I surprised, and pleased! Once again, DH said "Give that woman 5 stars - this is great" and I may have to re-tool some of my own cheesecake formulas to try and come up with this texture. Thank you very, very much! We love it.

[Jazz Lover]

I couldn't appreciate the flavor of the Bailey's but overall this is a good cheesecake.

[Simonich]

Thanks for such a great recipe. I'm not a cheesecake expert, but this was very good. This set up so well, and I had no problems with this recipe. I was short on time and only let it set up for about 3 1/2 hours. It wasn't completely set, but it was still fine, and the flavor was still great. The only thing, like other reviewers said, was that it wasn't overly Irish creamish. I put 2 T in the ganache and that helped, but it still wasn't too strong.