Sissi´s Delicious Cheesecake

With Valentine´s Day just around the door, I thought of sharing this festive cheesecake with pecan nuts and caramel topping that my beautiful and extremely talented sister baked for me and some guests for our last New Year’s Eve party. You can find the Romanian recipe on her and her friends Sabina´s Instagram page at @povestiaromate, or keep reading for the English version. Whether you’re baking it for or with someone you love, or just doing it for yourself, I am sure you’ll love it as much as I did. And with that the #guestchefseries kicks off another season.

Ingredients

For the base:
180g shredded digestive cookies
75g brown sugar
90g butter

For the cream:
800g cream cheese
200g sugar
150g cooking cream
one and a half tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs

For the sauce:
100g pecan nuts
100g brown sugar
half a tsp cinnamon
60g cream
80g butter

Instructions

1. Melt the 90g of butter for the base and mix it with the shredded digestive cookies an brown sugar, until homogeneous.

2. Pad the bottom of a round baking pan (24cm ideally) with baking paper and pour the above mixture into it. Press it with a spoon until smooth and bake for 10 minutes at 180 degrees.

3. Start the cream. Use a mixer to mix the cream cheese and the sugar. Add the cooking cream and continue mixing. Next, add the vanilla extract, mix it and finally gradually add the eggs in, mixing again.

4. Pour the cream in the baking pan, on top of the biscuit base and add the whole thing to the preheated oven, baking for 1h at 160 degrees. Note: After the hour is done, stop the oven and slightly open the oven door, to avoid a temperature shock and not have the cake break. Gradually open the door over half an hour and finally remove the cake.

5. On to the sauce. Melt 80g of butter in a pan along with 100g of brown sugar, on low heat until the sugar has been completely absorbed (should take about 10 min). Add half a teaspoon of cinammon, 60g cream, a pinch of salt and 100g of pecan nuts and let cook for another four minutes.

6. Once the cheesecake is completely cooled, refrigerate for about four hours before pouring the sauce over it.