Sunday, October 12, 2008

Frangelico Cheesecake with Espresso Whipped Cream



A friend of mine at work had a birthday recently, and I wanted to make something really special for her. I had sent myself this recipe for Bailey’s Chocolate Cheesecake quite some time ago and I’d never had occasion to make it. I thought that this would be a great birthday treat.


My kitchen is fairly well stocked with liqueurs that can be used in baking, but since my husband and I really don’t drink, I’m never sure if they are still good or not when I go to use them. Well, I guess the Irish Cream liqueur I had was quite old as it had solidified and turned quite nasty. I had a couple of other liqueurs on hand, so I ended up making this with Frangelico liqueur.


For such a fancy thing, the cheesecake wasn’t too had to put together. I made the cheesecake a day in advance, so it could refrigerate for about 24 hours. That made it very easy to remove from the pan. I added the espresso whipped cream after I had removed it from the pan.


This was a big hit at work! I liked it a lot, but I think I would leave the chocolate chips out. The cheesecake really didn’t need the chocolate; it had a great flavor all on its own.


2 cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
6 T. (3/4 stick) butter, melted


2 ¼ pounds cream cheese, room temperature

1 2/3 cups sugar

5 eggs, room temperature
1 cup Frangelico
1 T. vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips


1 cup chilled whipping cream
2 T. sugar
1 t. instant coffee powder


Preheat oven to 325F. Butter a 9” springform pan. Combine crumbs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in better. Press mixture into bottom and 1” up sides of pan. Bake until light brown, about 7 minutes. Maintain oven temperature at 325F.


For filling: Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually mix in sugar. Beat eggs in one at a time. Blend in Frangelico and vanilla. Sprinkle half of chocolate chips over crust. Spoon in filling. Sprinkle with remaining chocolate chips. Bake cake until puffed, springy in center and golden brown, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool cake completely.


For cream:

Beat cream, sugar, and coffee powder until peaks form. Spread mixture over cooled cake.


2 comments:

Cate said...

The flavors in this look sooo good. I want to serve this for when friends come over for dinner!

Unknown said...

I never tried a Frangelico and instant coffee powder recipe before and I have tried a lot of recipes. But it looks very interesting, especially the whipped cream. I submitted my recipe to http://www.cheesecake-recipes.org and you should definitely submit this interesting one.