Shelly's Recipe

WHITE CHOCOLATE CARAMEL CHEESECAKE WITH MACADAMIA NUTS

Category: Cheesecake

White Chocolate Ganache
1 1/2 cups cream
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Crust
15 double graham crackers
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter

Caramel
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Few drops vinegar or lemon juice
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Cheesecake Batter
2 1/2 lbs cream cheese, room temperature
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup whole macadamia nuts

Ganache: Boil cream and sugar and pour over chocolate and butter in a double boiler until melted, stirring until smooth. Chill till ready to use, but no longer than 1 hour or mixture may set too much.

Crust: Preheat oven to 350. Double wrap outside of a 10-12 inch springform pan with heavy duty foil, covering bottom and up sides to catch any batter leakage. In a food processor, mix together ingredients until it forms a crumb mixture. Press mixture up sides and over bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool.

Caramel: In a heavy saucepan, bring first 3 ingredients to a boil over medium heat without stirring. If crystals form on sides, cover pan for 30 seconds or long as 5 minutes so steam rinses off sides. When caramel darkens, you may swirl pan to even color. Take caramel to an amber gold color.

Meanwhile, dissolve cornstarch in cream. When caramel is desired color, remove from heat and quickly add cream mixture. Caramel will bubble up. When foaming subsides, stir in butter. Reheat for 1 minute to even out mixture to smooth, thick texture. Cool by setting saucepan in a bowl of cool water; caramel will thicken even more.

Batter: Set oven rack in lower third of oven and reduce heat to 325. Beat the cream cheese 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down when necessary. Still on medium speed, gradually add sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing each only until absorbed. Do not over mix during these intervals or batter could break On low speed, add vanilla and mix a few turns.

Assemble: Set 1 cup cheesecake batter in a measuring cup. In addition, set aside 1/2 cup caramel for top of cake. Mix 2/3 of remaining cheesecake batter with all the ganache. Pour into baked crust. Mix larger amount of caramel with remaining 1/3 of the cheesecake batter. Pour over ganache, to within 1/2 inch of sides. Top caramel layer with 1 cup reserved cheesecake batter, smooth to edge of pan. Bake 40-50 minutes or just until set.

Pour reserved caramel topping return to oven for 3-5 minutes or until set. Immediately loosen from sides of pan. Cool for 30 minutes more; remove sides of pan. Cool completely. Garnish. Chill in refrigerator.