Four hours and 730 calories a slice is what this Hairy Bikers pecan toffee cheesecake costs you, and it earns both. Because Best of British builds it as a pecan and chocolate digestive base under a white chocolate filling shot through with caramel, cut into 12.
There is no jar of caramel anywhere in this, since the toffee is a sheet of sugar boiled dark, set hard and smashed. And BBC’s own blurb for it, “like a big kiss on the lips”, undersells how much of that crunch ends up in the filling.
Soft, sticky toffee on top is the way this goes wrong, and it happens in the fridge. So the half you keep for the topping stays covered on the side, since cold air is damp air and sugar drinks it.
Hairy Bikers Pecan Toffee Cheesecake Recipe
Description
A 23cm tin gets a pressed base of ground pecans and chocolate digestives bound with butter. Then a caramel is boiled to toffee colour, set and cracked into shards, half of which go through a white chocolate filling. And it bakes in a water bath, rests in the switched-off oven, then is topped with whipped cream and the rest of the shards.
Ingredients
For the base
For the filling
For the topping
Instructions
- Make the base: blitz 100g pecans and 150g chocolate digestives to a coarse powder, then pour in 75g melted butter with the motor running. Then press it evenly into a lightly oiled 23cm springform tin and chill it while you make the filling.
- Make the caramel: put 200g of the caster sugar in a pan with 4 tbsp cold water and heat gently until dissolved. Then boil for 4 to 5 minutes without stirring until deep golden brown, swirling the pan as it bubbles.
- Set the caramel: pour it straight onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, then tilt so it spreads thin. Then leave it to cool and harden completely.
- Melt the chocolate: break 150g white chocolate into a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Then take it off the heat and leave it 20 minutes to cool, but not set, while you heat the oven to 180C fan 160C.
- Blend the filling: put 600g cream cheese, 150ml double cream, the remaining 175g sugar, 2 egg yolks and 4 eggs in the food processor. Then blend until smooth, before adding the cooled chocolate with the motor running until just mixed.
- Add the shards: crush the set caramel into small shards with the end of a rolling pin, then fold half through the filling. Then pour it gently onto the base, and keep the other half covered in a cool place, not the fridge.
- Bake in a water bath: sit the tin on a large sheet of foil and bring the sides up into a bowl around it. Then stand it in a roasting tin, pour in just-boiled water 2cm up the sides, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until almost set.
- Rest and finish: turn the oven off and leave it inside for 30 minutes, then peel off the foil and chill for two hours. Then whip 300ml double cream to soft peaks, spoon it over, scatter the remaining shards and cut into wedges.
FAQs
How many does it serve?
BBC Food never says, which is a real gap for a cheesecake this size. Because a 23cm tin holds 600g of cream cheese, six eggs and 150g of white chocolate, it cuts into 12 proper wedges. So I have gone with 12, and at 730 calories a slice I would not go fewer.
How dark should the caramel go?
Deep golden brown, the colour of toffee, which takes 4 to 5 minutes of boiling once the sugar has dissolved. Because pale caramel just tastes sweet against 150g of white chocolate, while a shade past amber turns bitter. So swirl the pan rather than stir it, the same rule as their caramelised apple cheesecake, and pull it the second it looks right.
Is this a white chocolate cheesecake?
It is, though you would not know from the name, since 150g of white chocolate melts into the filling. Because it goes in melted and cooled, it sets the filling dense rather than showing up as pieces. So it tastes of white chocolate and toffee together, and the pecans in the base are what keep that from being too much.
Why the foil bowl and water bath?
Because the foil keeps the water out of a springform tin, which always leaks a little at the seam. And this one rests only 30 minutes in the off oven, where their amaretto baked cheesecake sits for three hours. So it is the same bath their vodka strawberry cheesecake uses, with a lighter cool.
How long does it keep?
Three days in the fridge for the cheesecake itself, but the whipped cream and the shards go on the day you serve it. Because the cream weeps and the caramel dissolves into it overnight, a topped slice is worse by morning. So store it bare, then finish each portion, the same way their banoffee pie is best assembled late.
