Maple Cheesecake

Cheesecake with Maple Swirls

By: Laura Sorkin

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 40 Minutes

Servings: 12 Servings

This is a gooey, mapley, creamy version of cheesecake.  There is a little bit of maple in each layer.  Just a tablespoon in the graham cracker crust helps bind the crumbs.  A bit in combination with brown sugar makes for a caramel-kissed cheesecake.  And the topper, literally, is to add dollops of gooey maple and pecans to the surface and then gently make swirls with a fork so each bite has some creamy and some mapley elements.

The rest of my family does not care for cheesecake so I don’t make them often.  When I made the final version of this one, however, my daughter declared, “I still don’t like cheesecake but if I had to have some, this one would be okay.”  And then she ate the whole piece.

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Ingredients

For the crust
For the cake

  • 1 lb cream cheese, room temperature

  • 2 eggs

  • ½ cup brown sugar

  • 1/3 cup Sugarmaker’s Cut Maple Syrup or Bourbon Barrel-Aged Maple

  • 1 Tbsp flour

  • 1 tsp vanilla

For the maple-pecan swirl

Instructions

  • 1 Preheat oven to 325.  Lightly grease a 9” spring form pan.
  • 2 Blend the graham crumbs, butter and maple syrup in a bowl. 
  • 3 Press the mixture into the bottom of the spring form pan and place the pan in the oven for about 8 minutes or until it begins to brown.  Remove and set aside.
  • 4 Put the cream cheese in the bowl of a standing mixer and whip with a paddle or cream it by hand. 
  • 5 Add the eggs one at a time and mix. 
  • 6 Add the brown sugar, maple syrup, flour and vanilla and mix until well blended. 
  • 7 Pour the filling over the crust and let settle into a smooth top.
  • 8 Mix together the maple syrup, brown sugar and pecans in a small bowl. 
  • 9 Using a small spoon, drop dollops of the mixture into the surface of the cheesecake batter, distributing the dollops evenly.  When all of the mixture has been added, take a fork and gently run it through the dollops to pull the syrup-pecan mixture slightly into the cheesecake.
  • 10 Put on the middle rack of the oven and bake for approximately 30-40 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.  When cooked, the lovely swirls of maple and pecan may be less distinguishable visually but will taste incredible.