Cinnamon Cheesecake with caramel
Delicious spice cookie crust, creamy cheese filling with a hint of cinnamon and delicious toffee glaze with a pinch of salt. This is a cheesecake for true sweet tooths, which every fan of autumn-winter aromas and Werther’s Original candies must try.
Recipe modifications:
- Shortcrust base: You can make the base from homemade shortcrust pastry or cookies. I use spice cookies because they go perfectly with the cinnamon in the cheese mass and give the cheesecake a Christmasy/wintery/gingerbread aroma. You can use any shortcrust cookies, e.g. biscuits, digestive cookies, etc.
- Cheese: If for some reason you do not want or cannot use cheese containing at least 18% fat, you can use another cheesecake cheese. Drain the cheese in a sieve to get rid of excess water and add butter to replenish the amount of fat. I do not guarantee that you will get an equally creamy cheesecake. The creamier the cheese, the creamier the cheesecake. Unfortunately, such cheeses are usually more expensive than cheeses with a fat content of about 6%.
- Glaze: You can replace the caramel you make yourself with melted fudge or chocolate icing (200 g of milk or dark chocolate and 200 g of 30% cream). You can also serve the cheesecake without the icing. It will then be less caloric.
What cheese to use for cheesecake?
To get a creamy cheesecake, use cheese that has a lot of fat, which gives it a creamy consistency, and as a result, you will get a creamy cheesecake. I use Piątnica cheese from a bucket. Because the cheese has 18% fat, you do not need to add butter. You need 1 kg of cheese for the cheesecake. If you use cheese with a fat content of 6%, you will add 60 g of fat to the cheesecake. If you use 18% fat cheese, you will add 180g! That’s a difference of 120 g of fat, which is the same as about 140 g of butter. The cheese I use contains cream cheese and cottage cheese. I think it is so creamy precisely because of the cream cheese.
You can also use just cream cheese or, for example, sushi cheese, but they are hard to find in such large packages and are also much more expensive.
How to check how much fat a selected cheesecake cheese has?
Just look at the nutritional table on the back of the package and read how many grams of fat there are in 100 g of products. This is the percentage of fat in the cheese.
Does the base have to be cooled before adding the cheese mass?
Before pouring the cheese mass onto the base, make sure that both the base and the baking tray are at least lukewarm. They do not have to be cold. It only takes 5 minutes for the metal baking sheet and crust to cool down.
Why bake cheesecake in a water bath / with steam?
Baking cheesecake with steam guarantees a perfectly even cheesecake, no burnt top, even baking and creamy consistency. Thanks to baking with steam at a low temperature and slow cooling in the oven, we can be sure that the cheesecake will not fall.
How to bake cheesecake in a water bath / with steam?
To bake cheesecake using steam / water, you have 3 options to choose from:
- Water bath (form with cheesecake in a tray with water)
- Oven with steam function
- DIY oven with steam function (tray with water under the cheesecake)
You can use these methods interchangeably, depending on which is more convenient for you and what oven you have.
- I used to use a water bath:
The cake tin should be lined with baking paper and tightly wrapped in aluminum foil before you pour the cheese mixture into it (the bottom is baked classically without water). Place the prepared tin in a larger baking tray (a deep baking tray from the oven equipment will work). Place the large baking tray in the preheated oven and pour hot water from the kettle into it so that the water reaches about ½ of the height of the cheesecake tin. In this method, it is crucial to tightly wrap the cake tin with foil so that the water does not get into the tin and does not make the cheesecake soggy. Despite various methods of wrapping, water always gets into the cake tin for me, so I choose the method with steam. However, to avoid leaks, you can try buying wider aluminum foil so that one piece can wrap the entire cake tin or use a different tin. One that is one piece of sheet metal without gaps. Unfortunately, such a cheesecake will be harder to remove, but water will definitely not get inside. You can also try securing the cake tin with a silicone mold or baking the cheesecake in a silicone mold, but I do not use silicone baking molds.
- Method no. 2 – steam.
This method is very similar to the previous one, with the difference that the cheesecake pan is not in water. I don’t have an oven with a steam function, so I won’t write how to use them. I will write how to make a steam oven out of a regular oven. Place the cheesecake pan on the oven rack, roughly in the middle. Slide a large baking tray from the oven equipment underneath (on the lower level of the oven). Pour hot water from the kettle into the tray and close the oven. The water will evaporate, which will make the oven very humid and maintain a constant temperature. You don’t have to wrap the pan in foil.
Leave the baked cheesecake in the closed oven to cool down. The oven and cheesecake will cool down slowly because the water maintains the temperature for a long time.
When you bake a cheesecake in foil and a water bath, the cheesecake sits in the water much longer than just during baking, which is why the cheesecake soaks up all the time. That’s why I recommend the steam method (both methods create steam, but you know what I mean ;)) Unless you’re already skilled at baking with a water bath. If you’ve never tried it, I recommend trying both methods to find your favorite 😉
“Cover the cheesecake with foil in contact” what does that mean?
“Foil in contact” means covering so that the foil touches the surface of the cheesecake. Because the foil is “glued” to the cheesecake, water will not collect on the foil, which would condense and drip onto the cheesecake. This method is good for cooling all kinds of creams, cake mixes, etc.
The proportions given below make a cheesecake weighing approx. 2.5 kg and with a diameter of approx. 27 cm.
Read the step-by-step recipe on how to make a Christmas cheesecake with caramel topping and watch the video below the recipe.
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Cinnamon Cheesecake
Cinnamon Cheesecake with Caramel Recipe
Ingredients
Crispy bottom
- 300 g speculaas cookies
- 80 g butter
Cheese mix
- 1 kg cheesecake cheese 18% fat (cream cheese)
- 200 g sour cream
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 12 g sugar with vanilla (or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)
- 250 g sugar
Caramel sauce
- 200 g sugar
- 100 g butter
- 100 ml cream 30% fat
- salt
Instructions
Crispy bottom
- Grind the cookies in a food processor. Melt the butter. Mix the crushed cookies with the butter. Line the bottom of the cake tin with baking paper. Pour the buttery crumbs onto the paper and line the bottom of the tin with them. You can smooth the surface with a glass. Bake the bottom in an oven preheated to 180 °C (
356 °F) for about 5 minutes, until lightly browned.300 g speculaas cookies, 80 g butter
Cheese mix
- Take all the ingredients out of the fridge in advance. Put the cheese, sour cream, sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon in the mixer bowl. Beat until the ingredients are combined. After 2-3 minutes, start adding the eggs one by one. When all the ingredients are combined and create a smooth mass, turn off the mixer. Use a spatula to gather the remnants of cheese that the mixer did not gather (if any) and beat for a few more seconds. Pour the mixed mass onto the pre-baked, cooled base.Place in an oven preheated to 120 °C (248 °F) and bake for approx. 55 minutes. Bake in a water bath or with steam!After 55 minutes, turn off the oven but do not open it! Cool the cheesecake in the steamed oven. After approx. 2 hours, you can take the cheesecake out of the oven and put it on the counter. When the cheesecake has cooled down completely, cover it with foil and place it in the fridge for about 8 hours.1 kg cheesecake cheese 18% fat, 200 g sour cream, 4 eggs, 1 tsp cinnamon, 12 g sugar with vanilla, 250 g sugar
Caramel sauce
- Pour sugar into a pan and heat over medium heat. Stir occasionally to prevent the sugar from burning. After a few minutes, the sugar will start to caramelize and stick together. Heat and stir the sugar until it dissolves and turns amber. Then add the butter. Stir vigorously all the time to combine the butter with the sugar. When the mixture is smooth, add the cream. The mixture will foam a lot. Stir until combined. Finally, add the salt.200 g sugar, 100 g butter, 100 ml cream 30% fat, salt
- Set the sauce aside to cool (about 5 minutes). Take the cheesecake out of the fridge. Remove the foil and pour the caramel sauce over the cheesecake. The sauce will set very quickly on a cold cheesecake. You can serve the cheesecake right away or put it in the fridge. Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet
