Irish Cheesecake

Well, I sort of promised you an Irish cheesecake, after I made a hazelnut one recently. I also mentioned that almost every recipe I found included Bailey’s Irish Cream, which I’ve never been a big fan of (it has a bit of chocolate syrup in it, and I find myself wishing they’d just stuck to the Irish whiskey flavor), but it seems to proclaim “Irish!” to the world.

The nice twist to this recipe is that it uses crumbled Irish shortbread cookies (which I posted here last October) for the crust, so you get a double hit of Irish.

Irish Cheesecake with Shortbread Crust

Crust:

3 cups Irish shortbread crumbs
3 Tblsp melted unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch springform pan (especially the sides, so the cake won't stick).

Mix the crumbs and melted butter, than press the mixture into the pan. Bake for about five minutes or until the crust just begins to brown. Remove from oven, let cool, then chill.

Filling:

3 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream

Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and vanilla. Beat the mixture well, for about four minutes. Add the Irish Cream.

Pour the filling mixture into the chilled crust and bake for about 80 minutes. The center should still be a bit jiggly.

Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside to cool slowly (helps to prevent cracking).

And there you have it! A handy recipe for Saint Patrick’s Day.

And here's the source for all that butter
and cream cheese in the recipe--part of
the dairy herd at a farm where I stayed a
a couple of years ago. I loved to watch
the whole milking process from my window.

I find myself in a weird position about coming books. I expect to publish three more (plus a novella, I think) before the end of 2018, and the next County Cork book will be out in January 2019. But the only one of all of those that has both a a title and a cover is Murder at the Mansion, the first of my new Victorian Village series, coming from St. Martin's in June. Here's what it will look like:

Don't worry--I'll tell you more about it as the date gets closer.