This Pecan Pie Cheesecake takes two of my favorite desserts and combines them into the only thing that’s better than a classic pecan pie. This incredible pecan pie cheesecake is everything a cheesecake should be, decadent, luscious and simply delicious!
I’ve said this many times before but cheesecake really is my all time favorite dessert, right there next to pecan pie. Whenever I’m at a restaurant these are usually my first two choices if they are on the menu. As you can imagine when I combine the two in this spectacular cheesecake, well that makes me really really happy.
If you’re scared of making cheesecake, don’t be. There’s nothing to worry about, it really is easy to make. The only thing is that because there are 3 layers to this cheesecake, it’s a bit more time consuming. But labors of love make the sweetest results – poetic huh?
We’ve got a pecan, graham cracker crust followed by a sinfully rich and creamy cheesecake layer. All of this is topped off with a pecan pie layer lovingly spooned over top. Pecan pie, meet your new soulmate, cheesecake – I can hear the wedding bells already!
Ingredients
Crust
- Graham crackers – These will be the binding ingredient in our crust and offer a great molasses flavor.
- Butter – Unsalted as always to control the sodium content of our dessert.
- Sugar – We want a nice clean flavor for our crust, white granulated sugar is your best bet.
- Pecans – Whole pecan halves, we’ll get them a nice consistency later.
- Salt – We want a little bit of seasoning to ensure our crust has a good flavor.
Cheesecake
- Cream cheese – I used 3 packages of whole fat Philadelphia cream cheese. Reduced fat can also be used to cut calories.
- Sugar – Granulated and brown sugar are going to give us some sweetness and some caramel notes.
- Eggs – Our key binding agent for this cake, eggs will allow it to bake properly.
- Vanilla extract – Without this, your dessert may taste a little flat.
- Salt – To season our cake, an important component.
Pecan pie topping
- Sugar – We want brown sugar for this component of our dessert to give a bit of dimension and complexity.
- Corn syrup – Light corn syrup is best to form a cohesive layer that sticks together and is sinfully sweet.
- Cream – Heavy cream is what I used today to make this layer completely drool worthy and rich.
- Eggs – We want 3 large eggs today, feel free to use 4 if your eggs are on the smaller size.
- Vanilla extract – Without this your dessert may taste a little flat.
- Salt – To season our cake, an important component.
- Pecans – The star ingredient! Chopped up to be combined in this perfect little layer.
How To Make Pecan Pie Cheesecake
Crust
- Preheat your oven to 300 F. Spray the inside of a 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray.
- Combine the crust: In a food processor, pulse together the graham crackers, pecans, sugar and salt until coarse crumbs form. Add the melted butter. Pulse until combined. Press onto the bottom of the prepared pan and set aside.
Cheesecake
- Cream the cheesecake: Using the paddle attachment on your mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugars, eggs, vanilla, and salt to the bowl of your mixer. Mix on medium speed until completely combined and smooth. About 5 minutes.
- Bake the cake: Pour the mixture over the graham cracker crust. Smooth out as much as possible with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes.
Pecan pie topping
- Combine the pecan pie: To the bowl of your mixer add all the pecan pie ingredients except the pecans and mix until well combined. Add the pecans and mix with a spatula.
- Assemble: Pour the mixture over the partially cooked cheesecake, and cook for another 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely, and then cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.
Best Cream Cheese To Use
I prefer using Philadelphia cream cheese because it always makes a super silky cheesecake. However, if you can’t find the Philadelphia brand, use a cream cheese that is full fat for best results.
Got A Crack In Your Cake?
The best way to prevent the cheesecake from cracking is by using a water bath. Plus make sure you don’t open the oven door while the cake is baking. As you can see, mine cracked around the edges, but who cares. Even better because that pecan pie topping filled in those cracks, flavoring my cheesecake.
How Do I Know When My Cheesecake Is Done Baking
To check if your cheesecake is done baking, gently shake the pan. If the cheesecake looks nearly set, but the center is still a bit jiggly, it is done.The center will firm out as the cake comes to room temperature and chills.
Serving A Crowd?
Sometimes a cake that needs to be sliced up just doesn’t cut it when feeding the hungry hordes. Try my Pecan Pie Cheesecake Bars for an easier serving crowd pleaser, or try it for some portable cheesecake on the go – sounds like my kind of business venture.
Amp Up The Flavor
To bring out the flavor of the pecans even more, toast them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350 F degrees or until you start to smell them. You can even brown the butter before incorporating it into your filling. I know I’m crazy, but aren’t we all a little?
Storage
This sweet treat will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Just store in an airtight container or wrap it up tightly before popping them in.
Cooked cheesecake also freezes really well, just place the cake fully cooled and wrapped fully in plastic wrap and aluminum foil till ready to eat. This method should ensure the cheesecake bars lasts 3 months.
Craving More Rich Desserts? Try These Delicious Treats:
- Hawaiian Cheesecake Bites
- Goat Cheese Cheesecake with Figs
- Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Creme Brûlée Cheesecake Bars
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pops
- Tiramisu
- Chocolate Fudge
- Chocolate Swiss Roll Cake
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Pecan Pie Cheesecake
Equipment
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 cup graham crackers
- 1 cup pecans
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup butter unsalted, melted
Cheesecake
- 24 ounce cream cheese at room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 pinch salt
Pecan Pie Topping
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 ½ cups pecans roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 300 F. Spray the inside of a 9 inch springform pan with cooking spray.
Crust
- In a food processor, pulse together the graham crackers, pecans, sugar and salt until coarse crumbs form. Add the melted butter. Pulse until combined.
- Press onto the bottom of the prepared pan and set aside.
Cheesecake
- Using the paddle attachment on your mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugars, eggs, vanilla, and salt to the bowl of your mixer. Mix on medium speed until completely combined and smooth. About 5 minutes.
- Pour the mixture over the graham cracker crust. Smooth out as much as possible with a spatula. Bake for 30 minutes.
Pecan Pie Topping
- To the bowl of your mixer add all the pecan pie ingredients except the pecans and mix until well combined. Add the pecans and mix with a spatula.
- Pour the mixture over the partially cooked cheesecake, and cook for another 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Cool completely, and then cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.
Video
Recipe Notes
- For this recipe you’ll need a 9xinch springform pan.
- The best way to prevent the cheesecake from cracking is by using a waterbath. However, I did not find this to be necessary since I covered the top of the cheesecake with the pecan pie topping.
- Make sure you wait until the cheesecake has cooled before running a knife around the rim of the pan to loosen the cake.
- Drizzle the cheesecake with caramel sauce if desired.
- This cheesecake will keep about 1 week in the fridge covered loosely with aluminum foil or plastic wrap. You can also freeze it, just make sure you wrap it tightly with plastic freezer wrap, or place it in freezer bags.
- Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Just wondering if this can be made ahead and frozen.
Yes, you can! Cheesecake actually freezes incredibly well. To freeze, place the cooled cheesecake on a baking pan and freeze, uncovered, until firm. Remove the cheesecake from the freezer, wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil and place in a freezer bag and return to freezer. It can be frozen for several months. Thaw the cheesecake in the refrigerator overnight.
The one cup of graham crackers is that after crushed into crumbs? Otherwise how do you measure graham crackers in a cup form?
Yes, after you crush them.
This looks amazing! I make homemade pecan pie with maple syrup instead of corn syrup. Amounts are different, Do you think 1/4 cup sub corn syrup for maple would work?
You can swap maple syrup and corn syrup without changing the amount for this recipe.
Wonderful.
Hola …me encanta…ojalá puedas dar la receta en español.. porfavor.. soy de Chile..ciudad la Serena
We don’t speak Spanish, so we can’t write the recipes in that language. You can get a plugin for your web browser that will automatically translate pages for you.
Made this for thanksgiving …. turned out awesome. My modifications to the recipe include: no pecans to the crust but 1/2 cup chopped pecans to the cheesecake batter and rum extract instead of vanilla in both the batter and topping.
I cooked the first part for 30 minutes like you said and when I poured the topping on it it all went down in the middle. I tried to get a spoon and get it back to the top but that didn’t work. I went ahead and cooked it for the 50 minutes and just took out of the oven. It seems jiggly in the middle and hardly no pecan topping on top of cake. I guess it mixed with the first part. It came way up nearly spilling over in the 9 inch pan. What did I do wrong?
Did you use the exact same amounts as called for in the recipe or did you add anything extra? You can let the cheesecake layer cook for an extra 5-10 minutes and then cool for about 20 minutes to avoid a soft middle. I suspect there was accidentally too much of some ingredients used because we’ve never had an issue like this. The reason I suspect this is because you had ingredients spilling over the top. We use a circular 9″ springform and had no issue with how full it was.
I had the same issue with the pecan topping making the middle sink. It also made some of the cheesecake portions rise up above the filling. I’m guessing it’s because it needed to cool a bit first? I don’t know, the recipe didn’t say to let it cool some before putting the topping on and putting it back in the oven. I have it back in right now with the stuff that had sunk to the middle. I hope it works out because this cheesecake isn’t cheap to make….
How did it work out for you Bea and Janette? Mine just did the same and I’m worried it’s not going to end up edible.
How many slices do you get out of the finished pie? Wondering for the nutritional per serving info. Thanks!!
The number of slices (servings) is 16, top of recipe, so the nutritional information assumes 16 slices and is per slice.
Is there a reason why some cheesecakes have sour cream?
It helps create a smooth and rich consistency.
The Best Cheesecake I ever had. Make this for all my family especially my daughters.
Is there a reason why my cheesecake batter is not as fluffy and whipped looking as yours (in the video)? Mine started to mix but the consistency looked watery and looked like it was hard for the cream cheese to completely mix and whip together with the other ingredients (curdled looking). I thought maybe did I buy old cream cheese? And did a brand new batch just in case. Sure enough, the same thing happened. I was curious if I was the only one that experienced that? And if anyone knows why this happened? I’m so curious because I made sure all the ingredients, tools and steps were done correctly, I know how extra careful you need to be when it comes to baking. Other than that, this recipe is awesome & I can’t wait to eat the finished product- it smells super delicious!
Not quite sure, did you make sure the cream cheese was at room temperature? Not sure what cream cheese you use, but I always use Philadelphia for cheesecakes, I find it’s the best for cheesecakes. Also make sure you do beat it for at least 5 minutes, it usually takes that long to get nice and fluffy.
Did u use regular cream cheese? If so did u leave it out at room temperature.
Yes, it’s regular Philadelphia cream cheese and yes you need it to be at room temperature.
Jo, this was absolutely DIVINE!!!! Everyone in the house thought it was heavenly. I used 7 graham cracker sheets (those that split in 2), did not do brown sugar or corn syrup as we like things less sweet. We also have a stomachache from egg whites so I used 4 egg yolks. I made everything in the Ninja food processor (regular blade) which made the cream cheese super fluffy (I was in a hurry the first time so I didn’t mix enough and cream cheese was still chunky, so I put it back and mixed for 5 minutes just like you said, and it was super fluffy. I don’t have a springform pan so I made it in the buttered pie dish and at first I did not think the topping would fit, but because I used less sugar throughout, everything fit. Organic cream cheese and eggs, and fresh pecans are a must and I’m glad I got a good batch. Thank you for this amazing recipe!!! Can’t wait to try more of your baking treats. S#x in a pan was really amazing when I made it last year. 🙂 xoxo
So glad you liked it! I know this one is a huge hit at my house whenever I make it. 🙂
Oh My Goodness! My brother is coming for a visit and I asked him what he likes for dessert. He said cheesecake, or pecan pie. I thought I could get him a Trader Joe’s cheesecake. But then I googled Jo Cooks Pecan Pie. You do cook Pecan Pie! You have both in one!!! I’m going to make this. Looks amazing. You are the Goddess of cooking with your savory and sweet EASY recipes. I have tried so many of your dishes. THANK YOU, JoAnna!!!
Aww, thank you, Vera! You just made my day!
What should I do if I only have pre made graham cracker crumbs? How much of them should I use for the crust?
If you’re just using graham crackers crumbs, you probably need about 2 cups.
Boy~that looks Devine:)