November 11, 2004
English Toffee Cheesecake with Macadamia Sugar Cookie Crust
I had a hankerin' for a cheesecake, a little one, prompted by a walk through the dairy aisle and spying the Philadelphia Cream Cheese. I have tried other brands, generic and name brand. I don't think anything measures up to the Original Philly Cream Cheese.
And so, what to do? I didn't want chocolate chip or chocolate swirl or chocolate anything after that chocolate cake Stacey made. If I see chocolate, I might go quite mad.
We have Torani Sugar-Free English Toffee syrup, which sounded pretty interesting to me. And there's a jar of Macadamia nuts in the pantry. No graham crackers or graham cracker crumbs. Then I thought I'd use pulverized corn flakes, but all we have are Rice Krispies and some kind of healthy, trendy breakfast cereal that smelled like seaweed and looked like an amalgam of dog food and chopped nuts. I saw two packages of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix. One was too much, but I figured what the heck; I made some cookies with the leftover dough. Instead of granulated sugar, I used dark brown sugar, hoping to give the cheesecake a toffee color.
Here we go:
Crust
Make 1 Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix (it's in a small bag, not a box) according to package instructions.
Coursely chop 3 oz. Macadamia nuts, and mix into dough.
In a 3" deep by 6" diameter springform pan, spread just less than half of the cookie dough in the bottom.
Bake at 375 degrees until firm (it should not be brown and it should not be bubbly, but in between). Allow crust to cool. (Keep the oven on and make the rest of the dough into cookies.)
Cheesecake Mixture
With an electric mixer, cream 1 lb. of cream cheese, softened, until smooth.
Add 1 1/4 cups of packed, dark brown sugar and beat until creamy and the sugar looks dissolved.
Add about 1/8 cup of all-purpose flour, 2 tablespoons of half-n-half, 2 eggs, and 2 1/2 oz. of Torani Sugar-Free English Toffee syrup, and beat until smooth.
Pour the mixture in the baked, cooled cookie-crusted springform pan.
Bake at 250 degrees for about 2 hours. Allow to cool and then refrigerate it.
