The one, The only, The MAPLE BACON CHEESECAKE

Okay,

First of all I must deeply apologize to all of you who follow this blog because I have not posted in a very long time.  I have been so unbelievably busy with work that I have hardly had any time to myself let alone to blog.  The good news is that I am making up for this gap in time with one doozy of a recipe.......

So I was asked to come up with some crazy concoction for a friend of mine's going away party.  His specifics were thus: 

Cheesecake

Bacon

And then I said: "OK"

I decided that the best route to take in this would be to include an ingredient that would agree with both parties.

Maple Syrup. 

Thus the Maple Bacon Cheesecake is born:

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients (in the order needed)

1 lb of bacon

4 Tbs pure maple syrup

2 cups cinnamon graham crackers (about 15-17 whole crackers) crushed

1 stick of butter

3 Tbs sugar

 1 cup pure maple syrup

3 packs of cream cheese (room temperature)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3 Tbs flour

2/3 cup sour cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

Here is your disclaimer:

**This recipe is not for the faint of heart or the pressed for time.  This is legit.**

The first thing you must do is candy the bacon.  I used maple syrup but you can use brown sugar if you would like.

Turn on the broiler.  Place your bacon out on baking sheets and coat (using your hands) each slice of bacon with maple syrup.  Place baking sheets and broil bacon until dark and crispy (time varies depending on thickness of bacon so keep your eye on it).  It is very important that your bacon is very crispy even on the edge of looking burnt.  Remove bacon from broiler when it's finished and place it on a paper towel to dry.

As you let the bacon cool, you will want to place in a bowl the next three ingredients listed (graham crackers, butter, sugar).  Mix these together well so that you can form clumps in your hands when the ingredients are squeezed.  Then crumble up 5-6 pieces of the bacon and mix it into the crust.  Press down the crust ingredients into a 9 in spring-form pan lined with wax or parchment paper until even and flat.  Bake the crust at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until starting to brown.  Remove from heat and let it cool completely.  Reduce your oven temperature to 300 degrees.

While the crust is cooling, place the maple syrup into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  You will want to continuously stir this with a whisk for about 7 minutes or until it is reduced by at least half.  Pour this into a bowl and let stand and cool.  **I take mine to nearly a candied state**

In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is smooth.  Add the sugar, flour and salt and beat again until smooth.  Then you will add the reduced and cooled maple syrup, sour cream and vanilla extract and blend this until it is smooth.  Then you will add the eggs (one at a time) and beat in until just barely blended.  Then you will stir (not beat) in all the rest but 4 pieces of the candied bacon into the batter.  Pour this onto the crust in the spring-form pan and bake at 300 degrees for about an hour and a half or until the sides of the cake are puffy and the center trembles slightly.  Remove from heat and let cool completely.  Sprinkle with the remaining 4 pieces of candied bacon (crumbled) and serve!

If you try this I MUST know how it goes for you.

Let us talk basic kneeds!