Bailey’s Cheesecake with light Banana Bread Base

So I had a few complaints offline that I did not continue to make a legit homemade cheesecake last week. Most complaints were from my guinea pigs (my friends who regularly test and critique my cheesecakes). However, I am back to the homemade, low fat, low sugar sensations this week!

This cheesecake was inspired from my summer days working at a fine dining restaurant as a server and bartender. I once made a specialty drink that combined Bailey’s liquor and banana liquor. The customer appeared to enjoy it very much and ever since the combination intrigued me. Though not daring enough to try the drink, I thought this week I would create my own cheesecake recipe based on this unusual combo.

Word to the wise – whenever creating and testing homemade recipes, be prepared for a learning experience in the first round. While this cheesecake turned out sensational, it was a rather interesting adventure creating it. First, I made the banana bread base (very low fat, low sugar). I ended up putting the entire banana bread mixture in the base of my springform pan, instead of halving the recipe I was using. It did not appear as though it was going to be too thick, but I forgot that banana bread rises. I checked the recipe after 20 minutes and the banana bread was three quarters the way up the springform pan! My dear, genius friend suggested we just push it back down with a spatula! Not surprisingly that did not work so well, thus we ended up with a 21/2 inch thick banana bread base for our cheesecake (approximately just over half of the springform pan was filled with banana bread). Oops!

The cheesecake mixture I have almost mastered for the tops of any cheesecake. It is like I mentioned about tofu – once you have your base ingredients for a low fat cheesecake mixture, you can get as creative as you like with what flavours you wish to incorporate. I whipped up the mixture as per the recipe I concocted and into the springform pan it went.

Another tip – cheesecakes take hours to make, so don’t start making it at 11 pm at night unless you are nocturnal.

Regardless the cheesecake turned out wonderful and was enjoyed by all. The only critiques were the crust was way too thick and hard on the bottom (I had fully cooked the banana bread for 50 minutes before adding the cheesecake and baking it again for 1 hour and 20 minutes – I clearly wasn’t thinking). Also, people commented that they would have enjoyed a thicker cheesecake layer. All the flavours married beautifully though!

For readers, the recipe in my recipe book for this cheesecake is altered to adjust for the errors made in the first go around, so don’t be concerned or feel the need to make any alterations. Let me know how it works out!

Cheers J