Salted Caramel and Pecan Cheesecake

This was both my first attempt at making caramel and the first time I made cheesecake. I was not that confident about either, but the whole thing turned out very well; I made it for a barbeque for friends and it got a universal stamp of approval! The cheesecake is a 'no bake' version, slightly adapted from a Nigella recipe, and was very easy to make. I found this salted caramel recipe on a really nice baking blog I often frequent. The salted caramel can be made in advance, stored in the fridge, and warmed up when needed by placing your jar of caramel in a bowl of hot water. 

The recipe is quite detailed and as such might look quite complicated, but trust me, it's easier than it looks!

For the salted caramel:

Ingredients:

200g caster sugar
90g butter, salted or unsalted, cut into 1 inch squares
120ml double cream
½ - 1 tsp salt (to taste)

Instructions:

1. In a non-stick pan, heat the sugar on a medium heat, constantly stirring. It will start to clump together before eventually turn into a brown thick liquid. This might take a while but don't be tempted to turn the heat up as you don't want to burn it.

2. Once the sugar has melted, add the butter. The caramel might spit a bit so be careful at this point. Stir thoroughly until butter has completely melted.

3. Add the cream and stir. Again the caramel may spit so be careful. Stir until it begins to boil and then allow to boil for one minute, continuing to stir. You may get some lumps in the caramel if you don't stir quickly enough but don't worry too much about this.

4. Remove from heat, stir in salt and leave to cool. You may want to add half a teaspoon at first, stir in and allow to cool slightly until you can taste it before deciding whether to add the rest of the salt. Or you could just add it all in and hope for the best (I did this and it turned out ok).

Salted caramel can be stored in a jar in the fridge and warmed before using. You will likely have more caramel than needed for the cheesecake (unless you really, really, like caramel).

For the cheesecake:

Ingredients:
250g digestive biscuits, blitzed in a food processor or with a hand blender
150g butter
475g cream cheese
120g icing sugar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon lemon juice
375ml double cream
salted caramel (see above), to taste
150g pecans (you may not need all of these)

Instructions

1. Melt butter and add to blended digestive biscuits, stirring to combine. Add to a greased loose bottomed or springform 20 cm round tin, and press the mixture down evenly. If you don't have a loose bottomed pan, use a regular round tin lined with baking parchment. Put in the fridge to cool.

2. In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice until smooth.

3. In a seperate bowl, lightly whip cream. If you are unsure what this means, a helpful online tutorial is here.

4. Fold cream into cream cheese mixture until combined.

5. Remove the biscuit base from the fridge, add the cheesecake filling mixture and press down to evenly spread the filling on the base. Return to the fridge to set; this will need at least 3 hours but you could leave it overnight.

6. Once the cheesecake is set, warm the caramel so that it is soft and pourable. Remove the cheesecake from fridge and gently pour the caramel on top, spreading with the back of a spoon or a spatula. Once cheesecake is covered with your preferred amount of caramel, arrange pecan pieces on top in whatever way you want. Return to the fridge to set the caramel and remove about 10 minutes before serving.