Okay, okay – hear me out. I know what you must be thinking – bacon on a cheesecake? What the what? But just trust me, it works, especially since its beer-candied bacon. I first got this idea for a cheesecake at my favorite place for inspiration, Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats. In the spring months here on Delmarva, they have a restaurant week. If you are a restaurant in the area and would like to participate, you can offer a 3-course meal to your patrons for $30 a person.
We’ve been to a few places, as it’s always fun to try something new, but we always end up back at Dogfish. There’s the amazing beer, obviously. But, the food is always awesome – as well as the service. It’s a great place to go with the kids, with fun activity menus to keep them busy. They even make their own homemade birch beer! They source as many local ingredients as much as possible, displaying the farms proudly on a chalkboard. Sam and his wife Mariah (founders of Dogfish Head) are the nicest people in the world. We’ve seen them in there many evenings where their family was enjoying dinner with friends, or just hanging out – and Sam chatted with Jon about homebrew for a while. They also host our local homebrew chapter, Delmarva United Homebrewers, at the brewpub in the winter months. Which, is just another notch on their lipstick case of coolness in my book. Okay, I digress…let’s just say that I love them, and everything that they stand for.
The cheesecake was on their prix fixe menu that night as a dessert choice. Of course I couldn’t resist, and I’m eternally grateful that I didn’t. They used their Chicory Stout in the batter, which led to a denser cheesecake than I was accustomed to. It definitely stuck in my mind, and I always wanted to recreate it at home. Enter Jackie, who posted a chocolate stout cheesecake on her beer blog a while back. I knew it was going to be the perfect base for this monster. And, it was. I added a bit of the beer-candied bacon to the batter, as well as to the top (along with some hot fudge sauce to make it easier to adhere). Just enough to make you think – Oh, bacon! And the pretzel crust? Insanely good, and seemed to retain a better crunch than your standard graham cracker variety.
Desserts are often overlooked at Super Bowl parties – but this is one that is most definitely notable. Make this, and you’re sure to be the talk of the party. Or with it in hand, will get you into any party you like! Who’s going to turn down a bacon stout chocolate cheesecake with a pretzel crust? #nobody
Bacon Stout Chocolate Cheesecake
For the Crust:
4 standard sized graham crackers
1 cup pretzel rods
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
6 Tbsp butter, melted
For the filling:
7 oz dark chocolate (60%)
1 cup stout (a chocolate stout or coffee stout is lovely)
3 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 tbs flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tbs espresso powder
3/4 cup beer-candied bacon, finely chopped
For the topping:
2/3 cup hot fudge sauce
1/2 cup beer-candied bacon, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Place one oven rack in the middle position, with one rack below. Preheat oven to 350.
In a food processor add the graham crackers, sugar and the pretzels and process until it’s the consistency of crumbs. Turn the food processor on, and slowly stream in the butter and process until it resembles wet sand.
Spray the inside of a 9-inch spring form pan with non-stick cooking spray. Pour the processed crumbs into the spring form pan. Using the bottom of a heavy, flat bottom glass, press the crust very well into the bottom of the pan until well compacted.
In a pot over medium high heat, add the beer and the chocolate, stir until melted and remove from heat. Allow to cool.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the cream cheese and the sugar and mix until smooth. One at a time, add the eggs, scraping the bottom of the bowl between additions. Pour the cooled chocolate into the mixer and beat until well combined. Lift the head of the mixer and add flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and bacon over the batter, stir on low speed until just combined.
Pour the batter into the pan over the crust.
Place the pan in the oven in the middle position. Place a baking dish on the rack below the cheesecake, fill with water.
Bake the cheesecake until the center no longer jiggles when you shake the rack, about 45-50 minutes. This isn’t a situation where a tooth pick inserted in the middle should come out clean, you just need the center to set and it will continue to set as it cools. Remove from oven.
For the topping, warm your hot fudge sauce so that it is pourable. Pour onto the center of the cheescake carefully, and allow to sit and solidify for 15 minutes. Top the chocolate with the chopped bacon. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Add the sugar, and continue whipping on high until stiff peaks form. Place in piping bag fitted with a decorative tip (I used Wilton 2D) and pipe border of whipped cream around the edge.
Source: inspired by Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats, base cheesecake recipe from The Beeroness
29 Comments
WOW! That looks incredibly fantastic. Beautiful job
Seriously, wow.
the pretzel/graham cracker crust alone is making me hungry.
bacon and beer in desserts is something i haven’t tried to make myself yet but i had a guiness stout chocolate pound cake once that was to die for.
What a unique and yummy combination! I love the idea of beer-candied bacon on my cheesecake. Does that mean I can eat it for breakfast? Thanks!
Cheesecake is an always acceptable breakfast in my book!
It has eggs, bacon, wheat (just like bread!), espresso powder, sounds like a good breakfast to me!
Your pictures are beautiful!I am a HUGE dogfish head fan and visit (and drink) it often. My husband is also dabbling in home brewing. Is there a schedule for the meetings?
Meetings are the second Thursday of every month
Thanks!
Please remember when writing recipes that not everybody has a stand mixer. Thanks.
I trust most of my readers, at the very least, have a hand mixer. That could certainly be used in place of the stand mixer. Make this cheesecake with a whisk if you have to, it’s fabulous!
I just made this with a hand mixer and it worked out just fine. It’s in the oven now! Can’t wait!!!
This looks amazing! Can”t go wrong with Dogfish Head! One question: the ingredient list for the crust calls for granulated sugar, but the instructions say to use brown sugar–which sugar are you supposed to use? Hoping to make this for a SuperBowl party! Thanks for sharing, excited to try lots of recipes on your site!
My bad, brown sugar was in the original recipe – and I changed it to granulated. Either would work, but I used granulated. Going back to change that now, thanks for the heads up!
I can’t wait to make this for my beer and bacon aficionado friends! I have a couple of questions-
1. When it says 1 cup pretzel rods, does that mean already crushed?
2. Can this be made a day ahead? If so, would I wait until right before serving to top with the bacon? I don’t want it to be soggy, for sure.
Thanks!!
Yes, 1 cup crushed pretzels – it’s probably about 15 rods. And yes, it can certainly be made a day in advance. Wait til the day of to top with bacon.
Do you think this recipe would work if I converted it to cupcakes? Also, do you have any idea how long I would bake them?
I’ve heard of other people converting cheesecake to individual servings in the past, but haven’t had experience with it myself. Maybe start checking for doneness after 25 minutes?
I am making this right now for tomorrow’s Superbowl party!!! So, quick question:
I bought graham cracker crumbs…about how much does 4 graham crackers make when you grind them? I’m guessing about 1 cup???
Also, instead of a chocolate/coffee stout, I accidentally bought Black Diamond Peak XV Imperal Porter, which is aged in whiskey barrels with vanilla bean and cacao nibs. Oops!!! But, I think it will still taste very good
Yep, about 1 cup of crumbs should be about perfect. And, I think that beer will be fabulous with it. Sounds like a great beer!
Wonderful!
Thanks, Laura! It came in a 1pint 6 ounce bottle, so we had some leftovers to enjoy. It is a darn tasty beer on its own…I think it will work well in your fabulous recipe
I love cooking with beer and can’t wait to try this!! Such a great idea!!
I just stumbled across your website and man am I in love!!!!! So many awesome dinner AND dessert recipes I want to try!!! Thank you!
Thanks so much, Katie!
I can’t wait to eat this!!! It is in the oven as I type this!!
However, it has been baking for close to an hour and 15 min and is still jiggly….am I doing something wrong? Im worried about the crust burning…Thanks again for sharing! Really hoping it turns out like yours!!
I’ve found that cheesecake cooking time varies from oven to oven. I’ve cooked one close to 2 hours before, and had no issues with the crust burning. I’m sure it will turn out delicious!
This chocolate cheesecake recipe looks amazing and it’s worth a delicious try!
My daughter made this! It was DELICIOUS! Thanks for the recipe!
wow. bacon and cheescake together! how sinful is that?! yum.
OH. EM. GEE.
For my boyfriend’s 40th birthday (tomorrow), I’d decided to make this cheesecake to please my carnivore. Instead of making one big cake, I converted this recipe into 36 cupcake size mini cheesecake.
While making the hot fudge now, I finally just had the first bite of the actual cheesecake….oh my….this is exactly how I dreamt of heaven to be like!!!
Just the cheesecake along almost sent me over the moon, can’t imagine what’s gonna be like when it all comes together with the fudge, bacon topping, and whipped cream.
Thanks for sharing this recipe, Laura! I have no doubt this cheesecake is going to make me the women at the birthday party tomorrow