A classic Southern staple meets traditional cheesecake in this Pecan Praline Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce! The recipe starts with a pecan praline graham cracker crust, filled with a creamy cheesecake filling, and topped with a homemade caramel sauce. You don’t even need a water bath!
The Best Praline Caramel Cheesecake Recipe
This Praline Caramel Cheesecake combines Southern pralines with rich and creamy cheesecake for the perfect show-stopping desert.
The pralines are crushed into the crust with the graham cracker crumbs, giving the crust a crisp, rich flavor. It’s so much better than a regular graham cracker crust.
Pralines are a Southern tradition, tracing back to when French settlers brought them to Louisiana. Since then, they’ve become a staple in Southern baking, perfect for giving this basic cheesecake recipe an upgrade.
Working off the praline theme, you’ll save some of the sweetened pecans to place on top of each slice. Never made pralines – they’re amazing.
The cheesecake itself is a basic tangy cheesecake filling made with cream cheese, sour cream, vanilla, and eggs. Once the cake is set, homemade caramel is poured over the sweetened pecan on each slice. It’s a rich, decadent dessert with a taste of the South.
While this cheesecake may look complicated, it’s very easy to make and several steps can be done in advance. If you want a fast and easy cheesecake, try a cream cheese pie.
Why You Just Have to Make This Cheesecake Recipe
- Rich and decadent: The rich cheesecake paired with the caramel sauce and praline crust creates flavors we love together.
- Perfect for parties: This crowd-pleasing dessert needs to make an appearance at your next party, it serves 12 generous slices.
- Different: It’s not just a basic cheesecake or pecan pie. This recipe is the perfect fusion of nutty pecans, tangy cheesecake, and sweet caramel.
Ingredients You Need to Make This Praline Caramel Cheesecake
- Crust: You’ll need pecan halves, butter, sugar, brown sugar, heavy cream, salt, and graham crackers.
- Filling: Grab some full-fat cream cheese, eggs, sugar, vanilla extract, and full-fat sour cream.
- Caramel: You’ll need sugar, light corn syrup, heavy cream, heavy cream, vanilla, and salt.
How to Make It – it’s not as hard as it looks
To avoid making multiple things dirty, I use a food processor to make the crust, rinse it and then use it instead of a mixer for the cheesecake filling. Instead, you can crush the crackers in a ziplock and use an electric mixer for the filling.
Step One: Make the Crust
Bake pecans with sugar and butter until caramelized, then grind them with graham crackers, saving some to put on the top of the cheesecake. Press the mixture into a springform pan to form a sturdy crust.
Step Two: Prepare the Filling
In a food processor or mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and sour cream until smooth. Pour into the crust and bake in the oven until just set. Chill overnight for the best texture.
Step Three: Make the Caramel Sauce
In a small saucepan, bring sugar, water, and corn syrup to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and let it simmer until an amber color develops. Remove from the heat and stir in cream, vanilla, and salt for a luscious caramel. Let cool in a glass bowl.
Step Four: Assemble the Cheesecake
Carefully remove the springform pan, slice, and top each slice with a pecan and add a drizzle of caramel sauce. Enjoy!
Things to Know
- Room temperature: Use room temperature cream cheese, sour cream, and eggs to prevent lumps in the filling and cracks when baking.
- Beat: Don’t beat your cheesecake mixture too much, or you won’t have that classic dense texture. You can use a food processor to blend the ingredients or the paddle attachment on your stand mixer.
- Topping: Instead of placing a sweetened pecan on each slice of cheesecake, you can use chopped pecans and sprinkle them on top instead.
- Make-ahead: You can make the caramel sauce up to 2 weeks ahead of time and store it in the fridge.
- Crust: You can grind the pecans and graham crackers in a food processor or use a rolling pin and a plastic bag.
Storage
The cheesecake will last wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 5 days. You can also freeze the entire cheesecake or cut it into slices to freeze individually. They will last in the freezer for 1-2 months. Let the cake or slices thaw in the fridge overnight before eating.
Don’t Forget!
Like and review this post – it helps our website grow so we can give you more delicious Southern recipes!
Ingredients
Crust
- ½ cup pecan halves
- ½ cup butter plus ½ teaspoon melted
- ⅓ cup plus ½ tablespoon sugar
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons heavy cream
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 packets graham crackers 10 ounces
Filling
- 4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temp
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 24 ounces full-fat sour cream
Caramel
- 1 ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup light corn syrup
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375º. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Wrap the outside of a 10-inch round springform pan with foil.
- Crust: In a small bowl combine the pecan halves, ½ teaspoon butter, ½ tablespoon sugar, brown sugar, cream and salt. Mix to combine and spread onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes until the sugar is brown. Let cool until the sugar is no longer soft.
- Reserve 12 of the pecans and add the rest to a food processor. Add graham crackers and process until fine. Add ½ cup of melted butter and ⅓ cup sugar and pulse until combined. Press the crumbs into the bottom and two-thirds up the sides of the springform pan and pat into place with the bottom of a measuring cup.
- Filling: Clean out the food processor or use a stand mixer. Add the cream cheese and sugar and process until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time and process after each until they are incorporated. Add vanilla and sour cream and process until smooth. Pour into the crust. Bake for 55-60 mintues, or until the center is still jiggly and the edges have started to brown. Let cool completely on a wire rack then cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Caramel Sauce: In a saucepan, add sugar, water and corn syrup and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until it turns a slightly yellow straw color, about 8 minutes, then reduce the heat to medium low and continue to cook until it turns an amber color, about 5 minutes. A thermometer should read 235º to 240º.
- Remove from the heat and stir in cream, vanilla and salt, it will sizzle. Stir until it is smooth. Pour into a glass bowl and let it cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to use, up to two weeks. If it is too thick to pour, microwave at 10 second intervals.
- Assemble: Remove the springform pan and place on a serving plate. Use a warm knife to cut into 12 slices, wiping down the knife between each slice. Place a reserved pecan on each slice and pour caramel over each slice.
Notes
- If you don’t have pecan halves, you can pieces and just sprinkle them over the top.
- You can make the caramel in advance and just microwave until it is thin enough to pour.
