Upside Down Salted Caramel Cheesecake with Macadamia Pretzel Praline

This salted caramel cheesecake is impressive to look at, absolutely delicious, and deceptively simple to make.

Servings: 4
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

½ cup (125ml) cream
180g cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Salted Caramel Sauce
60g butter
½ cup light muscovado or brown sugar
½ cup (125ml) cream
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Macadamia Pretzel Praline
½ cup macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons (40g) butter
2 tablespoons (60g) maple syrup
1/3 cup (55g) icing sugar
½ cup roughly crushed pretzels

Method

For salted caramel sauce, melt butter in a medium saucepan, add sugar and cook for five minutes or until sugar dissolves and starts to turn golden, stirring from time to time.  Add cream and salt and bring to the boil.  Boil gently for ten minutes, whisking occasionally, until thickened.  Remove from heat, add vanilla, pour into a small bowl and set aside to cool.

For Macadamia pretzel praline, toast the macadamias in a pan over medium heat until golden.  Remove.  Reduce heat to low, add butter and melt, stirring from time to time to distribute the milk solids and continue to cook until it foams and turns nut brown.  Stir in maple syrup and icing sugar, bring to the boil and cook for two minutes.  Add reserved macadamias and crushed pretzels and stir quickly until coated.  Spoon onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and set aside to cool.  When cool, break into small chunks.

Using electric mixer, beat cream until soft peaks form.  In a larger bowl, using the same beaters, whip cream cheese, vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the cooled salted caramel sauce until fluffy.  Gently fold through cream.  Spoon into serving glasses, top with a spoonful of Salted caramel sauce and sprinkle with a few chunks of Macadamia pretzel praline.  Serve immediately.

Lyndey’s Note:

This dessert can be made ahead and refrigerated (without the praline), but for best results, remove from fridge at least one hour before serving and sprinkle with the praline. It is not a traditional praline, but the use of butter in it really enhances the unique flavour of the macadamias.

Recipe from award-winning TV series & book Lyndey Milan’s Taste of Australia.

Other Taste Of Australia Recipes

Linguine with Seafood and Garlic Crumbs

Poached Yabbies with Lemon Myrtle butter and Macadamia Warrigal Greens

Snapper with Mango Salsa