Brandied Pear Cheesecake with Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust

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Quite possibly the most elegant cheesecake I'll ever create, this Brandied Pear Cheesecake with Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust is as delicious as it is stunning. Brown butter is added to both the creamy pear-flecked filling and to the hazelnut shortbread crust. And the filling is studded with diced pears that have been cooked in a quick caramel sauce spiked with brandy. It is just too much in the very best way!

pear cheesecake on cake stand topped with caramel sauce, hazelnuts, and small fresh pears

Recipe Background

To me, cheesecake is a Thanksgiving and Christmas dessert but this pear and hazelnut combo would be great all fall and winter long. If you love pears as much as I do, check out my Pear Galette, Cranberry Pear Butter, and Spiced Pear and Vanilla Bean Gin Fizz Cocktail.

Recently, I came across a list of cheesecake flavor ideas I had written down years ago when I was dabbling in selling cheesecakes and this pear cheesecake was one of many wild ideas. This is more of a passion project blog post; I doubt anyone is googling "Brandied Pear Cheesecake with Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust" but it was one of those recipes I just had to create.

My decision to add the brown butter was 100% influenced by my friend and brown butter soul sister, Sam, who posts the most fabulous recipes on her blog buttermilkbysam.com. She has a lot of brown butter recipes that make me swoon, but she is the first person I've ever seen put brown butter in a cheesecake. Brown butter is called beurre noisette in French which translates to hazelnut butter and describes the nutty flavor and golden color of brown butter. So the combo of hazelnut and brown butter really made sense to me and it pushes that toasty, nutty flavor over the top in this easy shortbread crust.

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Recipe Background
Ingredients
Instructions
Variations and Substitutions
Equipment
Storage
Top tip
FAQ
Related
Pairing
Brandied Pear Cheesecake with Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust

Ingredients

This cheesecake starts with a pretty standard list of ingredients and then we veer off into fancy Holiday land with a few not-so-standard additions.

Cheesecake Filling:

cream cheese: Full fat, room temperature. I always recommend Philadelphia cream cheese for the best texture.
eggs and egg yolks: the combination creates the perfect texture and a level cheesecake top without any sinking after it cools.
vanilla extract: vanilla bean paste would be nice too or a scraped vanilla bean if you want to be really fancy.
sugar: regular granulated sugar to sweeten up the cheesecake.
sour cream: for a bit of creamy tang. Full fat Greek yogurt can be used as well.
brown butter: We will use most of the brown butter for the crust and use mostly the leftover solids for the filling (I learned this trick from Sam!) but a bit of the liquid is great. I just use what I have leftover after measuring out ½ cup for the crust.

Brandied Pear Caramel Sauce:

fresh pears: I prefer bartlett but almost any pear would work other than Asian pears as they are very tough and gritty.
brandy: a little splash to add some elegant, festive booziness to this sauce.
brown sugar: not pictured but used to create a rich caramel sauce.
pinch of salt: always nice in a caramel.

ingredients for brown butter hazelnut shortbread crust

Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust:

flour: Just good old all purpose for this crust.
hazelnuts: I buy mine in bulk, blanched and peeled. You can use unpeeled but your crust will be a bit darker.
brown butter: ½ cup of the liquid - reserve the solids for the filling.
sugar: regular granulated to sweeten up the crust.
vanilla extract: Adding vanilla to the crust is a little unexpected I think and very delicious.
salt: a pinch to balance the flavors in the crust.

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

How to make Brandied Pear Cheesecake with Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust

Step 1: Brown Butter

I did not include pictures of this. To make brown butter you will place 1 stick plus 2 tablespoon butter in a skillet and cook over medium heat until the butter melts, foams, and turns golden brown. Once brown, remove from heat and transfer to a heatproof jar or bowl. ½ cup is for the crust and the remaining amount plus the brown bits are for the cheesecake filling. Use the same skillet for the caramel sauce.

Step 2: Brandied Pear Caramel Sauce:

Ingredients for brandied pear caramel sauce in pan

Place brown sugar, butter, and a splash of water in a skillet (I use the same one from browning the butter). Cook over medium heat until the mixture bubbles and sugar has dissolved.
Add pears and brandy and cook until pears are softened - about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

MAKE AHEAD: you can make the crust and the caramel sauce the day before. Store the caramel in the refrigerator and the crust at room temperature.

Step 3: Brown Butter Hazelnut Shortbread Crust:

ingredients for brown butter hazelnut crust in food processor

brown butter added to dry ingredients for cheesecake crust

Place hazelnuts, flour, salt, and sugar in food processor. Pulse a few times until crumbly.
Add ½ cup brown butter - careful not to add all of the brown bits as we want those for the filling. Pulse until a crumbly dough forms.
Press this dough into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned around the edges and fragrant.
Remove from oven and allow to cool while you prepare the filling.

Step 4: Cheesecake Filling

cream cheese, sugar, and brown butter in food processor bowl

sour cream and egg added to cream cheese mixture for brandied pear cheesecake

Place cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and brown butter in food processor and blend until very creamy, scraping down sides at least once.

Add sour cream and one egg and blend until smooth before adding remaining eggs one at a time - I do this with the mixer running and pour the eggs through the tube. I like to scrape the sides a couple times during this step.

Hint: It is imperative that your cream cheese and eggs are at room temperature for this and all cheesecake recipes. I always just leave mine out at room temperature overnight, but if you aren't comfortable with that then you'll need to pull them from the refrigerator a few hours before you want to make this cheesecake.

Step 5: Cheesecake Assembly and Baking

baked brown butter hazelnut crust in springform pan wrapped in parchment and foil in a large roasting pan.

first layer of Brandied Pear Cheesecake with Brown Butter Hazelnut Crust in pan

Wrap springform pan with a large piece of parchment and two layers of wide heavy duty aluminum foil. Place in a large baking dish on a kitchen towel. Pour half of cheesecake filling into pan and top with an even layer of pears that have been drained of excess caramel sauce - I used about 1 cup of pears. Top with remaining cheesecake filling.
Place in oven and pour very hot water half way up springform pan. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 300 and bake for 50 more minutes. Remove from oven, remove from water bath, and allow to cool to room temperature before placing in refrigerator overnight.
Serve with remaining pear caramel sauce, warmed if desired, and chopped hazelnuts.

sliced cheesecake on cake stand with one slice on a small dessert plate

Variations and Substitutions

Boozy or not: If you want to leave the alcohol out you can, or if brandy isn't your thing, substitute rum or bourbon or frangelico if you're really fancy!

Crust: If you prefer to make a graham cracker crust, feel free to do that or to use the gingersnap crust from my Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake.

Sour Cream: Full fat Greek yogurt can be used in place of sour cream

Spices: I feel like a tiny bit of cinnamon, ginger, and/or nutmeg would be really nice in this cheesecake and/or in the crust.

Equipment

I always use and recommend a springform pan for my cheesecakes. There is really no better way to get a nice tall, smooth sided cheesecake. And also I can't imagine trying to wrestle a cheesecake out of a regular cake pan. 9-inch is my preferred size and what my dad always used. This is the one I use.

A food processor does the best job with this filling but you can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer too. Just blend the cream cheese and sugar, really, really well and scrape down the sides more than you think you should between each egg addition.

You will also need a very large roasting pan for the water bath. I use this All Clad pan I've had forever. But any large pan will do as long as the cheesecake pan is surrounded by water and it is deep enough to come up about halfway.

Storage

This cheesecake will keep for up to 5 days covered in the refrigerator. I do not recommend freezing this or any cheesecakes as the texture really suffers upon thawing.

Top tip

I had this revelation several years ago and share it in all of my cheesecake posts now. It will change your cheesecake game: Before you begin, take a look at your springform pan base and if the lipped edge is facing up as it often is, reverse it so that it is facing down and lock it in place. This will save you a lot of hassle trying to get the cake out of the pan later. The best way to remove it from the pan is to slide a long, offset spatula underneath the crust, rotating it all the way around, and slide the cheesecake off onto a board or platter.

FAQ

What can you use instead of graham crackers for cheesecake crust?

Other cookies can be used in place of graham crackers or a brown butter hazelnut shortbread crust such as the one in this recipe can be used for a from scratch cheesecake crust.