Slow Cooker Mini Hazelnut Cheesecake

Here is another unconventional slow cooker recipe... 

This cheesecake is slowly ‘steamed’ rather than baked but still gives a dense and rich finish. I love the flavours of hazelnut and coffee and topped with a Nutella oat crumble you can’t go wrong.

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My Mini Hazelnut Cheesecake 

Ingredients

(makes one 6" x 3" spring cake tin, serves 6)

For the base:

• 6 milk chocolate digestives
• 30g unsalted butter (melted)

For the filling:

• 75g hazelnut praline paste (can be store bought but home-made is best, recipe below)
  • 75g hazelnuts
  • 75g golden caster sugar
  • pinch of salt
• 450g cream cheese
• 150g caster sugar
• pinch of salt 
• 1 shot of espresso
• 50g sour cream
• 1tsp vanilla paste
• 2 eggs (beaten)

For the topping:

• 1tbsp butter (melted)
• 50g caster sugar
• 40ml milk
• pinch of sea salt
• 75g Nutella 
• 25g oats 

Method

To make the hazelnut praline paste, preheat your oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and place your hazelnuts on a tray. Place in the oven for 5-8 minutes until the skins start to spilt, take out and when cool enough rub the hazelnuts in your hands and the skin will easily rub off. You can also purchase blanched hazelnuts and skip the peeling process, but you will still need to toast them. 

Add the sugar to a pan and over a low heat, it will start to melt very quickly and become a caramel. When complete, remove from the heat and add your hazelnuts. Place on a tray to cool but remember to not place in the fridge. When cooled, smash up the praline and place in the food processor to blitz. *This will make extra and will keep in the fridge for about a month, spread a bit on toast and thank me later ;)

Fill your slow cooker with 1/2 inch of water then place a foil rack in the centre so that the cake tin can sit above the water level. A foil base can be easily made by rolling and shaping aluminium foil into a square to about 1/2 inch thickness and the length to balance the cake tin.

In a food processor, blitz the biscuits and melted butter till combined then transfer to the bottom of the cake tin and press evenly down to make the base.

In a bowl, add the cream cheese, sugar, salt and whisk quickly to combine. Next add the eggs, sour cream, coffee, vanilla paste and whisk till combined for only about 20 seconds. Be careful not to over mix.

Pour onto the biscuit base and transfer to the slow cooker and cook for 1.25 & 1.5 hours. Take out, rest and chill until ready to serve. Be careful not to overcook as it can split.

For the topping, add the butter, sugar, milk and pinch of salt to a small sauce pan and stir. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute and remove from the heat. Add the Nutella and stir in until smooth, then add the oats stirring until completely covered. Lay mixture and flatten out onto non-stick greaseproof paper and allow to cool and firm up, which will take about an hour. Once it has firmed, break and sprinkle over top of the cheesecake. *There will be leftovers which make ideal gluten free non bake cookies.