I am a fan of Irish cream. After all, it has all of the main food groups - fat, sugar, and booze.
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Creamy and rich, this boozy Irish cream cheesecake recipe has just a touch of chocolate and a generous pour of Bailey's Irish Cream! The vanilla wafer crust soaks up the Irish cream flavor and the whole cheesecake is topped with a thick layer of ganache. It's spectacular!
❤️ Why you'll love it
What's not to like? This recipe takes Irish cream, adds a little chocolate for good measure, stirs in a creamy cheesecake batter that's SO stupid easy to make, and then swathes the entire thing is a glorious burst of bittersweet chocolate ganache. So good.
Just. So. Good.
- You don’t need any fancy baking equipment here. Just grab your electric mixer.
- The baking process from start to finish talked under an hour. Although you do want to let this Bailey's cheesecake recipe chill for a while!
- A Bailey’s Irish Cream cheesecake is the perfect St. Patrick’s day dessert!
If you love to bake cheesecakes and just haven’t found a boozy dessert that tantalizes your tastebuds. This creamy cheesecake with a delicious Irish cream flavor makes the perfect dessert and will definitely get those buds dancing!
🥫 Storage
Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap (or place in an airtight container) and store in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days.
I don't recommend freezing Irish Cream cheesecake.
Make ahead
You can make this Irish cream chocolate cheesecake a couple of days ahead of time if you want. It will keep just fine in the refrigerator tightly wrapped as long as you don't have an onion, or liver, or something crazy in there with it.
What I like to do is to fold paper towel over the top of the cheesecake and then wrap it. The paper towel absorbs and extra moisture. Just be sure not to add the glaze until you are ready to serve it.
You're going to love this!
If your cheesecake has been sitting out for over two hours, or it is an exceptionally warm day, please just throw it out. You don't want to chance food poisoning.
Always keep dairy based desserts refrigerated.
When it comes to St. Patrick’s Day desserts, you probably won’t have much left over. But when traveling with this cheesecake or serving it at your next dinner or party. You want to ensure it is only at room temperature for 2 hours or less. If it has been out longer than that, it should be tossed!
Once your guests have enjoyed the Irish cream cheesecake, you want to store it in an airtight container in your refrigerator. If you do not have a big enough container, you can wrap the dessert in plastic wrap as well.
📖 Variations
- Create a chocolate cookie crust, an Oreo crust, or a graham cracker crust.
- Fold mini chocolate chips into the batter.
- Instead of topping with ganache try just sprinkling chocolate cookie crumbs over the top.
- Make chocolate curls and pile them on top.
- Drizzle hot fudge sauce over the top just before serving.
💭 Things to know
Expert Tip: Mix this decadent dessert at the lowest speed. You don't want to mix air into the batter because air bubbles will lighten it. The less air you beat into the cheesecake batter, the more dense and creamy your cheesecake will be.
A lot of people are hesitant to try to make cheesecake. Don't be! It's really very easy as long as you don't substitute ingredients and use these easy tips!
- Have all ingredients at room temperature.
- Be sure to stop your mixer and scrape down the side of the bowl once in awhile during the mixing process.
- Don't skip the water bath. It helps the cheesecake filling cook slowly and evenly, which makes it super creamy.
- Don't over bake - it will make the filling course and grainy.
- At the end of baking time turn the oven off and don't open the door for an hour.
I'm telling ya, you can do this!
👩🍳 FAQs
A water bath (also known as a bain marie) is a pan, larger than your baking pan, filled halfway with boiling water. It helps keep the cheesecake extra creamy and keeps it from cracking. Find out more about using a water bath here.
A lot of y'all have asked if the water bath is absolutely necessary. Yes, it is. It not only keeps the top of this luscious Irish cream cheesecake from cracking but it also keeps the texture super creamy and silky all the way through. PLEASE use the water bath. It only take a minute and it's totally worth it.
I promise.
No, the cheesecake won't thicken up right.
You can use an equal amount of Irish cream coffee creamer to get a similar (but not the same) flavor.
How to Make a Water Bath
A water bath is when you place your cheesecake pan in a pan of boiling water before you put it in the oven. It keeps the cheesecake moist and ensures that the top doesn't crack.
It's essential to the best cheesecakes as far as I'm concerned.
- Wrap the bottom and up the sides of your cheesecake pan with aluminum foil to seal it and keep the water out.
- Place your filled cheesecake pan in a roasting pan.
- Place the roasting pan in the oven.
- Pour hot water in the roasting pan until it is halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan. Be sure not to splash any water into the cheesecake.
📚 Related recipes
I love cheesecake! It's absolutely my favorite dessert and I have a lot of recipes for it. Here are some of my favorites.
- M&M Cheesecake- If you enjoy this cheesecake, you'll absolutely love this ganache-covered M&M candy masterpiece!
- Cookie Dough Cheesecake- Chunks of cookie dough and chocolate ganache are the main attractions in this cheesecake.
- Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake- Although you can't eat this for breakfast, you'll want too!
- Pecan Praline Cheesecake is a rich, dense, creamy cheesecake with a gooey praline topping studded with buttery, toasted pecans.
- Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake is decadently rich and luscious. Creamy pineapple cheesecake is topped with juicy pineapple rings, cherries, and pecans in a brown sugar glaze.
- Plain Cheesecake that’s the perfect foundation for all your favorite variations. If you’ve been intimidated by the idea of a homemade baked cheesecake in the past give this New York Style recipe a try – it comes out right every time.
🍽️ Serve with...
Irish Cream cheesecake is the perfect ending to a St. Patrick's Day dinner!
- Irish soda bread is buttery with a tender crumb and it's easy to make!
- Don't like corned beef? Try this braised pork roast and cabbage instead!
- Red skinned mashed potatoes are rustic and delicious.
- And finish up with a Bailey's Irish Temper, a delicious version of Irish coffee. The kids can have Irish cream hot cocoa!
🥄 Restless Chipotle recommends
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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- A stand mixer is important because there is a lot of mixing and it's probably a bit much for most hand mixers.
- aluminum foil to wrap the pan in - heavy duty is best.
- This springform pan is exactly what I have - including the color, of course. It's leak proof and non-stick plus it's heavy so everything bakes evenly. I love Nordic Ware! It makes this Irish cream cheesecake bake evenly and come out of the pan perfectly every time!
📞 The last word
Still looking for the perfect dessert for St. Patrick's Day? Check out this Irish Apple Cake!
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card, you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own private recipe box!
If you love this recipe, please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Bailey's Irish Cream Cheesecake
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Ingredients
Crust
- 2 ½ cups vanilla wafer crumbs
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 7 tablespoons butter, ⅓ cup +1 tablespoon, melted
Cheesecake
- 32 ounces cream cheese, room temp
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 eggs, room temp
- ½ cup bittersweet chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup Bailey's Irish Cream, or your favorite Irish cream liqueur
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup sour cream, room temp
Ganache
- 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup heavy cream
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Instructions
Crust
- Mix the crumbs with the sugar and butter.
- Press into the bottom and part way up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan.
- Cover the pan bottom and sides on the outside with aluminum foil to keep any water out.
Cheesecake
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Melt the chocolate chips.
- Set aside.
- Beat the cream cheese with paddle attachment on lowest speed until smooth.
- Add the sugar and continue to beat at low speed.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
- Remove bowl from mixer and fold in the chocolate, the Irish Cream, vanilla, and sour cream.
- Fold in until no streaks remain in the cream cheese mixture.
- Pour filling into prepared springform pan and place it in another, larger pan.
- Add boiling water slowly until it comes halfway up the sides of the springform pan. (this makes the bain marie)
- Bake for 50 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and leave the cake in the oven for 1 hour. DO NOT open the oven door.
- Remove from the bain marie, remove the aluminum foil, and let cool to room temperature.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Ganache
- Just before serving remove the cheesecake from the springform pan by carefully running a knife around the edge and gently opening up the hinge.
- Heat the heavy cream until bubbles form around the edge.
- Add the chocolate and stir gently until it melts and the whole mixture is blended.
- Spoon over the chilled cheesecake and smooth the top.
Notes
- Have all ingredients at room temperature.
- Don't skip the water bath. It helps the cheesecake cook slowly and evenly which makes it super creamy.
- Mix it on the lowest speed. You don't want to mix air into the batter because air bubbles will lighten it. The less air you beat in to the cheesecake batter the more dense and creamy your cheesecake will be.
- Don't over bake - it will make the filling course and grainy.
Nutrition Facts
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published December 2016. Last updated January 9, 2023 for structure and readability.
Janalee
I made this for Christmas Eve 2022. After I put on the ganache, I toasted some leftover graham cracker crumbs and line the outside top edge of the cheesecake with them. Then I added dollops of whipped cream and added red & green sprinkles to the dollops. It looked amazing! Wish I could add a picture.
Crystal
Just took the cheesecake out of the oven and there was what looked to be melted butter in the aluminum foil that was around the pan. Is this normal or does it sound like water got in there and mixed with a little bit of butter? Scared it got messed up! The top of it looks normal though.
Marye Audet
There might have been some water in there but I'm sure it will be fine! Let me know. 🙂
Maria
I love the Irish cream flavor! Yum!! 🙂
Taylor Kiser
You had me at boozy cheesecake! I need this in my life asap! Looks so creamy and decadent!
Jessica @ A Kitchen Addiction
Love the chocolate ganache topping!