I’ve always found maple syrup to be fascinating. It truly is “nature’s candy!” This is a household favorite, and I shared some fun facts about maple syrup and how it’s made in that post. As I sat down to write the post for this delicious Honey Walnut Cheesecake, it hit me…I actually don’t know that much about honey.
That thought led to googling…and more googling. An hour (and several internet rabbit holes later), I now know a lot more about honey! Sure, I know bees make honey. And I know honey is delicious when stirred into tea or spread onto toast. But that was about it.
Did you know that to make one pound of honey, the bees in a colony travel a total of 55,000 miles!? And making that one pound of honey will be the entire life’s work for 768 bees. (A single honeybee only makes 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. )
Honey also never spoils. Yes, jars of honey usually include an expiration date – but that’s only because of FDA requirements. Honey never actually spoils. The “worst” thing that will happen is the honey will crystalize, but crystalized honey is perfectly fine to eat. It’s basically ‘honey candy’ at that point!
In fact, honey was found in King Tut’s tomb, and it was still edible. King Tut died in 1323 BC…so that honey was ~3,500 years old. And it was still edible. Crazy! Would I want to eat that honey? I’ll have to think about that a bit longer…but I find it fascinating that the honey was edible.
While honey might last 3,500 years, I can assure you that this Honey Walnut Cheesecake will not! At some point, it would certainly spoil – but I have no idea at what point that would happen. This cheesecake didn’t even come close to lasting long enough to answer that question!
Honey walnut cream cheese is delicious, so it stands to reason that a cheesecake made with the same flavors would be delicious, too, right?
For this tasty cheesecake, I kept it really simple. I started with my go-to cheesecake recipe. No additional ingredients except for a handful of chopped walnuts. (If you’re looking for an awesome cheesecake recipe, this is a good one! I’ve used this cheesecake as the base for all sorts of variations…but it’s pretty darned tasty just by itself.)
Once that cheesecake was baked, I moved it into the fridge and let it chill overnight. The next day, I came back and topped the baked cheesecake with a warm honey + walnut mixture. You could absolutely serve this cheesecake just like that, but I opted to refrigerate it again so that the honey topping was chilled. Either version would be fantastic!
Now that you are armed with some fun facts about honey, I say put this Honey Walnut Cheesecake on the baking agenda. It’s one heck of a delicious cheesecake, and it’s safe to say that we’ll be making this one again here in our house. Happy baking!
Featuring a warm honey walnut topping on top of a classic cheesecake, a slice of this Honey Walnut Cheesecake is a great way to end the day!
5 from 3 votes
Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 1 hour hour 55 minutes minutes
Servings: 12
Calories: 589 kcal
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Grease and flour a 9” springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; set pan aside.
Using a medium mixing bowl, add vanilla wafer crumbs, brown sugar and melted butter; stir until well combined.
Transfer mixture into prepared pan; press crumbs into bottom and sides of pan. (Tip: A flat bottomed glass is helpful for this step.)
Bake for 10 minutes.
Remove pan from oven and let cool.
Reduce oven temperature to 325°F.
Using a countertop mixer, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until completely smooth (~3 minutes).
Add sugar and flour; mix on medium speed until well combined.
Using a separate bowl, whisk eggs and additional egg yolks together. Add this egg mixture to the mixing bowl in 2 additions, mixing fully on low speed after each addition.
Add the sour cream, vanilla and chopped walnuts; mix on medium speed until well combined. (Tip: Use a spatula to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure the filling is fully mixed.)
Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan with the baked crust.
Wrap the bottom of the pan with a piece of aluminum foil and place in a large baking pan. Fill pan with ~½” of water. Bake at 325°F until center of cake is just barely set (~70-80 minutes). (Tip: Pull the cheesecake out of the oven when there is about 1″ ring of “looser” filling left in the center of the cake.)
Remove cake from oven and carefully run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen. Let cool in pan for 1 hour.
Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze overnight.
Using a small saucepan, add honey, butter and water; place over medium heat. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring often.
Add walnuts and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring often. (Note: Mixture will be thin.)
Spoon mixture on top of cheesecake.
Remove springform pan and slice cheesecake.
