High altitudes make cookies spread in the pan, cakes fall, and few baked goods turn out as they do at sea level. This twice-monthly column presents recipes and tips that make baking in the mountains successful. 

This rich, smooth cheesecake starring brown sugar, vanilla and bourbon is a perfect way to welcome fall. The caramel notes and creamy texture make it unusually good, and it gets even better for several days after baking, so make it ahead if you can. Though it needs no topping, I crowned it with a homemade caramel-bourbon sauce and some pecans, but a commercial caramel sauce or a drizzle of dark chocolate would work just as well. The taste of bourbon isn’t strong, but if you want a more robust one, increase it by up to a tablespoon in the filling and decrease the sour cream by the same amount. 

Brown Sugar-Bourbon Cheesecake

Make in an 8-inch shiny metal springform pan. Adjusted for altitude.

Crust

• 3/4 cup honey graham cracker crumbs (10, 2-by-2-inch crackers)
• 1/3 cup whole pecans
• 3 tablespoons superfine granulated sugar, preferably Baker’s
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 16 ounces full fat cream cheese, room temperature cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons bourbon

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 with a rack in the center. Generously grease your pan with a baking spray that contains flour.

Combine the graham crackers, pecans and sugar in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add all but 1 teaspoon of the melted butter and pulse until the dry ingredients are uniformly moistened. Pinch some between your fingers; it should just hold together. If it doesn’t, add a little more melted butter (not too much or the crust will be hard). Gently press the crumbs into the pan bottom, making a level layer. Bake until the crust is set and aromatic, for about 10 minutes. Cool completely. Can make one day ahead, store covered in refrigerator or at cool room temperature.

Prepare to bake: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees with a rack in the center position. Fill a small deep metal pan (I use a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan) with hot water and place it on the bottom rack, it will create steam as the cheesecake bakes, (like a water bath) to help prevent the top from developing cracks. 

Make the filling: Using a mixer: Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until very smooth, scraping the bowl often. Add the sour cream, cornstarch, vanilla, lemon juice, cinnamon and salt and beat at a low speed to blend. At medium speed, beat in the eggs, one at a time, including the bourbon with the second egg. Beat only until incorporated after each addition, the filling will get runny if overmixed. Using a food processor with at least an 8-cup capacity: Add the cream cheese and sugar to the bowl and pulse until soft and smooth. Pulse in the sour cream, cornstarch, vanilla, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, and bourbon only until blended. Add the eggs and pulse briefly again, only until combined and smooth. Don’t overmix! Give it a few stirs with a silicone spatula.

Bake: Pour/scrape the filling into the crust, smooth and level it and rap the pan on solid surface to dislodge any air bubbles. Place the pan in the oven and avoid opening the door for the first 25 minutes of baking time. Bake until the top is set but the center jiggles when you shake the pan, 35-45 minutes. Turn off the oven, prop open the door and leave the cheesecake in the cooling oven for an hour. Move to a rack to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate, loosely covered to avoid condensation, overnight. 

Decorate, serve, store: Remove the cheesecake from the fridge. Run an offset spatula or thin-bladed knife around the cheesecake pan’s edge, pressing toward the pan, then remove the pan sides and smooth the cake’s edges if necessary. If desired, right before serving, use whole nuts to rim the cake and mound a few in the center. Slice into pieces with a thin-bladed sharp knife, pressing straight down and cleaning between cuts. Store, covered, in the refrigerator for 5 days. 

Vera Dawson’s column “High Country Baking” publishes biweekly in the Summit Daily News. Dawson is a high-elevation baking instructor and author of three high-altitude cookbooks. Her recipes have been tested in her kitchen in Frisco, where she’s lived since 1991, and altered until they work at elevation. Contact her at veradawson1@gmail.com.