Baileys Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

I'm not really a dessert person, but this cheesecake is sooo good it's my favorite dessert! It's my go-to dessert when I want to go all-out. It's rich, not too sweet, has the texture of a creamy cheesecake and the flavor of Baileys Irish Cream, chocolate chips and a graham cracker crust.
I'm not sure where I got this from, otherwise I'd give credit where it's due. This can be made ahead of time and keeps well in the refrigerator. This is much taller than your standard pie-sized cheesecake so it can serve a good sized party.

Crust:
2 Cups graham cracker crumbs (Each packaged 'Brick' of crackers is a bit over 1 cup each)
1/4 Cup Sugar
6 Tbsp. (3/4 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

2 1/4 lbs (4 1/2 - 8oz bricks) Cream Cheese, room temperature or microwave until soft
1 2/3 cups sugar
5 eggs, room temperature
1 cup Baileys Irish Cream
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Cooking Instructions:
For Crust:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Coat 9" diameter springform pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray.
Combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar in pan.
Stir in butter.
Press mixture into bottom and 1" up sides of pan.
Bake until light brown, about 7 to 10 minutes.
Maintain oven temperature at 325F.

For filling:
Use electric mixer to beat cream cheese until smooth.
Gradually mix in sugar.
Beat eggs in one at a time.
Blend in Baileys and vanilla.
Scrape down edges of bowl and mixing blades, and remix to ensure consistent texture and flavor.

Sprinkle half of chocolate chips over crust.
Spoon in filling, taking care to not disturb placement of chocolate chips.
Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top of filling.
Bake cake until puffed, springy in center and golden brown, about 1hour 20 minutes.
Cool cake completely.


For Taste Sake:
Pay attention when assembling the springform pan - you want the 'lip' to face down so that you can slide the finished cake off of the disk, I actually assemble it with a piece of parchment paper in place, when it's cooled I can pull the paper and cake onto my cake stand, then slip an icing knife between the crust and paper, use the icing knife to hold the cake in place while I pull the parchment out from under the cake leaving just the cake on the cake stand.

Cake my crack when puffy, crack(s) will close as cake cools and shrinks. Some cooks prefer to place pan of boiling water in oven with the cake to keep humidity up lessening crack or wrapping the cake pan in aluminum foil, ensuring the bottom and sides are water tight, placing the cake pan, aluminum foil assembly in another larger pan,adding boiling water to the outer pan, then cooking. 

The bottom of a small cup or measuring cup can be used to press the crumb mixture in place and up the sides of the pan.

To top the cake:
Chocolate chips can be placed symmetrically on top of the filling before cooking, giving a nice presentation.


Coffee Cream Topping
1 cup chilled whipping cream, 2 Tbsp. Sugar, 1 tsp. instant coffee powder.Beat cream, sugar, and coffee powder until peaks form. Spread over cooled cake, garnish with chocolate curls.

Amaretto Topping
Dissolve 1 pkt. Knox Gelatin in 1/2 cup Amaretto and bring to a boil as it starts to cool it can be spread over top of cake while it's still in the springform pan it will cool to an translucent amber gel.