The Topping You Need To Give Cheesecake A Crispy, Salty Twist

Salt isn't just for savory dishes, it's also a key ingredient in desserts. You're unlikely to find a cake, cookie, or pie recipe that doesn't call for a pinch of salt to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients and rein in the sweetness of the sugar. Cheesecake is usually an exception, drawing its salt content from the cream cheese and often sour cream that make up its filling. But, we're here to suggest adding more salt to the mix with an unlikely yet decadent topping: bacon.

Just as it's become a popular donut topper, bacon is the crispy, savory, and salty topping your cheesecake needs. It will bring both a textural and flavor contrast to the creamy, sweet, soufflé-like crumb of cheesecake. Plus, you can pair it with many other sweet and savory ingredients to create an especially complex cheesecake topping. The simplest way to top cheesecake with bacon would be with candied bacon. Candied bacon already has its own sweet, salty, and savory flavor, lending a well-balanced profile and a crispy crunchy topping to your dessert. You could follow this recipe for maple candied bacon or try our easy 3-ingredient bourbon candied bacon recipe.

A more elaborate bacon topping could blend bacon into a glaze or crumble. For example, mix chopped bacon with chopped pecans in a pan with butter, sugar, maple syrup, and heavy cream, before pouring the heated mixture over a set cheesecake then letting the topping set, too. You could also pair chopped bacon with salted caramel sauce for the ultimate sweet and salty topping.

Whether you're making candied bacon or incorporating savory bacon into a more elaborate sweet and salty cheesecake topping, extra-crispy bacon is the textural goal. And the oven is a much more efficient and mess-free appliance than the stove top to crisp up a batch of bacon. We have an easy oven-baked bacon recipe for you to follow. For an even faster method, you can air fry a small batch of bacon for around 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Flavor pairings for bacon cheesecake toppings can be even more diverse than pecan, maple, and caramel. Thanks to Elvis Presley, we know that bacon and peanut butter are a tasty duo. You could use sweetened peanut butter (try Canadian Jif, sold on Amazon, or Skippy) to candy your bacon, coating each strip in peanut butter before baking. You could also make a peanut butter glaze, topping it with chopped bacon and honey roasted peanuts. A bitter chocolate drizzle would also work well with the savoriness of bacon and a tangy cheesecake. You could even take a shortcut and use this fancy Vosges Haut-Chocolat bacon chocolate bar for a bark-like topping. You can pair it with an Oreo crust if you want to go all out.

Crispy bacon bits would also work well on top of this no-bake salted chocolate cheesecake or sprinkled over these whiskey caramel cheesecake bars. If you can't decide between chocolate and peanut butter, go for both by adding bacon to these chocolate peanut butter cheesecake bars.