It’s a cold, damp, gray Monday, so let’s bring a bit of sunshine to the table with this pretty spectacular lemon and ginger cheesecake.
The original recipe, from my FAVORITE Mommy Blog and Recipe Hub: Wonkette.com, called for Lemon Oreos or mebbe Carr’s Ginger Lemon Cremes for the crust, but, I was aiming for a gluten-free dessert, so I went with almond flour and butter.
Worked a treat.
Important Note: while I loves me my Wonkettes; I should note that, as a collective, they tend to be snarky, a touch profane, and really, quite liberal, so, if you feel uncomfortable about any of that you might just want to give them a pass.
INGREDIENTS
Crust:
1-1/4 cups almond flour
2 tbsp firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
6 tbsp butter, melted
•1/8 tsp ground ginger
Filling:
•32 oz cream cheese, softened
•1 cup sugar
•1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
•1/4 cup lemon juice
•2 tbsp almond flour
•1 tbsp grated lemon zest
•2-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
•1 tsp lemon extract
•5 large eggs
Heat your oven to 375º and wrap the bottom of a nine inch spring form pan with aluminum foil.
Attach the spring form ring and apply cooking spray to the pan.
Wrap the outside (including the bottom) of the spring form pan with three layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil (use mebbe six layers if using regular foil).
Stir the butter into the almond flour, brown sugar, lemon zest and ginger in a large bowl until well blended, then pat into the bottom and with a wee, tiny bit up the sides of the spring form pan.
Pop the pan into the oven, bake for ten minutes, then remove from the oven, set aside to cool, and reset the oven temperature to 325º.
Now, for the filling…
Beat the softened cream cheese together with the sugar until smooth.
Beat in the whipping cream, lemon juice, almond flour, lemon zest, and vanilla and lemon extracts.
With the mixer running, add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each egg into the filling before adding the next.
Scrape down the bowl, then add the filling to the spring form pan on top of your (now cooled) crust.
Place the cheesecake in a large roasting pan (if you have one, the pan you use to roast your turkey works a treat for this) and add water to the pan to about one inch below the edge of the spring form pan.
Note: this is called a Bain Marie, and really helps when baking cheesecakes and the like.
Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until the center of the cheesecake looks to be almost set, then turn the oven off, crack open the door, and allow to cool to room temperature.
Pull the cooled cheesecake from the Bain Marie and remove the foil wrappings (do this near the sink, just in case water got into the foil layers), then cover the cheesecake and stash in the fridge overnight.
When ready to serve, run a knife along the inside edge of the spring form pan to loosen the cheesecake, then open and remove the ring and transfer the cheesecake to a serving platter.
Note: if your cooked and cooled cheesecake splits open a bit on the top, it is no big deal. If, however, you think it a big deal, then feel free to top the cheesecake with fruit before slicing, so that no one can tell the top is not absolutely perfect.
I sliced and served mine with Cointreau macerated strawberries on the side and folk were really pretty happy.
Final note: next time I make this, I will bump up the ginger in the crust to 1/4 teaspoon, and mebbe add crystallized ginger to the filling. Just a thought.