Gingerbread Cheesecake

After one more holiday recipe, I promise to move on to cooking in the New Year. I’d been thinking about this cheesecake for years. I cut the pages from the December 2007 issue of Living magazine and filed them away. I remember the whole story about gingerbread from that issue. There were all sorts of pretty cookies, different ways of making gingerbread like with honey rather than molasses, and even gingerbread caramels. From that story, the White Chocolate-Gingerbread Blondies that also appear in the Martha Stewart’s Cookies book became a favorite of mine. But those little gingerbread men on top of the gingerbread-flavored cheesecake were so cute. I think of this cheesecake dessert every year for Christmas, and finally had to give it a try. You need some cookie crumbs to make the crust for the cheesecake, so making the Molasses-Gingerbread Cookie dough comes first. I made enough dough to be able to cut out some gingerbread men for decorating as well. I didn’t go so far as to make both types of gingerbread cookie dough to be able to have two colors of gingerbread men on top as shown in the photo from the magazine, but I was happy with the result with all the gingerbread men from the same dough. 

The Molasses-Gingerbread Cookies recipe is very similar to the recipe I’ve always used for gingerbread cut-out cookies. It included molasses, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. For the cheesecake, one quarter of the dough is rolled into a big rectangle and baked until firm. When cool, it’s broken into pieces and pulsed in a food processor to make crumbs. Next, melted butter, some sugar, and two cups of those crumbs were combined and pressed into a springform pan with the bottom wrapped with foil. The crust was baked for about 15 minutes or until set. The cheesecake itself was a mix of cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, eggs, molasses, lemon zest, and more ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. I also added some finely grated, fresh ginger for an extra boost of ginger. The filling was poured into the crust, the springform pan was placed in a large roasting pan, the roasting pan was set into the oven, and hot water was added to the roasting pan before closing the oven to bake. The cheesecake needs to bake for at least an hour, but mine was still very jiggly at that point. I left it in the oven for an extra 15 or 20 minutes until the center was only slightly wobbly. When the cheesecake was completely cool, it was transferred to the refrigerator to chill for several hours. I dusted the top with confectioners' sugar before placing the cookies in a circle.

It’s a shame that gingerbread only gets the spotlight during the holidays. Every time I bake with molasses, I think about how much I love the flavor and how I should use it more often. The molasses and all the gingerbread spices were delicious here from the crust to the filling to the cookies on top. Maybe I’ll finally try the gingerbread caramels the next time the holiday season arrives. 

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Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Chocolate Brownies

With the Baked books, it’s always so exciting to see what new things have been collected for the pages. There are always fun treats, classics with a new spin, and flavors that are sure to please. The latest is their fourth book, Baked Occasions, and I received a review copy. This one is all about celebrating holidays, both major and practically unknown, throughout the year. It gives you reasons to bake something delicious several times a month. For instance, I had no idea that National Pistachio Day is February 26th, but the Pistachio White Chocolate Cheesecake with a chocolate cookie crust looks like a great way to celebrate. Or, that might become my birthday cake in March next year. The Ultralemony Lemon Bundt Cake with Almond Glaze is another birthday cake contender. The Caramel Candy Popcorn Balls studded with chocolate candies were mentioned for Secretary’s Day, but I’d love to make them for Halloween. There are also Chocolate Cinnamon Chipotle Sugar Cookies decorated beautifully for the Day of the Dead. I could never match the colorful details as shown in the book, but the cookies sound fantastic. And, with Thanksgiving just around the corner, the Sweet Potato Tart with Gingersnap Crust and Heavenly Meringue looks perfect. Just like the other books in the series, it’s going to be fun to bake from this one. While deciding among the October holiday recipes, I realized that a.) pumpkin cheesecake is one of my favorite things, b.) I always enjoy a cheesecake swirl brownie, and c.) I’d never thought to swirl pumpkin cheesecake into a brownie. I had to try this combination. The recipe for Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Chocolate Brownies is offered in celebration of Columbus Day, but the reason is simply that Columbus Day falls in October and pumpkins have everything to do with October. That’s a good enough reason for me to bake them. 

I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer after roasting a little, pie pumpkin a few weeks ago. I set the puree in a strainer over a bowl and placed it in the refrigerator overnight. Some liquid drained from the puree to make it denser. To start the brownies, softened cream cheese was mixed with sugar, and I used coconut palm sugar. The pumpkin puree, an egg yolk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger were added and mixed into the cream cheese. This was left in the refrigerator while the chocolate part was made. Flour, cocoa, and salt were whisked together and set aside. Dark chocolate and butter were melted together in a double-boiler, and then coconut palm sugar and brown sugar were added and the mixture was taken off the heat. Once it had cooled to room temperature, eggs were added followed by vanilla. The flour mixture was gently folded into the chocolate. A nine-by-thirteen baking pan was used, and two-thirds of the chocolate batter went into the pan first. Next, the pumpkin cheesecake mixture was smoothed over the top. The remaining chocolate batter was spooned over the cheesecake. A table knife was used to swirl through the layers, and the brownies baked for about 35 minutes. 

These bake into nice, not-too-thick brownies which means you should cut nice, big squares from the pan. And, they were so easy to cut, it was amazing. The cheesecake with pumpkin and spices meandering through the chocolaty brownie was lovely. After Halloween, I need to decide what to bake for Election Day. 

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Chocolate Brownies 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from Baked Occasions. 

There are not , to the best of our knowledge, strictly regimented and traditional menus for Columbus Day. It is not Thanksgiving. Though one could skew toward Italian delicacies in a nod to Christopher’s heritage, one could also skew iconic American (hamburgers, fried chicken, apple pie) in homage to Columbus arriving in the Americas. We chose an entirely different route. We went with pumpkin cheesecake brownies, because Christopher Columbus Day is in October (to celebrate the anniversary of his arrival in America in 1492), and as bakery owners, the only thing we associate with October is pumpkin. Here is the thing about these brownies: We like them too much. We don’t mention this to be glib; we say this because they are a problem. It is the rare dessert that disrupts and overturns our years of honed self-control. Give us one bite of pumpkin cheesecake chocolate brownie, and we will eat the whole tray. At first glance, that shouldn’t happen: We like pumpkin, and we like chocolate (that is obvious), but not always together. However, the tang of the cream cheese brings everything into alignment. The brownies are super moist, the kind of moist that will leave your fingers tacky with chocolate. They are pumpkiny and fudgy in all the right ways. It’s a great dessert to welcome fall and celebrate Christopher. 

Baked note: Be sure to make the recipe in the order specified. The pumpkin cheesecake swirl should be made first, as the brownie batter will stiffen if it sits too long, and it will be difficult to pull a swirl through. It is not the easiest batter to swirl, but a few hefty repetitions of pulling the knife through the batter will do it. Also, try these cold: This is the rare brownie that we like directly from the refrigerator.


For the Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl 
1 (8-ounce/226-g) package cream cheese, softened 
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 g) granulated sugar 
3/4 cup (170 g) solid pack pumpkin or pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) 
1 large egg yolk 
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 

For the Brownie Layer 
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (105 g) all-purpose flour 
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder 
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 
8 ounces (225 g) dark chocolate (60 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped 
6 ounces (1. sticks/170 g) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) cubes, plus more for the pan 
3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar 
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (85 g) firmly packed light brown sugar 
3 large eggs, at room temperature 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

Yield: 24 brownies 

Make the Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl 
In a medium bowl, whisk the cream cheese and sugar until smooth and creamy (it should almost look like frosting). Add the pumpkin, egg yolk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger and whisk again until well blended. Cover and refrigerate while you make the brownie layer. 

Make the Brownie Layer 
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and position a rack in the center. Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light-colored metal 9-by-13-inch (23-by-33-cm) pan. Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper with a 1-inch (2.5-cm) overhang on the long sides of the pan, and butter the parchment. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, and salt. 

Place the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water (double-boiler method, see page 19), stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted, smooth, and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add both sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be at room temperature. Add 2 eggs to the chocolate mixture and gently whisk until just combined. Add the remaining egg and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and whisk until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey. 

Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula, fold them gently together until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible. 

Pour two-thirds of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Pour the pumpkin cheesecake mixture over the brownies and smooth into an even layer with the back of an offset spatula. 

Drop the remaining one-third of the brownie batter by heaping tablespoons here and there over the pumpkin layer. Use a knife to gently pull through the batters to create a swirl. (The brownie batter is thick, so you might need to pull several times before you start to create the swirl.) 

Bake, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it, 30 to 40 minutes. Let the brownies cool almost completely. 

You can eat the brownies slightly warm or at room temperature, when they have a more pumpkin-y flavor. Or cover and refrigerate them for about 3 hours and enjoy them slightly chilled (this is our favorite). Either way, when you’re ready, release the brownies from the side of the pan with a small paring knife. Pull straight up on the parchment to remove them from the pan, place them on a cutting board, cut, and serve. The brownies will keep, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. 

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Goat Cheesecakes with Citrus and Candied Beets

Anita Lo believes “there are no true borders in food.” Cuisines are constantly changing and being influenced by different cultures. And, her food is pushing that evolution another step forward. Her new book is Cooking Without Borders, and I received a review copy. In it, she describes her approach to building dishes with multiple points of reference. With a multicultural upbringing and world travels from a young age, she draws on various influences for her cooking style. After first learning classic French cooking technique, she then gained expertise in Korean and Vietnamese cooking. Often, her dishes combine European concepts with Asian ingredients. Despite the array of ideas contributing to each dish, the result is always refined and well-articulated. The recipes in the book include some of Lo’s home-cooking favorites as well as restaurant dishes, and some of them are definitely chef’s recipes. She does make good suggestions for modifications for the home cook whenever the process is lengthy or the ingredients are out of the ordinary. For her fried oysters with buckwheat and caviar, although it sounds like blini might be involved, the buckwheat is actually naengmyum which is a Korean noodle similar to soba. The dish was inspired by a mix of soba noodles and garnishes that Lo experienced in Japan. A fried oyster and caviar add briny flavor in different textures, and there’s a ponzu-style sauce balanced with dashi broth. She recommends more affordable American caviar for this and offers tips for a quick version of the dish made with store-bought ponzu. Like all the recipe descriptions in the book, this one clearly shows her thought process and her vision for the mix of flavors and textures in a unique dish.

Some of the dishes I want to try soon are the slow-cooked salmon with smoked paprika and savoy cabbage, the roasted kabocha and maitake with bitter chocolate, and breast of duck with hoisin and figs. First, though, I was fascinated by a recipe in the Desserts and Drink chapter. The goat cheesecakes with citrus and candied beets is an interpretation of a salad turned into a dessert. Rather than fresh chevre served with roasted beets and a citrus vinaigrette, the cheese became a rich, sweet cheesecake, the beets were candied with vanilla, and the citrus was used both as a fruit salad in syrup and as candied zest. It was a lot easier to prepare than I expected after seeing the photo of the pretty, plated dessert in the book. The individual cheesecakes were baked in ramekins with no waterbath required. Thin slices of beets were candied in a sugar syrup with both vanilla seeds scraped from a pod and vanilla extract. That syrup took on the dark pink color of the beets and reduced as the beet slices became tender. It was then dribbled on the plate as a sauce. Grapefruit, orange, and lime zests were candied in a separate sugar syrup, and then those fruits’ segments were macerated in that syrup. When the cheesecakes baked, they puffed and then settled in the center making a perfect space for the candied beets and zest. The only difficulty I had with this dessert was removing the cheesecakes from the ramekins. The two I unmolded as soon as they were cool enough to handle came out fine, but the ones that were chilled in the ramekins were difficult to remove. My suggestion would be to unmold them all as soon as possible and store them in a roomy, covered container to chill.

Regarding this dessert, Lo suggests that some people may think of it as a mix of a cheese course and dessert. For me, this was entirely dessert. The beets took on sweet, vanilla flavor and complemented the cheesecakes very well. Meanwhile, the citrus was bright and fruity and delicious with the sauce on the plate. This is thought-provoking food which is interesting to prepare and delightful to eat, and I know I’ll learn something new about flavors every time I cook from this book.

See my review of Cooking Without Borders and get this goat cheesecakes with citrus and candied beets recipe at Project Foodie.

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Limoncello Cheesecake Squares

I went on and on about my lemon trees the other day, and when I have a good year for lemons like I just did, I love getting to make limoncello. Limoncello is a simple liqueur involving lemon peels, vodka, and simple syrup. Every recipe I’ve seen seems to suggest a different number of days for the lemon peels to sit in the vodka (three days to 10) and then a different quantity of simple syrup to add at the end (two-thirds cup to three cups for 750 ml vodka). Whichever recipe you use, once it’s ready it can be mixed into all kinds of cocktails, and my favorite is a simple combination of limoncello and club soda over ice. Limoncello can also be used in all kinds of desserts. As I was waiting for my lemon peels to steep in the vodka, I was busy trying to locate a recipe I had seen before for some kind of limoncello cheesecake. It was a year ago if not longer that I had seen this, and I have no idea where I first saw it. In my search, I came upon Giada’s recipe for limoncello cheesecake squares, and that may even have been what I was remembering in the first place but I don’t think so, and I ended giving them a try.

In Giada’s recipe, biscotti are used to form the crust, but I used graham crackers in their place since I had some handy. The graham cracker crust was formed with melted butter and lemon zest, and it baked until golden and was allowed to cool. The filling was made from ricotta, cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, limoncello, vanilla, and eggs which were combined in a food processor. The filling was poured over the cooled crust, and it baked in a water bath for about an hour. After cooling on a rack for an hour, it was refrigerated overnight. It was very simple to prepare, and since it baked in a nine inch square pan, there was no need to wrap foil on the bottom to prevent water from entering.

The square pan was easier for baking, but I was unsure how easily the cut pieces would be to remove from it. Actually, it was one of the easiest desserts ever to cut and serve from the pan. The crust held together well, and there was no sticking at all. The limoncello flavor was delightful but was not at all overpowering. This was a rich and creamy cheesecake that wasn’t as dense as others. I’ll have to try it again someday with the biscotti crust, or maybe I’ll eventually figure out which recipe I was looking for in the first place.




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Ricotta Cheesecake

Every once in a while, I do ask Kurt what he would like for me to make. It’s only fair given that he suffers the brunt of all of my failed attempts in the kitchen. For Easter, I asked what he thought would be good for dessert. Without even a moment to ponder, he fired back: cheesecake. I liked that idea and of course, chose to make one I hadn’t tried before. This is from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, and it states in the intro to the recipe, this is about the easiest cheesecake you can make.

There are two steps which require different appliances, but they’re quick and simple. First, put some fresh ricotta in a food processor and process until smooth. Next, use a mixer to beat egg whites to a stiff, glossy state. That’s it. The rest was just a matter of folding things together. In a large mixing bowl, the ricotta was mixed with egg yolks, flour, some sugar, orange zest, and salt. Then, the egg whites were folded into that mixture. It all went into a springform pan and was baked for about one hour. There was no water bath, so no need to wrap the springform pan in foil. It really was a very easy cheesecake to make.

It came out of the oven puffed like a souffle, but it didn’t drop like one. It settled into a flat shape with just a little ridge around the outside. The instructions in the book mention turning the cake out of the pan and then inverting it back right side up, but I’m not sure why. I just removed the outer ring of the springform pan and let it sit on the base of the pan. Once it cooled to room temperature, I chilled it in the refrigerator in an airtight container. This was a sleek, grown up kind of cheesecake. It had no crust, no cream cheese, and it wasn’t as sweet as other cheesecakes I’ve made. The texture was lightened by the egg whites but still had some sense of density from the ricotta. It was mildly flavored with an orange accent, and would be perfect with espresso. Since I didn’t think to buy some espresso beans, I served it with a strawberry coulis. Dark chocolate sauce would be another option or maybe a melted marmalade. I think this particular cheesecake could be taken in all kinds of directions with sauces and toppings, and it was pretty delicious all by itself too.

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