Welcome back to my kitchen! I have lots of extra time to produce content around my sudden joblessness, so I thought I should make a grand celebration of my return to content creation with my recipe for cheesecake. Also, if you like the content that I produce and want to help me pay my bills while I seek alternative employment, you could grab some merch from my Threadless Artist Shop, or become a patron on Patreon.
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Now let’s dive into this cheesecake! This recipe incorporates my ginger snap recipe, so be sure to check that out here. If you don’t have time or ingredients to make my ginger snaps for the crust, you could substitute store-bought gluten-free ginger snaps, or gluten-free graham crackers or graham-style cookies. However, with the bold flavor of the cheesecake filling, I recommend using something with a bold flavor for the crust.
I also bake my cheesecake in a water bath. It can be tricky ensuring water doesn’t get into my cheesecake, but the texture and flavor of the final product are well worth the risk. How does a water bath work? While the oven is set to 275°F, the water will never go over 212°F before converting to steam, which requires a lot of energy. The water bath lets the cheesecake bake slowly and evenly, while keeping the top from browning too quickly or cracking. Also, with a little preparation and care, it’s not that much of a risk to bake this cheesecake in a water bath.
Enjoy making this recipe at home for yourself, or for friends and family (after we’re all done with quarantines).
Ingredients:
Crust-
20 Ginger Snaps
2 tbsp. coconut flour
¼ tsp. non-iodized salt
1 stick melted butter
Filling-
3 8-oz. blocks cream cheese
1 c. sour cream
Zest & juice of half a lemon
¾ c. granulated sugar
¼ c. vanilla sugar
OR
1 c. granulated sugar
up to 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs, separated
Special Tools-
Springform pan
Long roll of aluminum foil
Directions:
- A few hours before making cheesecake, unwrap cream cheese and set in large bowl to come up to room temperature. Prepare springform pan by removing the disc, wrapping disc in foil, and reinserting into ring, unwrapping the foil so the disc sits inside the foil, but the foil covers the inside walls of the ring. See YouTube video for demonstration.
- Preheat oven to 275°F. To make the crust, grind the ginger snaps into large crumbs using blender or food processor. Add coconut flour, salt, and melted butter, and process again until uniform. Press crust into bottom and sides of pan using the bottom and sides of a heavy glass. Bake crust while assembling filling.
- Using an electric mixer, beat room temperature cream cheese until smooth. Add sour cream and lemon zest and juice. Add your preference of sugar and vanilla flavoring. Separate the eggs and reserve the whites in a separate bowl, adding just the yolks to the filling. Beat filling together until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally.
- Remove crust from oven and allow to cool slightly. While crust cools, whip the egg whites with clean beaters. When whites are beaten to stiff peaks, add whites in stages to rest of filling, incorporating gently to aerate the filling, but stirring rather than folding.
- Pour filling into warm crust, smoothing the top of the cheesecake. Place filled cheesecake into large pan in the oven. Push rack into oven before filling outer pan with water bath. Bake in water bath 50-60 minutes at 275°F.
- After bake period, turn oven off and allow cheesecake to set and begin cooling for one hour in the closed oven. Then remove cheesecake from the oven and allow to cool another hour on the countertop. Chill cheesecake in the refrigerator at least four hours, but preferably overnight.
- De-pan the chilled cheesecake before service. Pop the springform release and lift the cheesecake and disc up through the ring. Unwrap the foil, then slice and serve.
- Enjoy cheesecake with or without toppings, and paired with a cup of coffee or bourbon cocktail!
It’s a little bit of a process to make this cheesecake, but it’s worth all the effort in the end. This delectable dessert is creamy, tangy, sweet, balanced, rich, and delicious. It’s the perfect thing to make to raise your spirits on day 63 of quarantine. Please leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.
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