Ok I admit it. It’s my favourite, most wonderful time of the year. It’s a month from Christmas but Christmas baking has started. This is the time of the year I dream recipes. I love everything about Christmas. We have our traditional walk down Orchard Road where we will likely diss the decorations again for being tacky and tasteless. But this year is still better than last year’s Disney princess theme which was such blatant commercial advertising that we almost forwent the seasonal family stroll.
I usually have large 20-30 pax gatherings for the end of the year celebrations. It’s fun. I confess that I like cooking better than the actual social event (yikes!). I love tweaking recipes and I do keep a record of dinner menus to make sure people don’t have the same food year in and out.
I’m particularly excited about this Christmas – it’s Lola’s first Christmas with us! I remember it was exactly a year ago we first met her as her then owners were preparing to relocate overseas and wanted Lola to go to a good home. This year has been amazing having her around; she’s like my little black shadow and loves to stick her nose into everything that is going on in the home. In fact when we are cooking in our cubby-like kitchen, she’s lying right in the middle of the floor for us to fall over.
So in a completely festive mood I decided to make a gingerbread cheesecake. Cheesecake is the easiest recipe to make and tweak, and is definitely easy to make low carb. I really love gingerbread so of course I wanted a gingerbread crust. And to carry that flavour into the cheese filling, I decided to swirl in a bit of molasses and cinnamon into some of the filling.
During this bake I actually ran into problems – my overworked oven gave up the ghost and I actually forgot to add water to the water bath! But luckily it was all salvageable and we managed to get our reliable electrician/odd job guy to fix the oven wiring before Christmas! So with this festive cheesecake recipe (fully approved by the family), and working oven and kitchen equipment, I think we’re pretty much ready to go for the season!
Low Carb Gingerbread Cheesecake
Ingredients
Gingerbread Crust
- 1 1/2 cups almond flour
- 1/3 cup sugar substitute
- 75 g cold butter, cut into cubes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp black molasses
Filling
- 1 kg cream cheese
- 1 1/3 cup sugar substitute
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 eggs at room temperature
- 2 tsp black molasses
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170 deg C.
- In a food processor, mix together all the crust ingredients and pulse till crumb-like in consistency.
- Line the base of a springform pan with baking paper. Press the crust mixture to the base of the pan evenly.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove from oven to cool.
- In the meantime, beat the cream cheese for several minutes till whipped consistency.
- Add the sugar substitute, lemon juice and lemon zest, and vanilla extract and beat well.
- Add one egg at a time and beat till just mixed. It is important not to overbeat at this point.
- Remove about 2 cups of the cream cheese filling and mix in the molasses, ground cinnamon and ground ginger.
- Pour the cream cheese filling into the springform pan. Then pour the molasses and cream cheese filling on the top.
- Wrap the pan in a large piece of aluminum foil to prevent water from seeping into the pan (leave the top open). Place the foil wrapped pan into another large baking tray and fill with hot water halfway up the sides of the pan.
- Bake at 1 1/2 hours at 170 deg C. Lightly cover the top of the springform pan with a piece of aluminum foil but remove this in the last 1/2 hour of baking.
- When done, remove from oven and allow the cheesecake to cool. Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight and serve cold.
Still Feeling Peckish 