Gluten Free Grasshopper Cheesecake (Chocolate Mint)

Having nothing to do at work is going to make me fat. I sit there all day browsing the internet and poking around on Recipezaar making lists of tasty sounding recipes to try. Anyway, this year's St. Patrick's Day is my friend's 21st birthday. He isn't actually Irish, but everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day! So I decided to make him a cheesecake (or is it really for me?).

Here is the recipe I chose to base my cake off of: Grasshopper Cheesecake. I made a few changes along the way, which are all detailed below. My buddy is mildly allergic to chocolate, so I tried to keep as little chocolate on one half of the cheesecake as possible. My crust was half graham cracker and half chocolate and 100% gluten-free. I recommend making it with a full chocolate crust. To the cake!

Ingredients:
Crust:

• 1 1/2 cup Chocolate Cookie Crumbs (I used Kinninkinnick Kinnitoos)
• 8 pieces Andes Thins Creme de Menthe Chocolates
• 1/4 cup Butter
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon

Filling:

• 1 lb Cream Cheese*
• 1 cup Sugar, divided
• 1/3 cup Green Creme de Menthe*
• 3 tbsp Creme de Cacao
• 2 tbsp Flour (gluten-free*)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 6 Egg Whites
• 1 cup Sour Cream*
• 16 pieces Andes Thins Creme de Menthe Chocolates, coarsely chopped

Topping:

• 1 cup Sour Cream*
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 3 tbsp Green Creme de Menthe*
• 1/4 cup Andes Thins Creme de Menthe Chocolates, finely grated

Notes:

• I used low fat creme cheese and sour cream and the cake came out great.
  
• If you don't have green Creme de Menthe, add some green coloring to the batter and use clear Creme de Menthe.
• For the 2 tbsp flour, I used Bette Hagman's Bean Mix: 2 parts garfava flour, 1 part sorghum flour, 3 parts cornstarch, and 3 parts tapioca flour. Feel free to substitute with your own mix.
• Make sure the eggs and cream cheese are room temperature before mixing.
  

Directions:

1. Combine chocolate cookie crumbs, Andes Mint crumbs, butter and cinnamon. Mix well.
2. Press into bottom and about 1 inch up sides of 9 inch springform pan.
3. Put cream cheese into mixing bowl and beat until creamy.
4. Add 3/4 cup sugar and mix well.
5. Stir in Creme de Menthe, Creme de Cacao, flour and salt.
6. Beat until well blended.
7. Stir in egg yolks, sour cream and beat until smooth and well blended.
8. In separate bowl, combine egg whites and 1/4 cup sguar. Beat until whites stand in soft peaks. Be 100% certain that there is not 1 tiny speck of yolk in the whites.
9. Fold beaten eggs whites and coarsely chopped Andes Mints into cream cheese mixture by hand.
10. Pour batter into crust and bake until toothpick or knife inserted into middle of cake comes out almost clean, or about 1 hour, in oven preheated to 325F. The top will puff up. Do not worry; this is normal.
11. Do not overbake and don't worry about cracks.
12. Remove from oven and place on wire rack. Cool for five minutes and run slim knife around outer edge of pan.
    
13. Let cool for about 2 hours and place in fridge for 4 hours.
14. Prepare topping by mixing together remaining cup of sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar and 3 tbsp Creme de Menthe. Mix until sugar is fully dissolved.
15. Pour topping onto fully cooled cake. Spread topping evenly, being sure to cover any cracks.
16. Bake in oven preheated to 350F for about 10 minutes or until topping is firm. DO NOT BROWN.
17. Sprinkle grated Andes Mints onto cooled cake.

I used a piece of paper to block part of the topping and made a 4 leaf clover design. Use your imagination.


Nutritional information:
12 Servings @ 2.35" each

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread

I was poking around Recipeezaar the other day and came across a few recipes for Pumpkin Bread. I decided I had to have some so I started searching for a gluten-free recipe. The recipe I ended up using is based off of this one: Here. I always try to make my food a little bit healthier than the recipe says. In this case, I decreased the oil from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup and increased the applesauce to 1 full cup. Also, in line with my belief that everything is better with more cinnamon, I doubled the cinnamon and sprinkled some on top of each loaf/muffin.


Recipe makes 6 5.75" x 3" x 2.5" loaves. I made 1 medium sized loaf (slightly larger than 5.75" x 3" x 2.5"), 2 mini loaves and 12 muffins. These came out very moist and delicious. I did not experience any deflating as is typical of GF breads. I gave some to my car-pool buddy and he said it tasted like regular glutened bread! Success!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Flour (gluten-free)*
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Xanthan Gum or Guar Gum
• 1/2 tsp Clove
• 1 tsp Allspice
• 1 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 cup White Sugar
• 2/3 cup Brown Sugar
• 15 oz Pumpkin Puree (such as Libby's)
• 4 Large Eggs
• 1/4 cup Canola Oil
• 1 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1 cup Nonfat Milk (or water)

* For the flour mix, I used Bette Hagman's Mix: 2 parts garfava flour, 1 part sorghum flour, 3 parts cornstarch, and 3 parts tapioca flour. Feel free to experiment with your own mix.

Directions:

1. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs.
2. Beat in sugar, pumpkin, applesauce and oil.
3. Whisk together all of the dry ingredients and beat in 1/2 at a time. (I beat in all of the spices and half of the flour at once and then beat the remaining half of the flour)
4. Slowly beat in milk until mixed and there are no flour lumps. Optional: Add 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into 6 greased and floured small loaf pans until each is about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Be aware that the loaves will rise several inches.
6. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top of each loaf.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 350F for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into middle of loaf comes out clean. If making muffins, cook at 350F for about 30-35 minutes.
8. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Turn loaves upsidedown to remove from pan.
   

I ate 3 of the muffins straight out of the oven while they were still piping hot. The next day I made some apple-butter which complimented the bread perfectly. I stuck the remaining muffins in a bag along with the larger loaf and have been eating it for the past week. I froze the 2 mini loaves, hopefully they thaw well.

Nutritional information:

Be sure to post a review of my recipe on Recipezaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/gluten-free-pumpkin-bread-359480

Gluten Free Cappuccino Fudge Cheesecake

I made this for Christmas dessert 2008. The neighbors loved it; they want me to move in and do all of the cooking.

This requires a fair bit of money to make. Don't buy cheap ingredients; it's going to cost ~$40. The original recipe is here. Make sure to read through the directions carefully before starting.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 5oz package Pamela's Dark Chocolate, Chocolate Chunk Cookies, crushed
  
• 4 oz Kinnikinnick Ktoos Chocolate Cream Cookies, crushed
• 6 oz Ghirardelli Intense Dark Espresso Escape 60% Cocoa Chocolate, coarsely chopped (or 6oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate)
• 1/2 cup Brown Sugar, packed
• 1/8 tsp Nutmeg
• 6 tbsp Unsalted Butter, melted

Ganache:

• 1 1/2 cups Whipping Cream
• 20 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, chips (or semisweet)
• 1/4 cup Kahlua (coffee flavored liquor)

Filling:

• 4 8oz packages Cream Cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups Sugar
• 2 tbsp Flour (gluten-free)
• 2 tbsp Dark Rum (such as Captain Morgans)
  
• 2 tbsp Instant Espresso Powder or Instant Coffee (more to taste)
• 2 tbsp Ground Whole Espresso Beans (or coffee beans)
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 tsp Light Molasses
• 4 large Eggs

Topping:

• 1 1/2 cups Sour Cream
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Starbucks Milk Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans, for garnish

Directions:

Crust:

1. Finely grind cookies, chocolate, brown sugar, nutmeg in food processor.
2. Add butter and continue to process until crumbs begin to stick together, about 1 minute. Scrape bowl sides occasionally.
3. Transfer crumbs to 10 inch diameter springform pan with 3 inch high sides.
4. Wrap fingers with plastic and press crumb mixture firmly up sides to within 1/2" of top, then over bottom of pan.

Ganache:.

1. Bring whipping cream to simmer in large saucepan.
2. Remove from heat; add chocolate and Kahlua.
3. Whisk until chocolate is smooth and no lumps remain.
4. Pour 3 cups ganahce over bottom of crust. Reserve enough to pipe decoration on top of cake (about 1 cup, at most).
5. Chill until ganache is firm, about 30-45 minutes.

Filling:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Using electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl until blended.
3. Beat in flour.
4. Stir rum, espresso powder, ground coffee, vanilla and molasses in small bowl until instant powder is dissolved. Beat into cream cheese mixture.
5. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.
6. Pour filling over cold ganache in crust.
7. Place cheesecake on rimmed baking sheet (important, butter drips out).
8. Bake until top is brown, puffed, and cracked at edges and center 2 edges moves only slightly when pan is jiggled, about 1 hour 5 minutes. NOTE: cooking time will vary, I had to bake mine for about 1 hour 30 minutes to achieve the desired consistency.
9. Transfer cheesecake to rack and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the topping.

Topping:

1. Whisk sour cream, sugar and vanilla in medium bowl to blend.
2. Pour topping over hot cheesecake, spreading to cover completely and cover cracks.
3. Bake for roughly 10 more minutes, until topping is set. Do not allow to brown.
4. Transfer cheesecake back to rack and refrigerate for 3 hours, or until cool.
5. Run small, sharp knife around edges of cheesecake to loose, release side pan.
6. Transfer cheesecake to platter.
7. Fill pastry bag with reserved ganache fitting with star top. If ganache is too runny, chill until it is handleable. If ganache is too hard, heat until pipeable.
8. Pipe diagonal lines atop cheesecake, about 3/4" apart.
9. Repeat in opposite direction, making a grid.
10. Pipe rosettes of ganache around top edge of cake.
11. Garnish with chocolate covered coffee beans, holding in place with small dollop of ganache.
12. Chill until firm, at least 6 hours. Best if refrigerated overnight.
    
13. Enjoy!

When serving, clean knife with a warm towel in between each slice to get a clean cut.

Nutritional information:

Be sure to post a review of my recipe on Recipezaar: http://www.recipezaar.com/cappuccino-fudge-cheesecake-gluten-free-360062