Eggnog Cheesecake

 

What to do with all that leftover holiday eggnog? Well, actually, if you still have Christmas eggnog this late into January, you might want to smell it first.... I, however, ended up with three quarts of Silk Nog (soy eggnog) left after my Eggnog Cupcakes experiment, and they still weren't expiring until February. I didn't think my family would drink that much soy eggnog in less than a month, especially when all our Christmas decorations have long since been put away (um, last week...) and the carton itself is decked in its own seasonal holiday scarf. Still, there was a very appealing recipe for Eggnog Cheesecake on the side of the carton that kept calling to me every time I opened the fridge and spied the still un-drunk Silk Nog cartons. And where else was I going to find a recipe that specifically asked for three-fourths of a cup of Silk Nog?

I altered the original recipe only slightly, making my own homemade graham cracker crust, utilizing a lighter cream cheese (it has less fat and is also slightly easier on my dairy-challenged stomach) and substituting light rum for dark (we were out of dark rum, but I can also justify this one with the fact that it keeps the cheesecake looking more light golden. While cookies should generally be baked to a golden brown, cheese generally shouldn't...).

Thus, with such substitutions in place, my first ever Eggnog Cheesecake was born!

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1 and 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (place graham crackers in a plastic baggie and hammer the heck out of them! Or roll them over with a rolling pin. Or whip out the food processor. It's okay to be vicious here, so have fun with it).
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

For the filling:
16 oz. (2 packages, 8 oz. each) reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour (any flour will do)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 Tablespoons light rum
3/4 cup Silk Nog (soy eggnog)
2 eggs


Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Press the mixture flat into the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan that's been greased with nonstick cooking spray.

2.) In another bowl (or you could just rinse out the first one like I did), beat the cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, and nutmeg together until well combined (An electric mixer works best, though I used a fork and my weakling arms to work on building muscle). Beat in the rum and soy eggnog, then the eggs.

3.) Pour the mixture on top of the crust and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let the cheesecake cool to room temperature.

4.) Refrigerate overnight, then serve cold the next day. There may be cracks. One slice might fall apart on the plate. But I think it all contributes to a nice rustic look. This cheesecake isn't hoity toity. But it does look decent, removes easily enough from the pan, and tastes absolutely delicious when combined with that graham cracker crunch.

If you really want it to look as fancy and crack-free as possible, you can try baking the cheesecake in a hot water bath as I did for my Creme Brulee (a dessert that truly is hoity toity no matter how rustic you try to dress it down). In the end, however, your guests, family, friends, or whoever you're serving will not remember what Eggnog Cheesecake looked like. They will remember what it tasted like. Rum. Oh yeah, and eggnog. But...rum.