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.

Mini Eggnog Cupcakes!

I have been away from blogging for far too long. The month of November passed with several Thanksgiving projects that I will have to go back and upload including a Bourbon Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Dip, Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce, and Sweet Potato Pie. But unfortunately coming down with Bronchitis for four weeks knocked me out of commission and away from my keyboard during that time as well. Thankfully, winter colds are all gone now and I can talk about my most recent baking success: Mini Eggnog Cupcakes! I had planned well before the fall to experiment with eggnog baked goods in the winter, and my December office holiday party--complete with a staff potluck dessert arrangement--was the perfect opportunity to get cooking!

I personally love the flavor of eggnog, though the dairy in it keeps me from having it that often (that's why I was so happy to discover Silk Nog soy eggnog!). Since I'd mostly been making cookies for my coworkers lately, I wanted to try some sort of bread or cake with the eggnog flavor instead, and thus searched online for eggnog cupcake recipes until I came across one by Minneapolis couple Matt and Kat on their blog, A Good Appetite. It had all the important things I felt an eggnog cupcake might need: eggnog. And rum. But the amount of butter (thus fat) and use of egg whites (my dad is allergic to them) led me to alter the recipe just enough to make it my own. Even with cutting the butter content in half, however, these cupcakes still tuned out so moist (perhaps because I added extra rum), with the eggnog flavor coming through especially well when paired with homemade eggnog frosting (this I also altered from the original recipe to add actual eggnog in with the powdered sugar). Best of all, the recipe turned out to be so easy to put together the day before the office party, making little mini cupcake bites that no one had to feel guilty about indulging in!

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon rum
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup eggnog or soy eggnog
3 whole eggs


Directions


1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a mini cupcake tin with paper liners. In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add the rum, vanilla, and eggs one at a time. Beat after each addition.

2.) In a separate bowl, sift the baking powder, salt, and flour together and mix well. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, alternating between adding the flour mixture and the eggnog until both are well incorporated into the batter.

3.) Fill the cupcake liners to just below the surface of the tin, smoothing the batter flat with a small spoon to spread it evenly. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, until the cupcakes start to brown just slightly and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

4.) Remove the cupcakes from the oven and carefully turn them sideways in the tin to prevent the bottoms from getting mushy. Finish cooling on a wire rack until the cupcakes reach room temperature, then feel free to frost and enjoy! (Frosting recipe below).

Eggnog Frosting


Ingredients

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1 Tablespoon rum
2 Tablespoons eggnog

Directions


1.) Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer. Add the salt and spices and continue to beat. Finally, add in the rum and eggnog and beat until the frosting is smooth. For a thinner icing, add more liquid. Adjust to your personal taste!

I refrigerated the cupcakes overnight, then let them sit out until they reached room temperature before serving them the next day. The hardest part about making these treats was keeping myself from eating too many of the little things as I "taste-tested" the batter, the warm cupcakes fresh from the oven, the cooled cupcakes at room temperature, the cupcakes with frosting, and the cupcakes after being refrigerated. Thank goodness they were small, and that I still had enough left for my coworkers. Have fun with this holiday recipe--both the making and the eating!