Eggnog Cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving.

I've a confession to make. Every year my sister gets to make pies for our family's Thanksgiving dinner and I've felt cheated. I love to make desserts (truth be told I'm a chef, not a pastry chef but still, I love desserts). Still I cook better than anyone else in my family. I say this not to boast, but ten years of professional cooking has its advantage. I've also become somewhat of a food snob. So this year, I took dibs on the desserts. My sister-in-law wanted to make pies so I'll let her but I get to make the cheesecakes and my sister gets to bring a salad this year.

A little over a month ago I made my first ever cheesecake, a Pina Colada Cheesecake and it was good, but it fell. So I made it again and perfected the technique. Since then I've experimented with a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip for Halloween and it also turned out well. So for Thanksgiving I am upping the anti by making three different varieties. A Peppermint Chocolate Chip, a Dark Chocolate and an Eggnog Cheesecake. These three are going to the family dinner so sister, eat your heart out.

With five different varieties under my belt, I think my favorite so far is the Eggnog. A friend of mine, Tina requested the recipe so what better place to share than this blog. Here goes.

Eggnog Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350

Ingredients

Crust

1 package Graham Crackers

4 oz Candied Pecans

1/2 cup butter

Filling

12 oz Cream Cheese (3 pgk)

3/4 cup Sugar (I use Splenda® for a lower sugar content)

1/3 cup Heavy Cream

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Rum Extract

2 Tbl AP Flour

1 tsp Vanilla

1 Tbl Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg + nutmeg to top

4 large eggs

Instructions

1. In a food processor combine graham crackers and pecans and puree to a course texture. Add butter and blend. Press into a 8" springform pan along the bottom and up the sides. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool but leave oven on.

2. In a mixing bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar, heavy cream, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, rum extract, flour and eggs (one at a time) and blend until smooth, scrapping down the edges as needed. Pour into the prepared crust, sprinkle with nutmeg and bake for about 1 hour. Center should be soft set.

3. Turn off oven and let cool for 15 minutes before removing the cheesecake. After 15 minutes remove to a counter, run a thin blade knife around the edge to separate and loose the pan. Let cool completely and then refrigerate for 4 hours or over night. Can be made several days in advance.

4. Top with sweetened whipped cream.

Enjoy.