I'm going to a fish fry this weekend and I am so freaking excited about all the good stuff that will be there-- local fish, home-brewed beer, tasty kebabs and portobello mushrooms and thick slabs of bacon cooked over a fire...
My mom and I both had the idea to bring cheesecake. Since we had vastly different ideas of what kind, we're both still bringing it-- hers is going to be a Bailey's Irish Creme Mint cheesecake, while mine is goat cheese (get the bad joke in the title now?) with key lime drizzle and fresh berries (and both cakes are gluten-free for my mama). I just pulled mine out of the oven and it is torture smelling the crust and not digging in right away! But I'm cheating-- this is a trial run, and I'm bringing it to work tomorrow to test on my coworkers, so I'll get to eat it about 30 hours before everyone else. Mwahaha!
The idea for my cheesecake came from a dessert I had about a month ago at one of my favorite local restaurants (Deagan's Kitchen and Bar-- I was actually there three times during the week in question). Their Key Lime and Goat Cheese Crepes were just stupidly good, you have no freaking idea. I haven't been able to get the combo of goat cheese and key lime out of my mind and it's been driving me CRAZY, I TELL YOU. CRAZY!
So here is my answer, born of several recipes I found online and my own touches and modifications to make it gluten-free and totally awesome.
Gluten-free Goat Cheesecake with Key Lime Drizzle and Fresh Berries (ok, I don't have the berries yet but bear with me!)
In true Molly style, I set things up all pretty and completely forgot to take pictures. Worst blogger ever. I SHALL PAINT YOU A WORD PICTURE. Or just, like, tell you how to make this thing.
Ingredients:
Crust
1 stick of butter, plus extra to grease pan
3 cups Honey Chex (measured before crushing)
2-3 tsp. sugar
Cinnamon (a couple dashes)
Batter (recipe taken mostly from here, with inspiration from sundry other similar recipes)
11oz Goat Cheese, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 tsp. fresh lemon juice (I toyed with using key lime juice and may try it next time)
1 tsp. lemon zest
1 tsp. vanilla
6 eggs, room temperature, separated
3 Tbsp. gluten-free all-purpose flour
Sauce (recipe taken from here but with slightly less sugar)
1 Tbsp. corn starch (hint-- Walmart's brand may contain traces of wheat, so check labels if you need this to be gluten-free)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup key lime juice
1/4 plus 3 Tbsp. water
Topping
Fresh berries (I'll probably go with black and red raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries, although if I can find some currants, I'm all over that.)
Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a 9" springform pan and dust with sugar. (If you grease and dust well enough, you can probably get away with a regular cake pan but I make no promises.)
Melt butter in a sauce pan. Crush Chex-- my method was to put them in a zippered plastic bag and smoosh them with a rolling pin. Combine butter, Chex, sugar, and cinnamon. Spread into springform pan and use the bottom of a glass to press the mixture down evenly. Set aside.
Note: Please forgive me in this next part-- my awesome friends and family recently bought me a KitchenAid mixer and I didn't even have to get married for it! So I'm going to obnoxiously add little notes as to which speed I used for each step. It's a freaking KitchenAid! Come on! Who do you know who has one who didn't get it as a wedding gift? ME.
Combine the goat cheese, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed (HEY GUYS I USED SPEED 4 ON MY AWESOME MIXER) until smooth (IT WAS LIKE NO TIME AT ALL AND I TOTALLY JUST STOOD THERE AND WATCHED IT HAPPEN). Add two egg yolks and beat until they're fully mixed in (STILL ON 4, GUYS! IT HAPPENS SO FAST!). Repeat for remaining egg yolks. Add flour and mix on low speed (I USED 2!! But some flour was kind of trapped in the middle of the beater and not getting mixed in so I did have to help a little with a spoon, BUT I CAN COMPLETELY FORGIVE THAT.)
In a separate bowl and with clean beaters (I had to switch to my stupid little cheap-ass hand-held mixer) beat the egg whites until they're firm (this took for-freaking-EVER, but probably not. I just didn't like having to actually participate in the mixing process). Add a third of the egg whites into the batter and mix well. Gently fold the remaining whites into the batter.
Scoop it all out into the pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. (I saw several recipes saying to wrap the pan in foil and bake in a hot water bath, which I'm going to do next time). Release latch and FREE YOUR CAKE FROM ITS ALUMINUM PRISON! FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then, you know, cool it off. Maybe on a cooling rack (I'm feeling kind of special because I finally got me one of those today).
Now the sauce! Dissolve the corn starch in 3 Tbsp. water. In a small, non-aluminum sauce pan, combine sugar, lime juice, and remaining water. Bring to a boil to dissolve sugar, then add corn starch mixture and boil, stirring, until sauce thickens. I funneled mine into a squeeze bottle and refrigerated it for awhile, then applied it liberally to the cheesecake.
And like I said, I don't have the berries yet (I want them to be super super extra fresh at the party) so you get a boring picture of a berry-less cake:
It was at least everything I'd hoped for!! Can't wait to share it!
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