Mmmmm...Cheesecake

Cheesecake is one of my absolute favorite things to make, because it is the perfect creamy base to showcase different flavors and never fails to impress.  I'm always trying out new flavor combinations.  My blogland friend Rhome410 at Friday is Pizza, Monday is Soup showcased 2 different eggnog cheesecake recipes the other day.  I knew I had to try my own version of her Eggnog Latte Cheesecake.

For those of you unfamiliar with her blog, Rhome410 is a mom of 8(!) who homeschools her brood, makes all her own bread products, mills her own grains, and still finds the time to help others as one of the resident experts at the GardenWeb Kitchen Forum.  I know you can't see one in her blog photo, but trust me she wears a cape.  I highly recommend popping over there and drinking in all her great food photos, recipes, and tips.

Back to the Cheesecake.  I started with a package of Jo-Sef gluten-free vanilla cookies, chocolate would have worked nicely, too.

I placed the cookies in a baggie and crushed them with my rolling pin.  I added one stick(1/2 cup) of melted butter and smooshed the bag until all of the crumbs had been moistened.

I pressed the crumbs into the bottom of a springform pan that I had lined with parchment paper and buttered.

I heated up 1 cup of eggnog warm enough to dissolve 1 tbsp of instant espresso.  I know all the hard core coffee drinkers are looking at the instant stuff in horror, but I swear I only use it for baking.

In my mixer I beat 3 - 8oz bricks of cream cheese until light and fluffy.  I used neufchatel for this because I figured with the addition of the eggnog, I could afford to lose a little fat in the cream cheese.  When the cream cheese was light and fluffy, I added one 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk and beat until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  I beat in 3 eggs one at a time and then added the eggnog mixture.

I poured it into the prepared pan and placed it into my oven that had been preheated to 425.  After 12 minutes, I decreased the temperature to 225 without opening the oven door.  After an hour at 225, I turned the oven off, but left the cheesecake in the oven for another hour without opening the oven door.  Just in case you missed it:  Don't open the oven door.  Temperature fluctuations will cause your cheesecake to crack.  It'll still be tasty, just not as pretty.

And because I can't leave well enough alone, I decided to add some eggnog icing squiggles(1 cup confectioners sugar plus enough eggnog to make it a piping consistency) and dark chocolate espresso beans to pretty it up further.

Thanks for popping in and joining me for cheesecake.  I'm sharing this over at Gluten-Free Homemaker's Gluten-Free Wednesday and Remodelaholic's Recipe Swap Party.