chocolate chip cookie cheesecake NOT!

This experiment was our test of egg replacer in cheesecakes. As fate would have it, dr bob was discovered to be a foodie by a student in one of the few university classes in which he has ever replaced another math prof unable to make it to class due to a health emergency, in this case a bad back attack. Fate, since this was just before Thanksgiving break and the cooking team had been designated the dessert outsourcer. This student had found him by googling, and there he was in person in front of the class talking about linear independence of vectors. Wow! a fan. She turns out to be allergic to eggs, but loves cheesecake, a slight problem. bob does some googling himself on egg substitutes, but it is only a telephone call to the local health food store where the product name for the more correct term of egg replacer was orally communicated as the Energy brand, which a later visit to Whole Foods revealed to be Ener G. Clever. Too clever for google. But in the end, we finally learn about replacing eggs and acquired the solution. 100 eggs worth. Economical too.

The first idea for a new recipe was to try one of the many bottles of cream liqueur in the fridge, key lime being the first choice. But checking our recent cheesecake history, it turned out we had done that one the previous Thanksgiving. And the graham cracker crumb supply had been discarded during the early fall kitchen cupboard moth plague, so the crust was going to be a problem, since our shopping expedition was over and we were home for the night. Somehow a sealed package of chocolate wafers from the same shelf had escaped trashing, so that would have to be the solution. And the liqueur would just have to be the recently acquired impulse-buy chocolate chip cookie cream liqueur (no chocolate chip cookies here). Liqueurs are great flavoring aids. They pack intense flavor and are a snap to add to any recipe.

This is the same-old same-old standard add-liqueur cheesecake batter, so there wasn't really the need for a new recipe, but the egg replacer results seemed worthy of documentation. And the serendipitous ingredient combination proved memorable too. We hope.

ingredients (half recipe)

crust

1 T pistachio cream plus 2-3 T butter (or just use 3-4 T butter)

10 chocolate wafers, crumbed in a food processor

1/4 c ground hazelnuts, toasted 4 minutes on a cookie sheet at 350° F

2 T brown sugar 

batter

1 lb cream cheese (2 8oz packages)

3/4 c sugar

pinch of salt

2 T flour

4 T = 1/4 c chocolate chip cookie cream liqueur

2 large eggs [substitutable by 3 T warm water with 1 T egg replacer]

topping

1 c sour cream

2 T sugar

1 t Frangelico hazelnut liqueur

instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350° F. Get your 8 or  9 inch spring-form pan out of the closet or cabinet or where ever you hide it. Trace out the bottom on parchment paper and cut it out and insert in the bottom of the assembled pan.
2. Crumb up your hazelnuts with some sort of electric or mechanical kitchen device, like a hand blender with an attachment, the spread on a cookie sheet (no cookies here either) and bake 4 minutes until nicely browned. Better yet, start with recipe ready nuts but bake them anyway.
3. Soften up the pistachio cream if you've got any and melt the butter together with it in the microwave.
4. Patiently mix in the butter mixture into the already mixed crumbs.
5. Press into the bottom of the pan and refrigerate, or not (we forgot).
6. Mix the (room temp if possible) cream cheese and sugar with electric beaters or a kitchen mixer until "fluffy". Then toss in the rest of the stuff, adding the egg substitute (egg replacer plus warm water, nicely mixed) last.
7. Get out the cheesecake pan with the crust and pour in the batter, evening out the top surface.
8. Back about 1 hour and then watch until the top surface turns a nice golden brown, maybe an hour and 10 minutes depending on your oven.
9. Remove for 10 to 15 minutes while the bloated and cracked top surface settles back down leaving a slightly raised rim from contact with the side of the pan.
10. Meanwhile mix together the sour cream, sugar and liqueur with a spatula briefly and at the end of this cooling down period, dump it in the center of the cake slowly convincing it to even out towards the sides but leaving at least a 1/2 inch rim exposed for aesthetic reasons.
11. Reinsert into the oven for another 10 to 12 minutes to set up the sour cream topping.
12. Remove and let cook on a rack, then chill in the fridge at least one day before use. Okay, in emergencies 4 hours will do. [What, plagiarizing our own recipe?]

notes

1. Ener G egg replacer. For vegans and egg allergic cheesecake lovers. The cheesecake turned out fine. Thanks, Jennifer.
2. Chocolate Chip Cookie Cream Liqueur, another limited tease offering by the PA State Store system. bob's favorite cookie. How could he resist?
3. Cupboard/pantry moth infestations (Indian meal moths?), serious bad news. We were among the lucky ones: only a month of combat was required to survive the attack. Passive Pantry Pest Traps in the cupboard plus a kill-on-sight active response did the trick. Eventually.
4. Illustrations available.