This creamy Egg Nog Cheesecake is definitely in the running as a favourite in the Christmas rotation.
There are so many cookies, squares, trifles, and meringues vying for a spot on my Christmas menu I was going to revert to an old family favourite. I almost didn't make this but boy - am I glad I did!
Now my dilemma is how to fit so many Christmas cookies and desserts into holiday rotation!
I use my favourite Basic Slow Cooker Cheesecake as my blank canvas for cheesecake all the time now. What I especially like is I use an 8" spring form pan and it serves 8 people very nicely. If you are passing a cookie platter alongside you could make the cheesecake portions smaller and serve more.
I was just playing with the typical egg nog features, cream, rum (use rum extract if you don't want alcohol), nutmeg and chocolate is always a welcome accent.
You can vary it to suit your taste by the cookie you use. You could use Ginger snaps or gingerbread, pure chocolate cookies.
If you stabilise your whipped cream frosting with tartar sauce you can make this a day ahead very easily. It actually freezes well too. I have not tried freezing the entire cheesecake intact (although my mother-in-law often froze hers along with her Lemon Chiffon Pie) If you have lots of room so the whipped cream and cookies don't get crushed I honestly think you would be okay to freeze the whole thing. You could definitely freeze the basic cheesecake and decorate it the day before or day of serving it.
Leftovers keep well in the fridge. There is no moist fruit to separate so as long as your whipped cream stands up your leftovers will be presentable. I froze the last 2 pieces since we had had it a couple of times already.
They will be a welcome treat after the holidays when we are in post-Holiday-sweet-treat-withdrawal and scavenging for a little something!
However you choose to serve it - enjoy!
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Egg Nog Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 1 Basic Slow Cooker Cheesecake See Note 1 below for variations required for Egg Nog Cheesecake
Frosting
- 1 cup whipping cream optional - add ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar if planning to make ahead.
- 1 tablespoon rum I like amber or spiced rum.
- 1 tablespoon egg nog
- nutmeg for garnish
- icing sugar for garnish
- 4 small cookies (preferably with some chocolate component) I used Lelerc Celebration Egg Nog Cookies.
Instructions
- Prepare Basic Slow Cooker cheesecake with the variations listed in the notes below. Or use your favourite cheesecake recipe and make similar adjustments. Cheesecake can be made a day or 2 ahead of time.
- When cheesecake is completely cool, whip the cream with the rum and eggnog.
- Pipe the whipped cream around the base and make 16 florettes evenly spaced around the top of the cheesecake.
- Using a very sharp knife carefully cut the cookies in half. Wedge a cookie, straight side down into every second whipped cream florette.
- Use a fine seive and dust the top and sides of the cheesecake lightly with nutmeg. Then seive a generous amount of icing sugar over the top and sides of the cheesecake (and platter if desired).
- Cheesecake will keep nicely refrigerated for a day or two. It will last as long as your whipped cream remains stable. (See note 1 to stabilize whipped cream0.
- This cheesecake also freezes well. Defrost in fridge and then serve.
Notes
- Crust - Add 1 tablespoon of rum to the graham cracker base. Proceed as per the recipe.
- Cheesecake - replace ⅓ cup of cream with ⅓ cup of eggnog.
- Whipped cream - if you want to make this a day or 2 ahead add ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar to the whipping cream to stabilize it.
- To replace rum with rum extract McCormick & Company say for every tablespoon of dark rum you can substitute ½ tablespoons (1 ½ teaspoons) of rum extract. For 1 tablespoon of white rum, you substitute ½ teaspoon of rum extract.
RALPH HETKE
Excellent!