Eggnog Cheesecake

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope everyone had a great holiday filled with good food and great people. I was scheduled to work Christmas night, so I volunteered to make dessert so I could make it ahead of time and leave it with my family if I did indeed have to go into work. As it turns out, I got super lucky and got cancelled last night so I was able to enjoy the holiday dinner with my Mom, my brother and his (as of yesterday) Fiancée, her two boys, her mom, and my little Cooker Boy. We had a great day- no stress, good food, and lots of fun!

This was my first attempt at a true cheesecake, and I am super pleased with how it turned out. I changed the crust from graham cracker crumbs to gingersnap crumbs, as I received a tin of gingersnap cookies as a gift and thought they would compliment the eggnog flavor well. I also doubled the crust recipe, as I wanted to continue the crust up the sides of the cheesecake a bit. 

Eggnog Cheesecake adapted from Taste of Home

makes 1 9-inch cheesecake, about 12 servings

Crust:

2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies

4 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:

3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons flour

2 eggs

3/4 cup eggnog

1/2 teaspoon rum or vanilla extract

dash ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9-inch spring form pan, and wrap two pieces of heavy duty foil around bottom and up sides of pan. Combine crushed cookies, sugar and melted butter in a small bowl and toss until combined. Press crumbs into bottom and up sides of springform pan. Place pan on baking sheet, and bake for 10 minutes at 325 degrees. Let cool on wire rack.

Combine cream cheese, sugar and flour in large bowl and beat until smooth.  Add eggs, and beat on low speed until just combined. Slowly stir in eggnog, extract and nutmeg. Pour filling into crust and tap on counter lightly to get rid of any air bubbles in the filling.

Place springform pan inside a larger baking dish, and add 1 inch of hot water to bottom of baking dish to create a water bath.  Bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes, or until the center is just set and the top of the cheesecake appears dull.

Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes, then gently run knife around the edges of cheesecake to loosen from pan.Cool 1 hour longer, then cover and refrigerate overnight.

Just before serving, remove outside ring of springform pan, and top cheesecake with freshly whipped cream and another dash of nutmeg.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!