Irish Cream Cheesecake, made Gluten-Free, but not Calorie-Free

We had a delightful, relaxing Christmas holiday spent with my sister Mandy. There was lots of good food, a bracing walking of the dog, the viewing of several films, and good conversation. Before I get to the wonderful food, I thought I would also share the results of the first Crazy Mug competition which I am hoping will be a family tradition for years to come.

I had the idea to get our family involved in a little Yuletide fun by scouring yard sales, thrift shops and other outlets for the craziest, zaniest coffee mugs one could find. I was inspired early this year by the bizarre clown mug you see below, and thought it would be a fun scavenger hunt for us to engage in and make part of our holiday festivities. (Plus the activity fit in with our "It's a Recessionary Christmas" theme this year.) We already have lots of fun with the humorous gift tags that we put on our Christmas presents (they provide clues to the gift within or are purportedly from different gift-givers in our lives) and I thought this would add to the merriment.

Well, only Dan and I and Daughter #1 were imbued with the Crazy Mug Spirit, but we still got a kick out of the unveiling of the mugs. Below you see the Crazy Mug entries.


The Penguin mug was actually judged to be rather cute, and we feel we could even use it to drink from, so that was quickly out of contention.

In any other year I think my strange Crazy Mug entry, featuring a badly-drawn, roller-skating clown peeping backwards through his well-defined buttocks would have been judged the winner....


But this was quickly eclipsed by Dan's winning entry, "Smashed Again". Dan had purveyed the glassware shelves of many a thrift shop and actually came up with the winning Crazy Mug at an antiques shop where the owner gave him the mug for free because the tail was broken off of the creepily anthropomorphic mouse figure attached to the handle. Mr. Mouse is staring down at a flattened mouse friend at the bottom of the mug.

This mug is so Crazy on so many levels. Why "smashed again" on a mug? Doesn't one drink booze out of a glass ordinarily? And how does one clean this twisted bit of pottery? And who wants to drink out of something that has a dead mouse in it, real mouse or not? No matter, Dan has won the first Annual Crazy Mug Christmas Contest and I am already looking forward to creating a trophy for next year's event.


Onto the Christmas Food! We had some mulled cider, cheese and crackers, a vegetable platter and dip and a first course salad, Pepperonata with Goat Cheese Truffles, which I had tried in an earlier post. With the addition of some red pepper poinsettias (I had a small flower cookie cutter on hand for that trick) and substituting spinach for the blanched arugula in the original recipe, this was a festive red and green starter for us. I also rolled smaller goat cheese truffles, and rolled the green ones in snipped parsley. Perfetto!

Then there were two trays of lasagna, one meaty and wheaty for my carnivorous crew and one tray of Mushroom, Artichoke and Spinach Lasagna made with rice noodles for the vegetarian, gluten-free crowd. The Christmas feasting concluded with a rich Irish Cream Cheesecake. My cousin-in-law's wonderful wife Diane had once made us such a delight one holiday season and Dan had very fond memories of it, so I dug out the recipe she had given me and figured out a gluten-free crust to replace her graham cracker version and this proved to be a delicious and successful experiment.

I double checked various celiac sites to make sure the Irish Cream liqueur is gluten-free (the consensus is that distilled spirits are gluten-free, even if they start out with glutenous grains). I used Bailey's Irish Cream liqueur but am intrigued by other recipes for making homemade Irish Cream liqueur, like this one. I started this cheesecake the day before, by making and chilling the crust and then baked the cake early on Christmas morning because it takes a long while to cool after baking.



Gluten-Free Irish Cream Cheesecake

2 Tbsp. softened butter

1-1/2 cups Honey-Nut Chex cereal
1-1/4 cups finely chopped walnuts
6 Tbsp. butter, melted


3 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup Irish Cream liqueur
1 tsp. vanilla

3 oz. white chocolate, grated on box grater (save a handful for garnish)

1-1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup confectioner's sugar


Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springform pan with softened butter. Set aside.

Place Honey Nut Chex in zipped plastic bag. Smash with rolling pin until you get fine crumbs. One could also do this in a food processor. Mix crumbs thoroughly with melted butter and chopped nuts. Press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the buttered springform pan. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least one hour to let harden.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Beat softened cream cheese with mixer until fluffy. Add in sugar and mix well. Add eggs, Irish Cream liqueur and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in grated white chocolate and mix well.

Pour into prepared crust. Bake 60 minutes or until the edges of the cheesecake are puffed up and dry looking and the center is set.

Cool on rack.

When cheesecake is thoroughly cooled, top with a mixture of the sour cream and confectioner's sugar. Spread topping smoothly and garnish with reserved grated white chocolate. (Don't garnish with Turbinado or other sugar crystals as we did because they will dissolve and make the top of the cheesecake strangely wet, causing the dessert chef some concern and involving much blotting with paper napkins before serving).

Wrap cheesecake with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least 6 hours before serving.

Makes 10-12 very rich dessert servings.

With many happy wishes to my Crispy Cook readers and blogger buddies for a delightful rest of the year and for a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year!

Basler Brunsli, A Swiss Holiday Cookie That's Naturally Gluten-Free

I have been happily getting started on our holiday baking traditions. My late mother-in-law was the Provider of Chex Mix to all the family members and I am filling in with my gluten-free version (I add more kinds of salted nuts, gluten-free pretzels and more spicy seasonings and replace the chow mein noodles and broken bagel chips she preferred). Those are baked, packaged and several containers are secretly stashed where I will hopefully find them again during Christmas week.

The cookie baking is also gearing up with a couple of batches of brownies stashed in the freezer and the remnants of a test batch of a cool new holiday cookie from Switzerland, Basler Brunsli. I spied this naturally gluten-free recipe in my vintage cookbook "Woman's Day Gifts From Your Kitchen" (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1976), and after experimenting with it, I am smitten with this aromatic, chewy cookie.

The cookie calls for ground almonds. I stocked up on whole almonds from the bulk bin of my grocery store ($7.00 per pound) and then ground them up in my blender. The cookie also called for kirsch, also known as kirschwasser, which is a cherry liqueur. My local liquor store had a small, dust-covered bottle. I suppose the rise of cherry-flavored cough syrup and other cold remedies has diluted the popularity of this particular alcohol. It does have a strong cherry scent and flavor, but it is perfect for offsetting the chocolate and clove elements of this wonderful cookie.


I had to wrestle with the dough a bit. The cookbook recipe calls for one to roll out the dough on a board lightly sprinkled with sugar and then cut out the cookies in the traditional rosette shape. However, the raw cookie dough was so moist that it slowly sloshed around my mixing bowl and I couldn't see handling it even between waxed or parchment paper. I tried freezing the dough, but the kirsch kept the dough from freezing or firming up, so in the end I just pinched off bits with a metal spoon and plopped them onto parchment-lined baking sheets. They spread to a 1-1/2 inch diameter when baked.

The spiciness of the ground cloves and cherry and chocolate flavors is perfectly balanced and they are exquisite with a cup of hot tea. I think they are more of cookie for an adult palate, being not too sweet or gooey or eye-catching. The texture is wonderful too. They are crisp, yet chewy and are not brittle, so they will make good candidates for holiday gift packages.



Here then is my version of Basler Brunsli, my new found holiday favorite confection:

Basler Brunsli

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup grated unsweetened chocolate (one square of baking chocolate, grated on a cheese grater)
2 Tbsp. kirsch
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

2 egg whites


Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, except for egg whites. Do not give in to the temptation to add more cloves than a level 1/4 tsp. as this flavoring will already be a dominant note in the finished product. And this advice comes from a baker who likes a lot of spice.

In a separate bowl, beat eggs whites until almost stiff. Fold in almond-chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly, yet gently. Divide dough in half and maneuver each half into a log. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place teaspoonfuls of cookie dough onto two parchment-lined baking sheets. Try to maneuver dough into a round shape. Each cookie should be separated by at least an inch or two from its cookie neighbor as these will spread while baking.

Bake 12-15 minutes, or until cookie tops are no longer shiny.

Let cool on baking sheets for five minutes before gently removing them from the parchment with a slender spatula onto baking racks.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.


I'll be linking this post up with Maggie of She Let Them Eat Cake and her 12 Days of Gluten-Free Christmas Cookies event on December 12. Check back with Maggie then to see all the other GF sweets others have cooked up this holiday season. But do try these Basler Brunsli cookies if you enjoy a spicy, chewy cookie, even if it is rather plain-looking next to some of its showier, wonderfully decorated neighbors on the holiday cookie plate this season.

You might also enjoy trying some other of my cookie recipes:

Rudolph's Noses

Almond Cloud Cookies

Flourless Fudge Brownies

Elegant Sesame-Ginger Cookies

Fig Newtons

Mexican Cinnamon Cookies (Polvorones de Canela)

Ginger-Nut Lace Cookies

Mocha-Pepper Sandwich Cookies

Lemon Bars

Peanut Butter Kisses

Apricot-Ginger Shortbread

Turning up the HEAT to Cook the Books

Time to Cook the Books again, dear readers. No, it's not tax time, but time to post about the latest book selection from the greatest online foodie book club, Cook the Books, which I and two dear blogger friends started up two years ago. Johanna of Food Junkie, Not Junk Food and Deb of Kahakai Kitchen and I take turns hosting each bimonthly round of Cook the Books, and this time it is the lovely Johanna who is leading our discussion of Bill Buford's book "Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany" (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).


This is a very entertaining memoir by Buford, a founding editor of Granta and writer/editor for The New Yorker, who left the literary life to pursue his passion for the culinary arts. Buford signs on to work as a grunt with Mario Batali at his three-star restaurant Babbo and so we get a backstage pass to the testosterone-fueled, invective-filled world of a high-profile New York City restaurant kitchen. Much of the book focuses on the Mario Batali back story, but I was actually more intrigued by two others who lie within the Rabelaisian orbit of Planet Mario, Joe Bastianich and Marco Pierre White.

Joe is the laconic scion of the Bastianich restaurant empire and Batali's business partner. He knows food and wine and how to keep the finances afloat in the Batali restaurant galaxy. He does not wax poetic about the glamour of restaurant life, having had to clean out the grease traps, pull bay leaves out of choking throats and sweep up piles of post-exterminator insect detritus in the family restaurant.

Marco Pierre White is an even more outrageous, larger-than-life character than Batali, who endured a four-month stint as White's kitchen slave in London before quitting in a fit of pique. White is so very foul-mouthed, so mean, so physically intimidating, as described by Buford, that even when the two meet, over a frightfully proper traditional roast grouse meal at White's newest restaurant acquisition, he works himself into an increasingly cold fury ruminating on every bit of the dish that is overdone or incorrectly prepared. There are croutons that are insufficiently darkened, a sauce that is too intense, butter that is not foamy enough, and an overabundance of parsley garnish. Each rant is punctuated by his dining partner's name, so that the reader feels the tension ratchet up with each seemingly polite, yet darkly ominous, phrase from White's lips:

"It's not right, is it, Bill?"

"It is made with a veal stock reduction, isn't it, Bill?"

"The bread crumbs, they're disappointing, aren't they, Bill?

"The butter sauce, ...I mean, really...One clove, [of garlic] do you understand me, Bill?"

"We're here to eat a f*$&@#ing bird, are we not, Bill?"

You get the point.

The other passage from Buford's book that really stuck with me was his description of how the Food Network packages its food celebrities (called "talents" or "brands") and their shows. They are less reliant on the quality of the cooking information so much as the sensual, lip-smacking, groaning-while-chewing presentation skills of the talent. Buford describes it further:

"The skin-flick feel was reinforced by a range of heightened effects, especially amplified sounds of frying, snapping, crunching, chewing, swallowing...The "talent" (also known as a "crossover" personality, usually a woman with a big smile and no apron) was directed to be easy with her tongue and use it conspicuously--to taste food on a spoon, say, or work it around a batter-coated beater, or clean the lips with it". (p. 143)

Seems like Julia Child wouldn't cut it these days with her data-laden French Chef episodes. But I still like to watch her chirpy reruns, which I guess makes me hopelessly old-fashioned.

It was hard to decide on a dish I wanted to prepare in honor of this book as there was a parade of cooks described in its pages. Ultimately I decided to try a recipe by Le Grand Orange, Mario Batali. I waded through a thicket of his online recipes without being inspired. So many of them consist of meaty meat plugged with other bits of meat, wrapped in layers of yet more flesh. I do see that he is planning a new book focusing on vegetables, so that should be interesting to pore over.

Ultimately, I ended up making a very elegant Batali appetizer (though we ate it for dinner, at least the gourmet type adults did), Goat Cheese Truffles with Peperonata. Now I can see that he has a dab hand at vegetarian fare and so he is back in my good graces.

To make this wonderful dish, you take some arugula, blanch it for 10 SECONDS, whereupon it wilts into submission, like spinach and becomes a whole new vegetable with a delicate texture and taste. Magical!

You then toss your blanched arugula with a lemony dressing, put a little mound on a plate, top it with red pepper strips slow-cooked with sherry vinegar, and then top these with goat cheese "truffles" rolled in paprika, crushed fennel seed (Mario says fennel pollen) and poppy seed. It was spectacularly good and changed my mind about arugula. I have only used it fresh in salads, but the blanching technique made me fall in love with this salad green which is actually still hanging out in the lettuce patch outside the Crispy Casita. Will definitely plant more arugula next Spring.


I would only change things up by making smaller, more bite-sized goat cheese truffles next time. Wouldn't this make a spectacular salad or first course menu item for an elegant Christmas dinner with the play of red and green?

Please join us after the December 3 deadline for this round of Cook the Books to see all the thoughtful and tantalizing entries. Anyone is welcome to join in our book club. There's no entry requirements other than reading our selected foodcentric book and then blogging up a post about the book and a dish that you have cooked up which is inspired by your reading. A guest judge reviews the roundup of posts and then picks a winner who receives a fabulous Cook the Books trophy badge to adorn his or her blog.

Our December/January Cook the Books selection will be Victoria Riccardi's "Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto" and I will be hosting the book discussion and roundup with Ms. Riccardi herself serving as our guest judge. Please join us!