ArcaMax

Bake one hour at 325 degrees. Turn off oven. Crack the door and let it cool for another hour as the oven cools. Then cool on the rack until it’s completely room temperature. This helps to reduce the likelihood of your cheesecake cracking the in the middle.

Cover and chill overnight. Cheesecake always tastes better on day two.

You can spread sweetened whipped cream over the top of the cheesecake to serve or alternately spread Truwhip over the top. (Truwhip is like Cool whip without all the chemicals and sugar). Or you can serve your cheesecake with no topping. It will be good any of these ways.

Double Cream Eggnog

I tinkered with several eggnog recipes to come up with one that you can make for your holiday. This is a double cream version. Very rich and just wonderful. It can be made with brandy or rum. Rum is more traditional but the brandy will lend a lighter zip to the drink.

Either way, I suggest “Eggnog Cordials” or “Eggnog Shots.” Eggnog cordials would be served in a cordial glass so it’s a smaller portion than the tradition of serving it in a mug. The shot would be even smaller. We all know it’s not the fat that makes us fat but you can overdo your portions and if you are serving this with a dessert it’s probably just as well to back off and not have too much. Besides these are so good you don’t need much to get the satisfaction. It’s all about not feeling left out of the party and still be low carb. This does the trick.

Servings: Serves 6-12 (see notes above)

Ingredients:

2 cups of whipping cream
1 tsp of nutmeg
2 tsp of organic vanilla
6 egg yolks
6 tsp of Truvia
1-1/2 cups of golden rum
Pumpkin pie spice for garnish

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan add the whipping cream, nutmeg, and vanilla. Heat on a very low setting for five minutes; just to get it warm. Then slowly bring it up to a mild boil.

While that’s heating you can deal with the egg yolks and Truvia. Put them in a mixer. Whisk on high until fluffy, three to five minutes. The mixture will become a frothy, smooth and lemony color. With the mixer running VERY SLOWLY begin to drizzle the cream mixture into the eggs. Keep it SLOW or the eggs will scramble and you’ll have a mess. Keeping adding the mixture until it’s all incorporated.

Then take the mixture out of the mixer bowl and put it back into the saucepan. Cook over medium heat CONSTANTLY STIRRING for three minutes. This is a critical part of the process. The mixture will thicken. DO NOT BOIL it.

Turn off and IMMEDIATELY strain it into another bowl to cool. Do not leave it in the saucepan. I made that mistake once and if you do it will continue to cook leaving a coating on the bottom of the pan that you don’t want. The milk solids will separate out and curdle in the bottom of the pan. YUK.

When the mixture is cool, stir in the brandy. Cool in the refrigerator and serve with a sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice or nutmeg. The eggnog will keep in the refrigerator for a few days. It tastes even better on day two so you might want to think ahead and make it the day before serving.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola