Circular: Circle 2 is Cheezecake

Oh yes, very good.  I really like Crazy Richard’s unadulterated peanut butter, though Maranatha’s organic peanut butter is high on my list of “what food would you bring with you to survive the zombie apocalypse?”  I’ve been watching and reading The Walking Dead for the past few days.  Wonderful bedtime reading.



I made two pies today and not a lot of progress on my thesis.  OK, technically, one of these pies is a cheesecake, but that’s semantics.  Cheesecake is a strange beast in the pie-cake world since it has a crust but it’s called a cake.  Crust makes the pie/ clothes make the man?  No, and we could argue on this until the prodigal son comes home.  And we’ll still be arguing if and when he does.

PB-Choco Cheezecake

Modified from Holechek, Kris. “Gluten-Free Perfect PB Brownie Cheesecake.”  Have Your Cake and Vegan Too: 50 Dazzling and Delicious Cake Creations. 111.

Crust:

1/2 cup brown rice flour

2 tablespoons sorghum flour

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons cocoa (I used Dutch process)

1/4 cup organic sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt

3 tablespoons margarine (I used Earth Balance coconut spread)

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup nondairy milk (I used unsweetened coconut)

Filling:

12.3 ounces silken tofu (firm or soft; I used firm)

8 ounces nondairy cream cheese

3/4 cup organic sugar

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup natural peanut butter (I used chunky, unsweetened, unsalted pb)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla (omitted since there was none in the house)

1/4 cup chocolate chips, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease a 9” springform pan.

Crust: In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients for the crust.  In a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream the margarine and applesauce until combined.  Add the dry ingredients (give ‘em a fold in and scrape down the sides to keep flours from flying).  Beat them in until beginning to combine, then add the nondairy milk.  Mix until just combined.  Transfer to pan and spread along bottom of pan.  Bake for 10 minutes then set aside.

Filling: In a blender, blend the silken tofu by itself for a minute (no chunks!).  Then add the cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch, and peanut butter.  Blend until uniformly peanut buttery, scraping down the sides as needed.  Remove about half of this mixture to another bowl (probably the bowl in which you mixed the dry ingredients).  Add the melted chocolate to the rest of the mixture in the blender and scrape down the sides.  Blend until uniformly chocolatey.  Alternate dollops of peanut butter and chocolate filling mixtures in the pan.  Drag a knife through the alternating piles to create a swirl.  (I put one type mostly on one side and the other type mostly on the other and swirled up the middle.  If you know that slightly different halves of cheesecake will start a feud in your household, best to dollop by layers of different filling instead).  Bake for 45 minutes or until the centre is set.  Cool in the partially-opened oven for about an hour, then cool completely on a rack before refrigerating.  Chill for at least two hours or overnight before serving.

I’m taking pictures dangerously close to the edges of countertops.

Today when I was shopping at Whole Foods, I heard “Lovecats” by The Cure, and I sang along.  Then when I was in Harris Teeter (I’m in Alexandria this weekend), I heard some Backstreet Boys song (for which I knew the words) and then “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga.  Good day for music.  Clearly I was meant to be here.