A Little Light Reading

In case you haven’t noticed, I love to bake. Although cooking is very high up on my list, baking will always been my first love. I still remember the year I received my very first cookbook, “The Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook”. I still have it. And up until my gluten intolerance diagnosis I was still using it now and again.

Thus began my love affair with cookbooks.

I read cookbooks like other people read a good novel – cover to cover. I love the photos, recipes, extra notes… I love it all! I love it for its practicality mixed with creativity. In the same book – in the same RECIPE – you can learn something brand new and be inspired to branch out and create something else. Love it!

I have what some might call… a large collection of cookbooks. There are the ones I keep handy for reference and inspiration. Those are kept in an easily accessible place. But then there are the completely outrageous… or old and sentimental… or professional level books that I keep just for fun. Just to read and soak up and learn new terminology or techniques. Out of most of those – OK, all of those - I will never, ever cook even one recipe. I just love to read them.

A little odd? I prefer to call it passion.

So what is a girl to do with cookbooks full of wonderful recipes that technically are taboo for GF people? Did you guess “play around with those wonderful recipes until you nail a delicious dessert that will knock the socks off of people”? You are absolutely RIGHT!

This one is unbelievable. I made this dessert for a dinner party at a friend’s house and one of the guests who happens to be a good friend gave probably the best possible review of my dessert. She said, “I don’t like cheesecake, Katie. And I don’t really like pretzels. But I love this!” Was she just being nice, you ask? When I asked if she wanted to bring some home her eyes lit up and she eagerly said “yes!”. I’m thinking she was in earnest.

If you love salt and sweet together… this is one dessert you are going to luhhhhhhhh-uhve. Word of caution, though. Use great restraint. If you bake this cheesecake just to have around the house you’ll pick, pick, pick until – voila! – it’s gone. And you and I both know that it won’t really be gone. It will be with you for weeks to come, if you get my meaning. So share the love – bake this one to bring to a get-together at a friend’s house. It will keep your waistline status quo and your friends happy.

Chocolate Covered Pretzel Cheesecake

1 cup gluten free pretzel crumbs (crush 1 ½ to 2 cups of GF pretzels into crumbs)

3 Tbsp brown sugar

4 Tbsp butter, divided

8oz GF semi-sweet chocolate

4 8oz bars cream cheese, brought to room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 Tbsp GF all-purpose flour

1 ½ Tbsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 ½ GF pretzels, broken into bite-size pieces

4 oz GF semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover the outside of a 9” or 10” spring form pan with aluminum foil and place in a large, shallow baking pan. In a small bowl, mix together pretzel crumbs, 3 Tbsp melted butter and brown sugar. Press into the bottom of the spring form pan. Bake for 12 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees.

In small glass mixing bowl, melt the 8oz chocolate in the microwave on high for 30 seconds. Stir and cook for another 15 seconds. Stir again. If needed, continue to cook in 15 second increments, stirring after each time, until the chocolate is completely melted. On a piece of wax paper spread the 1 ½ cups of broken pretzel pieces. Pour the chocolate over the pieces and toss to coat. Refrigerate until set.

In a large mixing bowl beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer until smooth. Add the sugar, GF flour and vanilla. Beat until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed. Add the sour cream and beat on low speed.

Remove chocolate covered pretzels from the refrigerator and break up into bite-size chunks by hand. Add to the cream cheese mixture and fold to incorporate. Pour into the prepared spring form pan and smooth the top. Pour enough very hot water (boiling not necessary) into the large, shallow baking pan to cover the bottom half of the spring form pan. Bake, in the water bath, for 1 hour and 5 minutes.

Allow baked cheesecake to sit for 10-15 minutes then run a knife around the rim of the pan to help loosen the cake. Allow cheesecake to cool completely, then refrigerate for 8 hours.

To decorate, sprinkle extra crushed pretzel crumbs on top. Melt chocolate chips and 1 Tbsp butter in the microwave on high for 30 seconds, repeating the same steps used to melt the chocolate for the pretzels. Drizzle the melted chocolate-butter mixture over the top of the cheesecake and extra pretzel crumbs.