“He Likes Cheesecake”

Has someone ever done something out of the blue for you that was incredibly generous? And insisted that you don’t need to give anything in return? Have you ever then spent hours thinking about what kind of baked good or snack or drink that person might like?

That’s what I did last week when a friend gifted me a ton of climbing gear. “What can I give you to say thanks?” I pestered again and again as that friend shrugged my question aside.

“He likes cheesecake,” finally piped up his roommate. Oh thank goodness. Until that moment, the only thing I knew that he liked was bananas, and it would be hard (but funny) to make a giant gift basket out of just bananas.

As a lactose intolerant person, I don’t make or eat a lot of cheesecake. The last time was the formerly annual Volk/Watson Christmas Extravaganza when I’d made a triple-batch Uncle Tetsu knock-off with 12––count ’em––12 eggs.

But I do love a challenge. And I happened to have some paneer in my freezer back from testing one of those meal kit services that come with all the ingredients for a week of recipes, whether you actually like/use those ingredients or not.

Turns out there’s a host of paneer cheesecake recipes online. The Indian fresh cheese is a fair bit like ricotta, so an easy substitute for cream cheese or other. I had four eggs in the fridge, so there’d be no need for heavy cream or condensed milk or gelatin to bind it.

So I followed this recipe, swapping out the marmalade for haskap berry jam (you could use any jam) and spreading it on top during the last 15 minutes of baking instead of mixing it into the already honey-sweetened batter. I also used crushed up amaretti almond cookies for the base mixed with vegan margarine (I’d have used butter if I’d had it, though, because why not?––there were already eggs in there and the cheesecake wasn’t for me). I’d made the amaretti with cinnamon and sugar syrup for an alive magazine article I wrote. I used a tablespoon of gluten-free flour blend instead of all-purpose, just because that’s all I had.

I also made some mini cheesecake tarts on the side, so I wouldn’t have to cut a piece off the to-be-gifted version to test it. (The worst scenario would be giving a bad cheesecake to a friend, so I had a small enough sliver to not upset my stomach.)

It was delicious. Sweet and rich and just a little cheesy yet light. And completely simple (chuck most ingredients in the blender, then fold in the egg whites). I highly recommend it the next time you want to make a cheesecake.