Speculoos Cheesecake
Cheesecakeis a sweet dessert consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest, layer consists of a mixture of a soft, , usually cheese cream, eggs, and sugar. If there is a bottom layer, it most often consists of a crust or base made from crushed digestive biscuits or graham crackers and the cheesecake may be baked or unbaked which is usually refrigerated.Cheesecake is a very popular dessert nowadays and many people believe that it have its origins from New York, but actually, that’s not true. Let’s go back 4000 years to see how cheesecake was really created. The earliest attested mention of a cheesecake is by the Greek physician Aegimus (5th century BCE), who wrote abook on the art of making cheesecakes. The name for this type of cake (derivedfrom the Greek term) became “placenta.” Placenta was more like a cheesecake, baked on a pastry base, or sometimes inside a pastry caseWhen the Romans conquered Greece, the cheesecake recipe was just one spoil of war. They modified it including crushed cheese and eggs. These ingredients were baked under a hot brick and it was served warm. Occasionally, the Romans would put the cheese filling in a pastry. The Romans called their cheese cake “libuma” and they served it on special occasions. Marcus Cato, a Roman politician in the first century B.C., is credited as recording the oldest known Roman cheesecake recipe. In Greece, cheesecake was considered to be a good source of energy, and there is evidence that it was served to athletes during the first Olympic games in 776 B.C.As the Romans expanded their empire, they brought cheesecake recipes to the Europeans. Great Britain and Eastern Europe began experimenting with ways to put their own unique spin on cheesecake. In each country of Europe, the recipes started taking on different cultural shapes, using ingredients native to each region.By the 1900s, New Yorkers were in love with this dessert. Every restaurant had its own version of cheesecake on their menu. Even though he is best known for his signature sandwiches, Arnold Reuben (1883-1970) is generally credited for creating the New York Style cheesecake. Reuben was born in Germany and he came to America when he was young. The story goes that Reuben was invited to a dinner party where the hostess served a cheese pie. Allegedly, he was so intrigued by this dish that he experimented with the recipe until he came up with the beloved NY Style cheesecake. Arnold Reuben, owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49thand Broadway in New York City, claimed that his family developed the first cream-cheese cake recipe. Traditionally, the ingredients entering the preparation of a classic New York-style cheesecake are cream cheese, sugar, cornstarch or flour, eggs, double cream, lemon zest and vanilla, with a crust made of crushed crackers or digestive biscuits, sugar and melted butter. While the flavour is quite plain, fruit coulis or jelly was often served alongside the cake.There is no secret cheesecake is my favourite dessert ever. I love to try new recipe and every time when I make this dessert I use my imagination and make a different recipe of cheesecake. Winter is coming so I try to make recipes for winter days. One of these recipe is speucloos cheesecake. Speculoos is a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before St Nicholas' day in theNetherlands (5 December), Belgium, Luxembourg (6 December), and around Christmas in Germany and Austria. Speculooss are thin, very crunchy, caramelized, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure (often from the traditional stories about St. Nicholas) stamped on the front side before baking. I used speculoos spread and biscuits to make a delicious and quick cheesecake. You need just a few ingredients and 15 minutes to make speculoos cheesecake which is one of the best dessert for Christmas.
Ingredients
- 300 g speculoos biscuits
- 180 g butter
- 600 g cream cheese
- 300 g speculoos spread
- 50 g powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt the butter and let it cool. Chop the biscuits and mix it with the melted butter. Add the composition in a tray and let it in the fridge until the cheese cream is ready.
- Mix the cream cheese with sugar until the sugar is melted. Add the speculoos spread, vanilla extract and mix until you get a homogenous composition.
- Add the cream over the biscuits layer and let it cool for about 2 hours. You can decorate the cheesecake with whatever you like.