Carrot Cheesecake!

I love cheesecake, and it's one of those things you you can make without searching for a recipe or trying really hard, which makes it great for an impulsive dessert. It's also a really easy dessert to customize. This week I was craving carrot cake with cream cheese icing, but that would require a recipe and I'd get flour all over the place and really I was just too lazy for all that. Thus the carrot cheesecake was born.

Graham Cracker Crust

• Graham crackers (um.... I forgot to count. Let's say 12-ish)
• Cold, unsalted butter (yeah, failed to measure this one too. I'll call it 3 Tbsp. Ish.)
• 2 Tbsp. sugar. Or so.

Place all ingredients into a food processor and obliterate until it looks crusty. There should be enough butter so that it holds together when pressed, and enough grahams to cover the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan. You can't really mess this up, so just adjust as you go. Note that a lot of crust recipes require you to melt the butter first, but what happens when you add a liquid to a graham? You get mud. I dunno bout you, but I'm not a fan of mudcrust.

Press the crust into the bottom of your pan and bake at 350 for about 7 minutes. Set to cool while you do the rest.

Carrot Filling

• 2 cups shredded carrots (about 4 carrots worth)
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2-3 pieces candied ginger, minced (about 1Tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp each fresh grated nutmeg and ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground clove
• Tiny pinch salt

Place all ingredients in a 1-quart pot and simmer over low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until all juice is absorbed/evaporated and carrots are no longer crunchy. If the liquid boils away before the carrots are done, add more 1/2 cup at a time. Adjust the spices to taste, then set aside to cool.

Cheesecake Base

• 2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese at room temperature
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces

 In a large bowl, blend the cream cheese until thoroughly soft. Add the eggs, sugar, vanilla and blend on low speed. Add the carrot mixture and the nuts and blend to combine. Pour the batter onto the crust then bake for about 35 minutes or until all but the center-most 2-inches is firm.

Note: contrary to many other theories going around, cracking is caused by overcooking. Since the cake cools from the outside in, and since it holds heat for a long time, cooking it until the middle is just underdone will allow the cake to coast to a perfect finish.

But then again if it does crack, just eat that one all yourself and make another one to show off to others :)