Eggnog Cheesecake Squares

Posted December 07, 2009

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Eggnog. Cheesecake. Ginger-snap crust. What more do you really need to know?

Stomping is a fun way to smash the ginger-snaps.

Although a rolling pin is actually more effective.

A jar of whole nutmeg and a little grater would make a lovely stocking stuffer. Freshly grated nutmeg is so delightful.

If you believe in Satan, then I assume you think that eggnog is his work.

It's just not Christmas until my children are pouring from gigantic bottles of hard alcohol.

Here's the cheesecake lounging in its water bath.

And after baking, before its final dusting with nutmeg.

We couldn't wait and had our first tastes before it was fully chilled. I say: wait. It was a little oozy then, but later was nice and firm.

I'm driving home late at night, and all of a sudden the moon lurches up right in front of me, so huge and close that it looks like a broken white Frisbee on the windshield. It's a shape I don't recognize--like cookie with a large piece haphazardly bitten off. And I'm already melancholy, but something about this low-slung, misshapen moon is kind of breaking my heart.

A friend of mine, recently hospitalized with a critical illness, was asked by a physical therapist whether he was a glass-half-full person or a glass-half-empty one and he responded, "I'm a cheerful pessimist." Which is so exactly me too that it made me understand why it is that we're friends. I expect the worst but make the best of it. "It's actually good," I say to Michael when we hit dry spells in our work. "Having less money makes it easier for us to live close to our values!" When the kids are sick, I always say, "Well, at least I get to keep you home and play hooky!" I am making a lot of lemonade right now, if you catch my drift.

Like our spa weekend, for example! Oh it was so old-fashioned and romantic, to sit in front of the fire running through each other's hair with a metal-toothed comb while Frank Sinatra crooned "White Christmas" in the background. I made eggnog cheesecake so that we'd have something rich and festive to snack on in while I massaged everybody's scalps with olive oil. The snow drifted down so pretty and pure while I scrubbed everybody's hair in the sink with fragrant dish soap, smiled down into the bright brown eyes of my children and partner. A friend wrote from across the street to say that our Christmas lights looked so lovely and I wrote back, "Did you or didn't you see us through the window with saran wrap on our heads? Did you or did you not see me picking through the kids' hair like a mama gorilla?" She swore she hadn't. All four of us sat on the couch under a blanket to watch the short video "Head Lice to Dead Lice," which prompted no end of joking. "So wait," Ben said. "Do or don't trade hats at school? I can't remember." After all the oiling and the cleaning and the combing and the rinsing, everybody's hair dried in gorgeous, shining waves, and Ben scowled at himself in the mirror before announcing, "Maybe I'll actually get a haircut now. I kind of look like a queen, which is weird."

But I am thinking, too, about when I worked in San Francisco in a residential treatment center for kids who'd been severely abused. A child came to us once with a plastic hefty bag taped to his head, his scalp beneath covered in lesions and lice; the bag had been taped to him for over a month. It seemed so monstrous at the time. I mean, it was monstrous, of course--to do such a thing to a child, a beautiful child who was, then, the same age Birdy is now. But only now do I understand. Lice, without a comfortable home, adequate resources, patient kids, a supportive partner, flexible work, a washing machine and dryer? It would be a nightmare. It could be the very last straw. The lice will doubtless come back and I will doubtless see the silver shining everywhere, but that's only because I am lucky. I get it, I do. Lucky and also very itchy.

This moon--it's not exactly half full. It's strange and stirring. It is grief and loss, memory and joy, gratitude and sorrow and an opportunity for understanding at every turn.

Eggnog Cheesecake Squares
Makes 16
Active time: 20 minutes; total time: 1 hour

This is a adaptation of a recipe that was in Martha Stewart Living this month. I stole the ginger-snap crust from another old recipe of mine because ginger snaps are so much, well, snappier than graham crackers, if you ask me. Also, we substituted Jack Daniels for brandy because it's what we had. These are rich and delicious and perfectly holidayish.

1 1/2 cups finely smashed ginger snaps (this is a 10-ounce bag minus ten snaps)
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 a stick of butter, melted
1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
3/4 cup eggnog
1 heaping tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon brandy (or Jack Daniels)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (or half as much table salt)

Heat the oven to 350. Coat a 9-inch square baking pan with cooking spray (or butter it). Stir together the ginger snap crumbs, 3 tablespoons of the sugar, and the melted butter. Press this mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake 12 minutes and let it cool while you finish with the rest of the filling.

Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese with the remaining sugar in a mixer on medium speed until fluffy about 2 minutes. Add beat in the eggs one at a time, then the yolk, eggnog, flour, liquor, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt; beat until smooth, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure there's no lurking cream cheese. Pour the filling over the crust, then set the pan in a roasting pan, and add enough boiling water to come halfway up sides of baking pan.

Bake until just set, about 45 minutes. Remove the baking pan from water bath and transfer it to a wire rack. Let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. Use a very sharp knife to cut it into 16 squares, then dust with more nutmeg before serving.

Get a printable version of this recipe.

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Eggnog Cheesecake Squares

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by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Eggnog Cheesecake Squares

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