Christmas spiced cheesecake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 80 g butter, melted
• 200 g speculatius, ground
• 1 pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• 150 g sugar, brown or cane sugar
• 50 ml maple syrup
• 800 g cream cheese
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• ½ tsp allspice powder
• ½ tsp cardamom powder
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp rum
• 1 lemon(s), organic
• e.g. plum jam, cranberries, pomegranate syrup or orange syrup

Instructions

Working time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 20 minutes

Christmas cheesecake

For the base: Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Finely crumble the speculatius biscuits in a plastic bag using a rolling pin or chop them finely in a food processor. Mix the crumbs with the butter and a pinch of salt. Line the base of a 26 cm springform pan with baking paper and spread the speculatius-butter mixture onto it, pressing it down with a tablespoon. For the filling: Beat the eggs, sugar, and maple syrup until frothy. Stir in the cream cheese, spices, grated lemon zest, 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and rum. Pour into the prepared dough in the pan. Bake in a preheated oven at 180-200°C (top/bottom heat) on the middle rack for at least 60-70 minutes (do the skewer test and check your oven’s behavior). Once the cheesecake is out of the oven, let it cool for two to three minutes and then immediately loosen the edges of the springform pan using the back of a knife. This will relieve tension in the surface, and with a bit of luck, it won’t crack as it cools. Topping (optional): For example, mix plum jam with ground cardamom, or cranberry jelly with cinnamon. Other variations: pomegranate syrup, orange syrup, and dates…