This is a dessert recipe which takes its inspiration from the garlic ice cream found at the annual garlic festival in Gilroy, California. It calls for elephant garlic which is a different variety of garlic than is normally found in recipes. It is larger and has a much milder flavor so as not to overpower the dish.
If you're looking for a reduced fat or calorie cheesecake, you can substitute fat-free cream cheese for regular cream cheese. You can also try it with non-fat plain or vanilla yogurt instead of cream cheese, however, this produces a much softer, less creamy dessert. When choosing this option, you will also want to reduce the number of eggs you put into the filling from 3 to 1.
If you're cooking on a budget, you might want to consider buying a box of graham crackers and crushing them yourself rather than buying the pre-crushed crackers. Also, many grocery stores are now on the bulk-foods-bandwagon which you may want to keep in mind when shopping for things like sugar and flour. The price you pay per pound might be substantially less when buying these items from the bulk bins as compared to purchasing them in containers straight from the shelf. And, buying bulk has the added benefit that you can purchase exactly as much of the item as you need.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups finely crushed graham crackers
- ½ cup melted butter
- 4 eggs
- 20 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3 cloves roasted elephant garlic
- 1 TBS vanilla extract
- 1 TBS all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tsp heavy whipping cream
- dash of salt
Directions
- Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.
- Mix graham cracker crumbs, butter, and 1 egg together. Press mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine 3 eggs and cream cheese. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth.
- Blend in sugar, flour, vanilla, heavy whipping cream, salt and lemon zest to cream cheese mixture.
- In a separate bowl, puree the roasted garlic. Add the garlic to the cream cheese mixture being careful to remove any large or inedible chunks. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust.
- Bake in 500 degree oven for approximately 5 minutes.
- Reduce oven to 200 degrees F and continue baking for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and chill for at least 3 hours before serving.
Yields 12 servings.
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