Thursday, December 10, 2009

Gluten-Free Recipe: "Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake"


I really like the flavors of Orange and Chocolate combined. And, thanks to my wife's latest gluten-free recipe creation, I have a new and delicious way to enjoy this favored taste combination: the Gluten-Free "Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake"™, or "Chocolate Orange-Juice-Concentrate Cheesecake"™ (which would be more accurate)

This new cheesecake formula has moved the dessert into my "top 10 list" for now, and I have had the pleasure of enjoying two of these cakes in the past couple months - it is always good to double-test recipes before publishing (and, double-eat too!) I was hoping to share a more complimentary photo of the end-product, but my picture suffered a bit and does not really make the new cheesecake recipe look as good as it tastes; the piece cracked a bit getting it onto a plate... oh well. But, it is good enough to get the idea I hope:


I may be a bit biased about how great this Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake tastes, but I find it to be fabulous. Full of chocolate flavor, plenty smooth in texture, and a very sweet orange taste throughout too.

It reminds me a bit of a chocolate Tobler Orange (actually, I believe they changed the name of those to Terry's Chocolate Orange now - produced by Kraft foods), where chocolate combines wonderfully with the semi-pronounced taste of orange (from orange-oil). But, unlike those Terry's chocolate-oranges, this dessert does not get split into 20-segments resembling slices of an orange; in fact, if I had my way, it may only get split into 2 pieces... one for me, one for my wife :)

The recipe came about rather by accident: a lack of fresh oranges in the house made the move to frozen orange juice concentrate a move of desperation that resulted in taste sensation. In addition, it makes it much easier to make, since the need for fresh oranges has been removed. And, my wife made this recipe even easier by using standard chocolate-chips (so you do not need to worry about baker's chocolates and/or weighing chocolate). We hope you enjoy it!

Here is a link to the Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange-Juice Cheesecake Recipe on our website's recipe library. We're using an adapted crust from another one of our cheesecakes (from our cookbook), but any favorite crust should work fine. My preference for cheesecake crusts include ones featuring nut-meals, coconut, and the like. They are rather simplistic formulas, but very tasty.

And, though it should be obvious, this OJ Cheesecake is gluten-free and wheat-free, but not dairy-free. And, before anyone asks, I took the picture of the Orange a while back... it was not available for this recipe. It is actually what I believe to be a Satsuma-Mandarin-Orange that I got at Whole Foods, and I really liked how the leaves were still intact: made for a good photo.

12 comments:

Krista said...

Oh this looks so very yummy! :)

Matt said...

Looks great. A sneaky bit of Cointreau could be an awesome complement to the desert. Could even shove some in it ;p

Matt
http://suitableforcoeliacs.com/

Sea said...

This looks amazing I can't wait to try the recipe!

Unknown said...

I offer gluten free menu in my restaurant and I am always trying new recipes. This look yummy. You can not go wrong with chocolate and orange.

Rebecca said...

That looks so good.

Diana Keough said...

This looks so great, just in time for the holidays!

Griffin Hope said...

Great recipes. My siblings are gluten free and your site is so helpful. Do you know how to make gluten free blueberry cobbler?

Mike Eberhart said...

Griffin, thank you for the comments. As for cobbler, my wife makes a few different varieties just using an "ad hoc" recipe creation technique as needed. I do not think we ever published such recipe(s), though we have published a few "crisps" before - like a berry-crisp featuring blueberries.

Though the meaning of "cobbler" varies quite a bit around the world, I am guessing you could achieve some success by using a yellow-cake batter as the basis for the cobbler-batter? Just guessing. I wish I was not so busy at the moment so I could put more time into helping out with this, but the year-end business tasks are distracting me. sorry. Hope you end up developing a cobbler that suits your needs. m

Scott said...

Mike, I love this recipe, it sounds great and I'm putting it on my "to bake" list. Did it crack on you when you baked it? My regular New York style cheesecakes always get a mean nasty crack through the center that ruins the presentation, but not the flavor.

@Griffin

I'm in PA where a cobbler means a fruit and syrup base baked with a crumb topping, usually made of butter, brown sugar, and oatmeal. Here is a link to my Apple Cobbler recipe with the topping in detail:

http://www.earthtoeats.com/2010/01/apple-cobbler-with-brandied-fruit

You should be able to work something up from that. My suggestion would be that in place of the apples and spices, to combine 4-6c of blueberries, a cup of demerara sugar, 1/2c of water, and 2T of lemon juice. Bring it all to a simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes until it starts to thicken. Add to your prepared 8x8" baking pan, cover with the crumb topping, and bake for 30 minutes @350 until the topping is crunchy.

I hope that helps.

Mike Eberhart said...

Griffin,
Thanks for the cobbler info and all. As for cracking-cheesecakes... yes, they do sometimes crack, and some more than others. We've had the same recipe come our "perfect" (i.e., no cracks) and other times with some cracking. It seems there are quite a few variables in play, and I have not isolated the exact combo for always-non-cracked cheesecakes. Fact is, they taste great regardless :)

Lisa said...

Oh Wow,
I love cheesecake and that one looks really good.
Have a wonderful New Year.

Fibro Hubby said...

Interesting, my wife loves cheesecake so we'll have to try it.