Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Banana Cream Cheesecake Gluten-Free Recipe


I was looking at some lonely bananas sitting on my counter and thought they didn't deserve to go, yet again, into a gluten-free banana bread. 




What could I do with them? I had plenty for my morning cereal for a couple of days. I couldn't just toss them. And I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie.

You all know that I love cheesecake. It's one of my favorite things in the world. I could eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner. My grandmother gave me a fabulous recipe, one that I've shared on MLK before. I often add things like caramel or chocolate chips to it. I even made a pineapple upside-down cheesecake from a recipe I tweaked (Tommy Bahama's). But bananas?

Well, I searched the Internet for one and found a Cheesecake Factory recipe that sounded good. I couldn't eat it, as is, because I need to eat gluten-free, so I tweaked and played, and came up with this. [I prefer adding a little ricotta cheese to all my cheesecake recipes because there's just a different texture that comes through in the baking.]

I hope you enjoy.


BANANA CREAM CHEESECAKE 
GLUTEN-FREE

Ingredients:

14 large gluten-free ginger cookies
¼ cup margarine, melted
12 oz cream cheese  (1.5 cups)
12 oz ricotta cheese (1.5 cups)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp. rice flour
3 eggs
¾ cup mashed bananas (about 2, very ripe)
½ cup whipping cream
2 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract (or vanillin)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Smash cookies in a plastic (Such fun to do this!)

Melt butter. Pour into the bag with then cookies. Mush together. (This is the official term.)
Line a 10" springform pan with wax paper or parchment (cut in a circle to fit). Press crumb mixture onto bottom of 10" springform pan; refrigerate.





I prefer a dump method. 


Put cream cheese and ricotta cheese in large bowl. Add sugar, rice flour, eggs, and bananas [make sure you use very ripe bananas]. Add the cream and vanillin. Mix with electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Pour cream cheese mixture into springform pan. 





Place pan on cookie sheet and bake 15 minutes.

VERY IMPORTANT!  Reduce oven temperature to 200°F and continue baking 75 minutes or until center is set. 

REMOVE from oven and set on wire rack. Loosen the edge of the cheesecake with a hot knife. Cool completely then refrigerate cheesecake, uncovered, 6 hours or overnight.

Serve with whipped cream and freshly sliced bananas.



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13 comments:

  1. Who doesn't love cheesecake? I never thought about a banana cheesecake. Sounds absolutely delish!

    ~ Krista

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  2. Krista, glad you like. Guess what I'm having right now? Yup. Breakfast...more cake. Yay. When you make this and there aren't a lot of people...I had my stepson and his bride and they eat small pieces, there's leftovers. Oh, yay. Can you tell I'm pumped? LOL

    [Understand, there are three food groups here. Dairy, fruit, and grain. Perfect for breakfast, no?]

    ~Avery

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  3. It sounds really yummy!! And cheesecake for breakfast is my favorite. Lucky girl!

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  4. I happen to love banana cream pie so this sounds delish! to make it with gluten, would you substitute regular ginger cookies and flour?

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  5. With gluten, Lucy, I'd use real ginger (or sugar) cookies and real flour, yep. And real vanilla.

    So glad everyone is enjoying.

    So do you all know how to "share" a picture on Facebook? If you have FB, and you have "liked" me, you can click the "share" button below the picture that I put up this morning of the cheesecake, and share the picture with whomever is your friend, fan, etc. I'd love if you'd try that. :) A "kitchen" experiment, if you will.

    ~Avery

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  6. Banana inspiration + author of the Cheese Shop Mysteries = banana cream cheesecake! Love how that adds up! This looks delicious, Avery. Thanks for sharing. :)

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    Replies
    1. Cleo, yes, inspiration is what it takes, right? Poor lonely bananas! LOL Gobble, gobble.

      ~Avery

      Delete
  7. This sounds so good! I love Banana and love!! cheesecake!
    Thanks for sharing.

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    Replies
    1. Melissa, thanks. Yes, the two seemed a perfect match. What really happened is my husband said why don't you make a banana cream pie, one of his favorites, and then cheese came to mind. (Cheese always comes to my mind! Ha-ha)

      ~Avery

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  8. I love the cream cheese-ricotta combo for cheesecake--another great version is with rum-soaked raisins. :) I may have to go buy more bananas...!

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  9. Rum soaked raisins. Oh, doesn't that sound delish! Thanks, EF!

    ~Avery

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  10. I love cheesecake. Here's another one for the making. Time to write the ingredients on my shopping list. :)

    ReplyDelete