Guest Libby Klein's Moscato Cheesecake Shooters, #recipe and #Giveaway

Leslie Karst here. I'm happy to welcome as a guest, Libby Klein, author of the fabulous Poppy McAllister Mysteries, and all-around fun gal and fabulous cook. Today, she tempts us with some to-die-for Cheesecake Shooters--and they're gluten free! Libby's offering one of her books to a lucky reader, so be sure to scroll down to the bottom for the GIVEAWAY! Take it away. Libby:

The past few weeks have been a challenge to find ingredients for baking. I feel like we've been given ration booklets for flour and sugar. And god help you if you want to make bread right now. There is no yeast in my county as far as the masked face can see. I had three people call me to borrow some on the same day. So I've pulled out a recipe that doesn't involve any of the usual suspects.

When I was writing Wine Tastings Are Murder, it occurred to me - much later than it should have - that the recipes should probably include wine as a main ingredient.  This Moscato Cheesecake Shooter will be featured in the back of the book, but you get a sneak peek here on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen today! 

One of the best things about this recipe is there doesn't have to be any baking. You can crush the cookies for the crumbs on the bottom of the cheesecake shooters, and use them just like that. No butter and no baking. I like the buttery crunch they add when you follow the recipe, but I don't always want to turn the oven on.

I hope you love this as much as we do!

Libby

Gluten Free Moscato Cheesecake Shooters

with Drunken Blackberries

Inspired by Cooper’s Hawk Restaurant’s Icewine cheesecake 

I used a Moscato that had notes of white grape, nectarine, orange blossom and honeysuckle

Ingredients:

For the crust:

2 cups gluten free vanilla crème sandwich cookies

3 oz melted butter *omit if you aren't baking the crumbs

For the topping:

2 cups fresh blackberries

2 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP Moscato *You can substitute any dessert wine that you like, but be sure to substitute it everywhere the recipe calls for it.

For the filling:

¼ cup Moscato – very warm

1 packet (5 grams) unflavored gelatin powder

3 8-oz packages cream cheese

1 cup orange blossom honey

½ cup Moscato

Pinch salt

½ cup melted white chocolate

½ cup heavy whipping cream

You will also need small clear cups – whether you use real glass or plastic doesn’t matter, but make sure they are clear so you can see the layers.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Crush gluten free cookies in food processor. Mix in melted butter. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Set these aside to cool.

Toss blackberries in sugar and Moscato. Cover and place in refrigerator for several hours or overnight until you are ready to serve the shooters.

Warm ¼ cup of Moscato – don’t boil it. Sprinkle on the gelatin and lightly mix it. Sit it aside and let it bloom. Heat the gelatin in the microwave for 20-30 seconds or until its dissolved and clear. Set it aside and let it cool to room temperature – but not so much that it gels.

Place cream cheese in the bowl of your stand mixer, or use a hand mixer, and beat it on medium to fluff it up. Now add your honey, ½ cup Moscato, and pinch of salt. Beat until light and fluffy. Add in your gelatin wine mixture and beat until smooth.

Chop your white chocolate into pieces and then melt it, either in the microwave or in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. 

Add your melted white chocolate to the cheese mixture. Set this aside.

In a deep bowl, beat ½ cup of heavy cream on high until stiff peaks form. When your cheesecake mixture is cool, fold in your whipped cream. 

Assembly:

Put 1-2 TBSP cookie crumbs in the bottom of your glasses. Just enough to cover the bottom. 

Fill glasses with cooled – but not set – cheesecake. Chill for at least 3 hours. Top with drunken blackberries before serving. (See photo at top.)

Libby Klein graduated Lower Cape May Regional High School sometime in the '80s. Her classes revolved mostly around the culinary sciences and theater, with the occasional nap in Chemistry. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten free goodies, and befriend random fluffy cats. She writes from her Northern Virginia office while trying to keep her cat Figaro off her keyboard. Most of her hobbies revolve around eating, and travel, and eating while traveling.  

To be released December, 2020: It's vintage Poppy McAllister when the gluten-free baker and B&B owner tries to solve a murder at a Cape May winery . . .
 
When Poppy and Aunt Ginny agreed to host a Wine and Cheese Happy Hour for a tour group at their Butterfly House Bed and Breakfast on the Jersey Shore, they never anticipated such a sour bunch. Grumpy guest Vince Baker should be in a better mood—he’s filthy rich and on his honeymoon with his much younger wife Sunny, who seems to dote on him almost as much as her high-spirited teacup Pomeranian, Tammy Faye Baker.
 
But the honeymoon is over when Vince drops dead the next day touring the Laughing Gull Winery. Turns out he's been poisoned, and it seems like everybody on the tour is hiding something. Now Poppy has to put her gluten-free baking on the back burner and bottle up her feelings for the two men in her life while she charges after a bitter killer with a lethal case of sour grapes . . . 
 
Includes Seven Recipes from Poppy’s Kitchen!  


And now for the GIVEAWAY! To be entered to win a copy of any of Libby Klein's four published Poppy McAllister Mysteries, simply answer this question in the comments below: What comfort food have you made during this time of sheltering in place? 

Be sure to leave your email address, so we can contact you. The contest will run through Monday, May 25th.