I don’t mean to brag, but I bake delicious cheesecakes. And they’re gluten-free. Not gonna lie, it’s more because I’m lazy than out of consideration for my friends who don’t eat wheat/gluten.
Who wants to crush biscuits into a crumb base when you can just use almond meal? I also like that my bases aren’t sweet, so they offset the cake itself nicely. You can add sugar to the butter/almond meal base if you want though, or other flavourings to compliment the filling. Vanilla is usually delightful.
A “rustic” slice of vanilla cinnamon gluten free cheesecake
Basic gluten-free cheesecake recipe (plus variations)
Ingredients
3 eggs
500g cream cheese
¾ cup caster sugar
Pinch of salt
100g butter, melted
2 cups almond meal
Flavour options as per Variations
Method
Preheat oven to 145°C fan forced (160°C if not fan forced).
Line a cake tin (approx 20cm round/square).
Mix the melted butter with the almond meal. Adjust quantities until it’s the texture of wet sand.
Press the almond sand into the lined cake tin. Using nitrile gloves stops it sticking to your hands.
Refrigerate base while you do the rest.
Microwave the cream cheese for a minute to make it easier to mix/beat.
Mix the sugar with the cream cheese until smooth (ie until you can whisk it)
Add eggs and whisk until smooth. It might be easier if you do them one at a time, but I never bother.
Add flavour options (see Variations) and whisk until evenly distributed.
Pour filling over base and bake for 1 hour.
Let cool in the oven for 30 minutes (fan on to assist cooling, or door ajar if fan cooling isn’t an option).
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Variations
Vanilla cinnamon
1½ tbsp vanilla paste
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Lemon
Juice and zest of 1 small-medium lemon
Raspberry
2 tbsp Raspberry jam, heated and thinned with 1 tsp lemon juice; swirl through the batter just before you pour it into the cake pan.
Serve with fresh raspberries and marscapone.
Salted caramel
Swap the caster sugar for dark brown sugar
Add an extra 1 tsp salt (on top of the pinch)
Top with caramel sauce and sprinkle with fancy salt crystals (or fancy looking sugar works well too)
Serve with marscapone to cut through the richness