Wednesday, December 23, 2015

No Bake Cheesecake Cookie Tree

INGREDIENTS:

  • Biscoff Cookies (Speculoos Cookies)
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 envelopes gelatin
  • 5 tablespoons water
  • 8 large egg yolks
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 3/4 cup Dixie Crystals Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
  • 2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Optional: Holiday candies

DIRECTIONS:
  1. Prepare Speculoos dough and place in refrigerator.
  2. Lightly oil 10 x 15-inch jelly roll pan. Press plastic food wrap onto bottom and sides of pan and set aside.
  3. In a cold bowl whisk heavy cream to soft, mousse-like consistency. It is very important not to whip until it forms a peak. Set aside in refrigerator.
  4. In a small bowl combine gelatin with 5 tablespoons water and set aside.
  5. Select a saucepan and bowl which fit well together and where bowl does not hang over saucepan. Fill  saucepan with one inch of water and bring to boil, turn to a low simmer.  In a bowl whisk together egg yolks and water. Add sugar and whisk well. Place the bowl over simmering water and whisk constantly until yolk mixture reaches 165°F. Remove from heat as at this temperature egg yolks are safe to eat.
  6. Add gelatin mixture and whisk until dissolved.
  7. Add cream cheese and vanilla extract and whisk smooth and until all lumps are gone.
  8. Add soft whipped heavy cream and gently fold into above using a spatula.
  9. Pour mixture into prepared pan and place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  10. Meanwhile roll Speculoos cookie dough as described in recipe. Cut star shapes and bake as described. Allow to cool.
  11. Using the same star cookie cutters, cut cheesecake to obtain as many stars as possible.
  12. Place cheesecake onto prebaked star cookies and stack into a tree form.
  13. Decorate with candies and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

DIXIE CRYSTALS INSIGHT

NOTE: To create the tree, choose star-shaped cookie cutters that scale down in size. We used 6 different sized cookie cutters. You can stack as many as 8 or as few as 4, depending on the size of cutter.

This recipe also works well with round, flower or hexagon shaped cookie cutters.