Recipe - Lemon-Ginger Cheesecake

ELAINE RADIS BGMB90B

CRUST
15 Vanilla wafers
15 Gingersnaps
3 tablespoon Sugar
1 tablespoon Lemon peel; grated
One fourth cup Unsalted butter; melted

FILLING
1 tablespoon Unflavored gelatin; plus
Three fourths teaspoon Unflavored gelatin
One fourth cup Cold water
2 Zest; from lemons
1 Fresh ginger; 1" piece peele
Three fourths cup Sugar; plus
2 tablespoon Sugar
Salt; pinch
3 Egg yolks; large
Three fourths cup Whole milk
12 ounce Cream cheese; room temp
1/3 cup Lemon juice; fresh
1 One half cup Whipping cream; chilled
1 cup Lemon curd*

CRUST: Preheat oven to 350. Position rack in center of oven. Lightly oil
9" springform pan. Finely grind all wafers and gingersnaps w/ sugar and
lemon peel in FP. Add butter and blend well. Sprinkle crumbs over bottom of
prepared pan. Press to form buttered crust.
Bake until golden brown; 12 Minutes. Cool before filling.

FILLING: Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl. Let stand 10
minutes to soften. Mince lemon peel and ginger with sugar and salt in FP
until all are as fine as sugar. Really zap it. Add yolks in FP and blend
until Light and fluffy. Scald milk in heavy sauce pan. With FP running;
add milk through feed tube and blend well. Return mixture to sauce pan.
Stir over med. to low heat until mixture thickens; about 12 min. Do NOT
BOIL. Add gelatin mixture to custard and stir until dissolved. Refectories
until thickened but not set (about 20 min), stirring often.
Blend cream cheese and lemon juice in FP until smooth. Add custard (the
stuff from the fridge) and blend until smooth. Pour into large bowl. Whip
cream in med bowl till it holds soft peaks. Gently fold into custard
filling. Pour One half of filling over crust.
Spoon One half of lemon curd by T'sponfulls over filling.
Swirl mixtures together using tip of knife. Pour remaining filling over.
Spoon remaining curd over and repeat swirl. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or
overnight. Run knife around sides of cake. Release pan. And you thought
it was easyat least you don't have to bake. This is a wonderful cake but
if you don't have a FP, forget it.... *Lemon Curd can be bought at
speciality stores or check the Gourmet section.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini