Recipe

Celebration Cheesecake, Dear America Style

A LADA-friendly, low-glycemic, keto, vegetarian, gluten-free recipe for celebrating good news.

I’m celebrating my Letter to America appearing today at terrain.org. Terrain’s Dear America series features authors I revere—like Jericho Brown, KD Moore, Ana Maria Spagna, Naomi Shihab Nye, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Linda Hogan, Joe Wilkins, Jane Hirshfield, Gary Soto and Scott Russell Sanders—along with fabulous rising authors I’ve been delighted to discover.

Dear America, the hardbound collection, opens with a quote by Joan Baez: Action is the antidote to despair. Well said. And as true for diabetes as for anything else.

My healthylada website is about taking action… and it’s also about finding joy.

I’ll offer lots of ideas for action as we go, but first: will you join me, and dear America, for a cuppa and cake?

Here’s my son’s favorite version of his favorite kind of cake: I made it last month for his 21st birthday. (How he celebrated 21 later that night with friends, I didn’t ask.)

This lemony cheesecake is vegetarian, keto, and can be gluten-free. I top it with fresh berries and squiggles of melted dark chocolate. I learned to make cheesecake from my Dad—he and Mom just celebrated their 63rd anniversary. Thanks Dad!

Dad used to use a spring-form, but I find a ten-inch deep-dish pie pan works just as well.

As long as you don’t let it lump, this recipe is easy!

  • Makes one ten-inch cheesecake.
  • Soften the cream cheese (leave it out of the fridge) for several hours or overnight.
  • Crush the grahams. (I use a rounded-bottomed glass or jam jar.)
  • Preheat oven to 350 F.

Crust

  • 4 graham crackers (gluten-free if desired)
  • 2 T butter

Cake:

  • 3 8-oz pkgs organic cream cheese
  • ½ C sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 1 T orange extract

Topping:

  • 8 oz sour cream
  • 2 T freshly-squeezed lemon
  • 3 T sugar
  • ½ t culinary ginger extract (optional, but recommended!)

Grease the pan thoroughly with butter, pour in crushed grahams, and rotate the pan until bottom and all sides are well-coated. This will form a light, delicious crust.

Put softened cream cheese into a large mixing bowl. Cream in sugar with a big wooden spoon. One by one, beat in eggs with an electric beater. (One by one is to prevent lumps.) Add remaining cake ingredients, and keep beating with electric beaters for at least five minutes (if you still see a lump, keep on beating! Air bubbles are fine ‘tho), letting batter becomes super-smooth and aerated.

Pour into crust. Bake until not runny, but not dried out: 25-30 minutes. It’s done when the edge rises and, when you jiggle the pan gently, the center doesn’t jiggle like liquid or jello, but just barely wiggles.

Set the cake aside to cool, and stir together all topping ingredients. When the cake has cooled at least a half hour but is still warm, gently smooth topping onto warm cake.

Cool on the counter until pan is comfortable to the touch, then chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours. (This recipe can also been made the day before and refrigerated overnight.)

Before serving, decorate: perhaps with fresh berries, mint leaves, and a squiggle of melted chocolate.