A deliciously rich chocolate-swirled Gluten-Free Macaroon Crust Cheesecake, perfect for your Passover seder or a gluten-free dessert option. So good, you’ll want to eat it year-round!
Last week, I shared a recipe for homemade chocolate dipped coconut macaroons, a classic Passover staple. And while these are totally delicious to eat on their own, this week I’m here to share a recipe using those coconut macaroons.
Passover desserts are traditionally challenging, and the end result is often bland, dense, and incredibly dry. Instead of converting something like cake to a Passover-friendly option (that never tastes as good as the original), how about sticking with desserts that are naturally Passover-friendly and totally delicious?
Gluten-free desserts are often great for this – and cheesecake is a great example! But what about that pesky crust? Often made of graham crackers or other crushed cookies, classic cheesecake options are generally not gluten-free or Passover-friendly.
Buuuut… you know where we’re going with this, right? Using our homemade coconut macaroons from last week, we can make a macaron crust cheesecake! Perfect for Passover or a year-round gluten-free dessert!
It’s always a big hit, and because it’s so rich and decadent, a little goes a long way. This beautifully swirled cheesecake can feed a crowd!
We’ll start with a macaroon crust. Obviously, I’m going to tell you to use the homemade coconut macaroons we used last week (just skip the chocolate dipping step!), but you can also use any old macaroons you purchase. Just make sure they are gluten-free (and/or Kosher for Passover, depending on your needs).
Grind them up in your food processor. Because macaroons are so moist to begin with, we don’t even need to add any butter — just press the crumbs right in the bottom of a springform pan. No need to par-bake, either, since the cheesecake will bake for so long.
There are lots of methods out there for baking cheesecakes. For this one, I use a water bath to prevent the top from cracking. After all, we’re not covering the top with chocolate or whipped cream so we can show off the marble swirl, so we want it to be pretty, right? Plus, water bath cheesecakes tend to come out far creamier because there’s no risk of drying out while baking.
So how exactly does baking a cheesecake in a water bath work? It’s time for my favorite subject… kitchen chemistry!
Kitchen Chemistry
Because cheesecake contains so much dairy, it will curdle and turn grainy when it’s cooked too quickly. Baking in water bath guarantees that the cheesecake itself will not be subjected to temperatures higher than boiling point, 212 °F, no matter how hot the oven gets, because the water will turn to steam and evaporate when it exceeds this temperature. By maintaining an even temperature around the outside of the pan, the cheesecake will cook evenly, instead of the outside cooking faster than the inside.
Here’s the best advice I can give you for this cheesecake: place the springform pan inside a slightly larger pan, and place this in the water bath. The springform pan itself won’t actually sit IN the water (rather, the heat conducts through the two pans), which means no need to worry about leaks.
Don’t have a 10″ cake pan to hold the springform pan? Then just wrap the springform pan in more layers of foil than you think you need. Two layers? Not enough. Three. Four is better! We want a leakproof seal so no water gets in and makes the crust all soggy!
Regarding the cheesecake itself, I like a simple vanilla and chocolate marble swirl. Here’s the thing with swirled cheesecakes, though. Adding chocolate to the vanilla batter means it has a really different density.
It’s hard to actually swirl. So what usually winds up happening is a layer separation — vanilla on the bottom, chocolate on top. That’s all fine and dandy, but I really wanted the flavors to mix.
So instead of dropping the chocolate batter just on the top and swirling, I did it in two layers. Half the vanilla batter, drop on spoonfuls of chocolate, and swirl. Rest of the vanilla batter, the rest of the chocolate, and swirl again.
It means that each bite has multiple layers of swirl in there.
Rich swirls of chocolate and vanilla. Coconut (or chocolate coconut!) macaroon crust. Whether you celebrate Passover or are just looking for a gluten-free crust alternative, this macaroon crust cheesecake is sure to be a hit!
Rich chocolate swirled macaroon crust cheesecake, perfect for your Passover seder or a gluten-free dessert option.
Cheesecake can be made ahead and frozen. Once chilled, wrap in several layers of plastic wrap, followed by aluminum foil. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
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