This recipe is dedicated to all my GAPS mamas out there who will have these ingredients on hand because that's how you roll.
You guys are freaking legends.
You deserve a gut-healing cheesecake :-)
So I was on the HUNT for a GAPS cheesecake recipe, but I couldn't find one. I found vegan, I found dairy-free Paleo, but since GAPS lets you have fermented dairy, I wanted to have the real thing! So anyway, I found a standard cheesecake recipe, crow-barred my lovely homemade yoghurt and sour cream into it, as well as my standard 3-2-1 almond base, and without sounding too full of myself....oh what the hell, I'm a FREAKING GENIUS moo hahaha!
OK in the interest of full disclosure, my first attempt at the filling flopped because the sour cream split, but the kids still loved it so they have been eating split cheesecake filling for dessert every night since... Don't judge me, raw sour cream is expensive stuff, and it's probiotic. I wasn't about to throw it in the bin. So I threw it in my kids instead.
This recipe is DELICIOUS, but it requires a bit of pre-cooking. You need to have made a batch of yoghurt and sour cream first, and you need to drip the yoghurt, all of which take time. See the * below if you are not on GAPS, so don't want the fuss of making your own yoghurt, but still want a gut-healthy cheesecake.
GAPS Lemon Cultured Cheesecake
Ingredients:
Base (makes double):
3 cups almond meal
2 large eggs
1 T ghee/ coconut oil
1 T honey
½ t unrefined salt
Filling:
1 litre homemade yoghurt*
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 T grass-fed Gelatin (I use Great Lakes red can)
1 cup homemade sour cream*
*If you are on GAPS, this needs to be your 24 hour fermented homemade yoghurt and sour cream, to ensure that there is no lactose and casein in the dairy which will feed the pathogens and inflame the gut.
If you are NOT on GAPS, and are eating dairy, then I recommend using an Organic Greek yoghurt and sour cream with NO added ingredients.
For instructions on how to make your own yoghurt and sour cream, see here:
Instructions:
Drip the yoghurt through a nut milk bag for six hours until the yoghurt is more like a ball of cheese. The whey can be frozen into ice cubes to be used at a later date as a starter for fermenting vegetables, or add a tablespoon into your children’s food/ drinks/ broth for a probiotic punch.
BASE:
Turn the oven onto 165C/ 330F.
Put all the BASE ingredients into a blender and blend on medium speed until doughy (Thermomix speed 4, 30 seconds).
Tip it out of the blender bowl onto baking paper. Roll it into a tight ball in your hands, then split the mixture in two. (Wrap one half in cling wrap and keep it in the fridge. This can be made into a pizza base, almond crackers, a pie pastry lid, or the base of another desert. You can even add dried ginger and cinnamon to the mix and make cut out cookies.)
Place the other half of the mixture into a pie dish, and using your palms and knuckles, press it down until it covers the bottom and sides of the dish in a thin layer.
Place this in the oven to blind bake for 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.
Leave it on the bench-top to cool.
FILLING:
Remove the yoghurt cheese from the straining bag, and put it into a food processor/blender along with ¼ cup honey and lemon zest. Blend on a medium speed until nice and creamy (Thermomix speed 3, 30 seconds).
Put the lemon juice and remaining ¼ cup of honey into a milk pan on the stove, stir it together, and then add the gelatin, sprinkling it over the liquid. Once its absorbed into the liquid, you can turn the heat on low. Gently whisk the mixture to get rid of any gelatin lumps, and to help the gelatin to disintegrate. Don’t let the mixture boil. Once the gelatin is mixed in, remove from the heat. It should only take a couple of minutes.
Turn the blender back on to its lowest speed and gently pour the gelatin honey lemon mix into the mixture until it is incorporated. It is important to keep a close eye on the mixture to ensure it has not split.
Remove the mixture from the blender into a bowl, and gently fold the sour cream through the mixture with a spatula or wooden spoon until fully incorporated.
Pour this mixture into the cooled almond base, and place into the fridge for an hour until set.
Demolish.
