Full Everyday Recipes

———————————–CRUST———————————–
7 oz Amaretti (see note)

2 T Granulated sugar

5 T Sweet butter

1 oz Chocolate, unsweetened

-(1 square)
———————————-FILLING———————————-
6 oz Chocolate, semisweet

7 oz Amaretti

4 oz Almond paste

1/3 c Amaretto liqueur

1/4 c Sugar, granulated

1 1/2 lb Cream cheese

-(room temperature) 4 lg Eggs

1/2 c Heavy cream

MAKE CRUST: Butter the sides only (not the bottom) of a 9-inch
spring-form pan (about 2 1/2 to 3 inches deep).
Grind the Amaretti
very fine in a food processor or blender.
Mix with sugar in a
mixing bowl.
Melt the chocolate and butter in the top of a double
boiler, stirring occasionally.
Add the melted mixture to the
Amaretti crumbs and sugar and mix thoroughly.
(Don’t wash the
double boiler; you’ll be using it again in a minute.) Turn the
mixture into the prepared pan.
With your fingers, distribute it
evenly over the bottom and press it down into a very firm, compact
layer.
Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.
MAKE FILLING:
Adjust rack 1/3 up from the bottom of the oven and preheat to 350
degrees F.
Partially melt chocolate in the top of a double boiler,
then uncover and stir until completely melted.
Remove the top of
the double boiler and set aside to cool.
Break the Amaretti
coarsely into a bowl and set aside.
Cut the almond paste into small
pieces, and beat on low speed with an electric mixer, while
gradually adding the Amaretto liqueur.
Beat until thoroughly mixed
and set aside.
Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer until
smooth.
Add the sugar and beat until smooth again.
Add the almond
paste-Amaretto mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed.
Add the
melted chocolate and beat well again.
Add the eggs one at a time,
beating at low speed until they are incorporated after each
addition.
Add the heavy cream and beat until smooth.
Add the
coarsely broken Amaretti and stir gently only to mix.
Turn into the
prepared pan, pouring the mixture over the bottom crust.
Rotate the
pan gently to level the batter.
(Don’t worry if the mixture comes
almost to the top; it won’t run over.) Bake 45 minutes.
It will
seem soft and not done, but don’t bake any more; it will become
firm when chilled.
The top of the cake is supposed to look bumpy
because of the large chunks of Amaretti.
Let cool completely at
room temperature, then carefully remove the sides of the pan and
refrigerate the cake (still on the bottom of the pan) for 4 to 6
hours, or overnight.
NOTES: * This is adapted from Maida Heatter’s
“Book of Great Chocolate Desserts,” (Knopf 1980).
It won me a blue
ribbon at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Exhibition and Fair in
1983.
If you ever find yourself in front of a firing squad, this
makes an unbeatable last request.
* Amaretti are Italian
almond-flavored wafer cookies.
They are usually sold in metal tins
with the wafers wrapped in packages of two inside the tin.
You can
also buy Amarettini, which are the same flavor but much smaller and
not individually wrapped.
Since you’re going to grind some of the
wafers and break the others into chunks, it doesn’t matter which
size you start with.
One brand is Amaretti di Saronna, Lazzaroni
& Co.
* This is an expensive cake, both in terms of the cost of
the ingredients ($15-$20) and the number of calories.
: Difficulty:
moderate to hard.
: Time: 30 minutes preparation, 45 minutes
baking, overnight cooling.
: Precision: measure ingredients
carefully.
: Jan Wolitzky : AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray
Hill, New Jersey, USA : ihnp4!mhuxd!wolit : Copyright (C) 1986
USENET Community Trust

1 1/2 pk GRAHAM CRACKERS, crushed

1/3 c SUGAR

6 tb BUTTER, melted

Mix and pat into bottom and -up sides of 10″ springform -pan.
CAKE 2 Envelopes KNOX GELATIN

3/4 c WATER

2 lb CREAM CHEESE, unwrapped and

-warmed in Microwave 2 minutes on high 1 1/2 c SUGAR

1 (5 oz.) can EVAPORATED MILK

1 1/2 ts LEMON JUICE

1/2 c AMARETTO

1 ts VANILLA

1 c WHIPPING CREAM, whipped

** CRUST