Daring Bakers April Challenge: Orange and Gingerbread Biscotti Cuz it Makes You Feel Good Cheesecakelettes

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted.  In my defense, this has been one of the worst years ever.  And one of the best years ever.  Both the good and the bad have consumed me in different ways.   This month is a particularly bad month, and when I have a bad month I tend to eat and my food of choice is:

I swiped this photo from their website but only because Oh. My. I love their products.  If you see this logo stop and buy some right away.  It doesn't really matter what kind, its all good.   Whether it is the Tahitian Vanilla or the Pistachio or the Rose Petal Champagne Sorbetto I am hooked on Ciao Bella Gelato.  This month I discovered the Maple Ginger Snap and thought it was the best thing ever.  Sigh.  As I said it has been a bad year.

Anyway, when I heard that the Daring Bakers were going to make cheesecake this month, I thought it would be great to pay homage to my new favourite flavour combination.  Starbucks was having a clearance on their White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Gingerbread Biscotti left over from Christmas (I know,  know but of course I waited until the very last moment to do this so I had to work with what was available!) so I used that for the crust instead of traditional graham or shortbread.  I pressed them into muffin tins lined with silver baking cups to make cakelettes instead of a cake.  But when it came time to make the cheesecake batter, I realised there as no maple syrup or flavouring to be had at my house.  Not a drop.  We who usually have three open bottles had nothing.  So I improvised.  Instead of maple I added Triple Sec for a nice orange flavour, and also topped the cheesecake with a lovely orange sauce before crumbling more biscotti on top.
 

I must say it was tasty enough to make me forget about the Maple Ginger Snap Gelato that inspired my original recipe.  Well, almost.

The original recipe can be found here.  The cakelettes only took about 30 minutes to bake rather than the usual 50 minutes.

The orange sauce is super easy but very sweet.  I would adjust the amount of sugar down next time.

3 T granulated sugar

4 tsp corn starch

2/3c fresh orange juice

3 T Triple Sec

Stir over high heat until boiling.  Set aside to cool before spooning over your cheesecakelette.

Thank you Jenny for a tasty and fun challenge!  Check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see all the amazing creations.