Gluten Free Banana Cheesecake

I first envisioned this cake on my friend Erika's birthday. I adore cheesecake in general but have been seeking out new flavor profiles. I am a huge lover of citrus so of course I gravitate toward flavors like key lime. I had no idea how wonderfully banana cheesecake would be and its immediately become a favorite of many of my friends.

This is not your typical dense cheesecake and I learned a wonderful trick from a cashier at the Smart and Final that with solve that horrid problem of cracking cheesecake. The use of condensed milk in the recipe makes it a nearly fool proof recipe as well as needing little additional sugar.

Gluten Free Banana Cheesecake

• 2 eggs
• 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (8 oz) package full fat cream cheese
• 1/8 cup cane sugar
• 4 ripe bananas
• 4 Tablespoons corn starch
• 2 cups gluten free Trader Joes' Ginger Snaps
• 3 Tablespoons soft butter
• 1 cup almonds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Prepare gluten free cheesecake crust by dumping 2 cups of gluten free Trader Joes' Ginger Snap cookies in your food processor and blending till crumb texture has been met. Add 1 cup of whole raw almonds. Pulse till almonds are ground into cookie crumble and add 3 tablespoons soft butter. Alternately if you can not get to a Trader Joes easily you can make a plain almond crust with ground almonds, cane sugar, butter and a few tablespoons of water till a moist crumb texture has been found. You can season the almonds as well with various spices like ground dry ginger or cinnamon.

3. Place crust crumble into the bottum of spring form pan. Press gently into place. 

4. Clean food processor and combine cream cheese, ripe peels bananas, sugar, cream cheese, corn starch and condensed sweetened milk. Blend till completely smooth and combined. 

5. Pour cheesecake filling on top of crust and bake in oven for 30 minutes or until just set across the entirety of the cake.

6. Cool on counter top for an hour, loosen with a knife and then pop off spring form ring.

7. Chill in the fridge. Serve with homemade sweetened whipped cream. I like to use whiskey in my whipped cream in place of vanilla extract for this particular recipe. 

Of course once chilled this dessert can be served the same day but I have found that waiting one allows the banana flavor to fully ripen in the cake. Its also important that you use fully ripe bananas as they will provide for the sweetest and strongest flavor. 

Enjoy! xoxo - Iris