In an attempt to finish off last year’s Christmas dishes (XMAS 23) before this year’s Christmas gets here, here’s 16-22: Apricot Swirl Cheesecake. Probably more of a summer recipe, but whatever, cheesecake is good any time of year. I made this together with 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake, because you need both a chocolate dessert AND a fruit dessert.
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Fun fact: this may look okay-ish in the picture, but trust me, this does not go well. Jump behind the cut for the details (and mistakes).
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Following instructions is IMPORTANT, y’all. Read this through, then again. Make sure you understand what goes where, when…because apparently I struggled with that.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/22/IMG_0907.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
Ingredients. I’m using almond flour instead of grinding my own almonds–you can read more about the differences between almond flour and almond meal here. Lactose-free cream cheese and dairy-free whipping cream for various reasons, but trust me on at least that part. Lemon isn’t pictured, but I have one.
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Dusted a greased springform pan with the almond flour.
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Cooking the dried apricots. Or essentially, rehydrating them. So far, so good.
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My thinking at the time was that it’s easier to get stuff out of the food processor as opposed to the blender, so I went with the food processor.
However–here’s where the mistakes begin, and my choice of appliance is far from the most egregious mistake I’ll make with this.
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Mistake #1: I misinterpreted the directions in Step 2 and got rid of the water that I cooked the apricots in instead of including it, which left me with what is NOT a purée. This not being a purée ends up being an issue going forward.
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Mistake #2, and this was a big one: I think (it’s been a while since I actually made this) that I included the cream cheese into the food processor (with the “purée”) and then realized that this was supposed to be a swirl cheesecake and stopped.
This is what happens when you’re trying to do too many things at once.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/22/IMG_0914.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
Well, shoot. What do I do now with the other parts that I didn’t combine in yet?
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Mistake #3 (I think): At this point, I just kept going and just poorly stirred it all together in the springform pan.
I mean, what else do you do at this point?
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I had some old slivered almonds that I needed to use up, so we’ll toast those (5-10 minutes @ 350 F) for the garnish. I also made some cranberries (from scratch), because who doesn’t like those? This isn’t exactly my recipe, but it’s close enough.
You know, now that I look at this picture, it’s very possible that I made this entire thing for Thanksgiving and not Christmas (judging by the two cranberry containers), since I remember I made two at Thanksgiving, I froze one, and then we ate the second at Christmas. However, I don’t care enough to go back and fix it (and the other two XMAS 23 recipes) at this point.
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Well, here’s how that weird mixture turned out. It looks…interesting.
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That crack doesn’t look great, and neither do the sides. Sigh. Good thing this isn’t for anyone more than just the two of us–I’d be freaking out otherwise.
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The crack got worse when I transferred it to the “serving platter”–hopefully I can hide some of this with the glaze and some creative garnish.
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I’ll focus on hiding the crack, but I don’t know if that’s gonna save this thing.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/22/IMG_0922.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
It did not. This looks sloppy to say the least.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/22/IMG_0923.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
Can some whipped cream garnish make it look better? Depends on the angle.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/22/IMG_0924.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
Okay…how about glaze, whipped cream garnish, AND toasted almonds? We’ve hidden the crack, but there’s no saving the sides. Plus, I’m not winning any cake decorating awards any time soon.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/22/IMG_0928.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
Still mostly looks like a cheesecake on the inside, and tasted like one too.
![](https://i0.wp.com/simplydeliciouscookbook-photos.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/section3/group16/20/IMG_0930.jpeg?w=720&ssl=1)
I paired it with 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake and it was quite the decadent…holiday? Even if I did it all wrong.
Grade: A-