Cranberry Cheesecake With Pecan Crust (Gf Recipe)

This recipe comes from the Gluten Free Gourmet: Living Well without Wheat cookbooks by Bette Hagman and while I am NOT living a gluten free life, it is absolutely DELICIOUS! It is light and airy and the perfect ending to a meal...or the beginning of your day....or for a snack! I'm posting so I don't lose it again!

• Ready In: 2 hrs 15 mins
• Serves: 14
• Yields: 1 cake

Ingredients

• Crust

• 1  cup  gluten-free cookies (I suggest the GF shortbread cookies) or 1  cup  breadcrumbs (I suggest the GF shortbread cookies)
• 1⁄3 cup ground pecans
• 1  tablespoon sugar (2 - 3 if using bread crumbs)
• 3  tablespoons margarine or 3  tablespoons butter, melted

• Filling

• 8  ounces reduced-fat cream cheese
• 2  cups fat-free cottage cheese
• 1  cup fat free sour cream
• 1 1⁄2 cups sugar
• 3  eggs
• 1  tablespoon  grated orange zest
• 1  teaspoon oranges or 1  teaspoon vanilla flavoring
• 1⁄4 cup flour or 1⁄4 cup  gluten-free flour, gluten-free mix

• Topping

• 3  tablespoons  orange juice
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1 1⁄2 cups fresh cranberries or 1 1⁄2 cups frozen cranberries
• 1  tablespoon cornstarch
• 2  tablespoons water

• gluten-free mix

• 2  cups  rice flour
• 2⁄3 cup potato starch
• 1⁄3 cup tapioca flour (for a 9 cup yield, use 6-2-1 cups respectively)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9" springform pan with vegetable oil spray.
2. Crust: In a plastic bag, blend the crumbs, ground nuts, sugar and margarine. Pat into the prepared pan and bake for 8 minutes. Cool and warp the bottom and sides well with aluminum foil.
3. Filling: In a food processor, process the cream cheese and cottage cheese until smooth. Add the sour cream, sugar, eggs, orange zest, flavoring and flour mix. Process until well blended and light. Pour over the baked crust. Place pan in a larger pan and fill this with boiling water until halfway up the sides of springform pan.
4. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes. Turn oven off and leave cake in oven for 30 minutes more with the door shut. Remove from water and cool. Refrigerate.
5. Topping: In a medium saucepan, blend the orange juice and sugar. Bring to a boil for 2 minutes. Add berries, return to a boil, lower heat, and simmer 1 minute. In a small bowl, blend the cornstarch and water. Stir into the berries. Boil stirring, until thickened. Cool and then spread over cooled cake. Refrigerate until serving.