Pistachio Baklava Cheesecake

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Now playing: The Eagles - The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks
via FoxyTunes

Recently I dined at a new Greek restaurant in town, walking distance from my house. A pretty nice place, one can tell it is a chain. I've had fresher fish, even in land locked Colorado. The smells and the looks of others food around me, just proved that I ordered the wrong thing for this particular restaurant. I will be giving them another chance. The portions seem great for the prices. The lamb chops of one of my dinner partners looked very yummy indeed.

I didn't have a cocktail to reserve room on the bill for a something I spied on the menu right away! A baklava cheesecake! I hate to be such a downer, but it was a bit disappointing as well. It sounds like I am a hater of this establishment, but I'm not. It was a nice cheesecake, but it failed to deliver baklava-ish-ness. A nice thick piece of cheesecake with a few nuts in the crust and a brulee layer of honey on top. Not good enough for me. Immediately, wheels turned in my head, I made my own.
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Here it is Pistachio Baklava Cheesecake. I served it on a lemon balm gellee lightly incorporated in a layer on the plate.



I use the Frugal Gourmet's recipe for baked cheesecake. I posted this recipe in the past when I served it with a Meyer lemon curd.

http://i-want-my-umami.blogspot.com/2010/02/easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.html

The recipe is available in the first Frugal Gourmet book and easily found in an internet search.

The only difference is I added 1/2 cup of chopped pistachios to the crust ingredients.

For the baklava I used a basic recipe with a few twists. I only used pistachios for the nuts, also I only used honey thinned with a bit of water for the glaze. I formed the baklava in a jelly roll style configuration and cut slices for baking in the pan. I had some left-over after decorating the cheesecake. Not a problem!

Here is a basic recipe:

http://www.grouprecipes.com/11551/easy-baklava.html

For the gelee I used my canned lemon balm syrup and added 2 small sheets of plain gelatin, form a thin layer on a plate and set.

Another linked reminder of that syrup:

http://i-want-my-umami.blogspot.com/2010/07/blog-post.html

Voila....Baklava cheesecake to be proud of! Beware of numerous calories, however.

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God must love calories, because he made so many. -unknown