Plus, we need to get our last licks: “Cheesecake season” concludes at the end of spring. The dense cream cheese cheesecake we favor is too heavy for summer. So this may be our last recipe until fall.

The recipe is from Lauryn Cohen, a.k.a. Bella Baker. Says Lauryn:

“This is easily the best cheesecake I’ve ever made: a chocolate wafer cookie crust, a rich and creamy cheesecake layer, crushed Oreo cookies mixed into the silky batter and topped with a drizzle of chocolate ganache, chocolate whipped cream, and more Oreo cookies.”

We made it for National Oreo Day, March 6th. National Cheesecake Day is July 30th.

> The history of cheesecake.

> The history of Oreos.
 
 
RECIPE: COOKIES & CREAM CHEESECAKE

Ingredients

For The Crust

[1] Cookies & Cream cheesecake: a fusion of two favorites (photo © Bella Baker).

For The Filling

For The Chocolate Ganache

 
For The Chocolate Whipped Cream

1. PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

2. MIX melted butter with Oreo crumbs and sugar and press into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 5 minutes and set aside.

3. BEAT cream cheese with a mixer on medium-high until fluffy, making sure that there are no clumps. Slowly add sugar and continue beating cream cheese until mixed well. Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat until blended. Add the vanilla, salt, and milk; beat until smooth and creamy. Add the flour and beat until the batter is satiny smooth. Stir in the coarsely chopped Oreo cookies with a spoon.

4. POUR cream cheese mixture into the pan and bake for one hour and 15 minutes. After that time, turn the oven off and keep the oven door slightly open. Let the cheesecake stay in the oven for one hour. Remove from the oven and let cool enough to place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

5. MAKE the ganache: Place heavy cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Place chopped chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. Once the heavy cream has reached boiling pour half the heavy cream over the chopped chocolate. Let sit for 30 seconds, then gently stir chocolate and cream together with a rubber spatula in a figure-eight motion. Pour the remaining heavy cream over the chocolate and continue to gently stir. Add butter, one piece at a time, until ingredients are fully incorporated and the ganache is smooth and glossy.

6. MAKE the chocolate whipped cream: Beat heavy cream on high speed for about 2-3 minutes. Once the mixture has started to thicken, add cocoa powder and sugar and continue beating until the whipped cream mixture has formed.

7. GARNISH the chilled cake. Drizzle chocolate ganache over the top of the cake, in the grid pattern shown in the photo or in your own artistic interpretation. Pipe the chocolate whipped cream in mounds around the rim of the cake and in the center. Place one mini Oreo in each mound of whipped cream, and a chocolate wafer cookie in the center.

While this recipe may seem over the top to some, you’ll note that it’s a relatively flat cake—torte-like, not like the often-found three-inch-high/four-inch-high New York cheesecake.

So a slice is an indulgence, but not a jumbo indulgence.
  
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Today, animal breeders know how to enable birth year-round, so lovers of lamb need never be without it.

Use the ingredients of spring to (below) create your own spring lamb dish.

There are cuts from chops to roasts and less expensive cuts for lamb stew.

One of our favorite dishes is braised lamb shanks, ready to cook in your pressure cooker or Instant Pot.

Ever wonder why leg of lamb with green peas is such a popular pairing? It’s because both are spring foods. In the days when everyone had to eat “locavore,” people could only eat what was in season.

So today’s tip is: Celebrate this first day of spring by planning a lamb dinner with spring vegetables (a list follows).

Also, see more lamb recipes below.

How about some fava beans with a nice Chianti?

> May 7th is National Spring Lamb Day.

> The different cuts of lamb. How many have you had?
 
 
SPRING VEGETABLES

Because of imports from the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, Americans have year-round access to traditional spring foods like artichokes, Belgian endive, spinach, radicchio, radishes, and watercress.

But spring brings specialties with short seasons, so eat them while you can!

 
One of the most celestial restaurant dishes we recall, from several springs ago, was a simple sauté of asparagus, fiddleheads, morels, and ramps, seasoned with a little garlic.

It’s a lesson on how the season’s bounty needs little preparation to impress.
 

LAMB RECIPES

[1] A lamb lover’s delight. Who needs steak (photo © Blu Restaurant | NYC [permanently closed]).

[2] Roast lamb loin with lamb sausage, seasoned ricotta and beluga lentils and accents of fresh apricot (photo © Fruition Restaurant | Denver).

[3] Stuffed leg of lamb (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[4] Rack of lamb (photo © DeLallo).

[5] Lamburger (photo © Australian Lamb | Meat & Livestock Australia).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

So we started to decorate desserts.

None of our efforts looked as good as the examples on Sixlets’ Facebok Page, so take a look and get inspired.

Sixlets are a boon for easy cake and cupcake decorating.

You don’t have to be this painstaking, but it sure is impressive. Argyle Candy Cake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson, authors of Hello, Cupcake!

Get ready for Easter: You can buy pastel
Sixlets in bulk online. Photo courtesy Sixlets.

Sixlets are made by Sweetworks, a Toronto-based company. You may know them in individual packages from the candy stand, but they are available in bulk for serious decorating: in 1, 2, 5 and 10 pound bags.

The line is certified kosher (OU-dairy) and is gluten-free.

We used them:

 
We’re planning ahead for a red, white and blue “flag cake” for Independence Day.

*Unlike the super-sugary M&M’s chocolate centers, the centers of Sixlets are made from a mix of cocoa and carob, giving them a kind of “malted chocolate” taste.
  

If you’re inclined to entertain between St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, here’s an idea from Van Gogh Vodka:

A “Starry Night” cocktail part, to celebrate the March 30th birthday of Vincent van Gogh.

Van Gogh Vodka has created a cocktail named for, and inspired by perhaps, one of his best-loved works, The Starry Night (De Sterrennacht).

It emulates the dark blue sky of “Starry Night” with its purple-colored Açaí-Blueberry Vodka. The “starry” comes from a slice of starfruit.

Painted in 1889, the view is from Van Gogh’s sanitorium* room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, looking north toward the village. In an example of “artistic license,” Van Gogh rearranged the scenery, incorporating the mountains on the southern side of the asylum and adding a large cypress tree that did not exist. He painted the dark night sky during the day, from memory.

Drink a “Starry Night.” Photo courtesy Van Gogh Vodka.

Van Gogh’s masterpiece, “Starry Night.”
Photo courtesy Wikipedia | The Google Art
Project.

Ingredients For 1 Drink

 
Preparation

1. POUR chilled vodka into a flute.

2. TOP with sparkling rosé wine and garnish with a starfruit slace.

The Van Gogh Vodka portfolio includes over 20 flavored vodkas, each, according to the distiller, offering a spirited way to pay tribute to a creative genius.
 
*We used Yellow Tail Sparkling Rosé, one of our favorites; and couldn’t find the Van Gogh Açaí-Blueberry Vodka so substituted Stoli Blueberi and colored it. We used McCormick food colors to approximate the navy in the painting, rather than the purple Van Gogh color: 150 drops Neon Blue and 8 drops Black.

The pure-butter Mini Scottie “puppies” are made from 100% natural ingredients. They’re a treat for kids and adults.

The Mini Scottie Dogs are available for purchase online at USWalkersShortbread.com and at select specialty retailers nationwide.

For extra fun, serve an assortment of “moms” (the regular size shortbread Scotties) and “puppies.”

 
How else would you have fun with them?