Here’s a holiday dessert for cheesecake lovers: Spiced Eggnog Cheesecake.

The recipe is from Anne Callaghan, corporate chef of the Charlie Palmer Group in Las Vegas.
 
 
RECIPE: SPICED EGGNOG CHEESECAKE

Ingredients For 10-12 Servings

For The Crust

 
For The Filling

 
For The Garnishes

Sugared Cranberries

 
Chocolate Holly Leaves

[2] A gingersnap crust adds to the holiday theme (photo © Splendid Spoon).

1. MAKE the crust. In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, crushed gingersnaps, sugar and melted butter together. Press into bottom of 9-inch spring form pan. Bake in a 325°F oven for 10 minutes. Let cool on a rack before adding the filling. Increase the oven heat to 425°F.

2. MAKE the filling. In food processor or mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, whipping cream and flour until smooth. Add the eggs, rum, vanilla bean, nutmeg and cinnamon and continue beating until combined. Pour over the crust.

3. MAKE the swirls. Place small spoonfuls of melted chocolate dots equal distance around top of cake and one in the middle. Insert a toothpick into the middle of each chocolate dot and the filling underneath it, and make outward swirls towards the next dot. Continue until you have the majority of the cake covered in swirls.

5. BAKE the cheesecake in a 425°F oven for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 250°F and bake for 45 minutes longer or until the edge is set, but the center still jiggles a little. Turn off the oven and run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake; let it cool in the oven for 1 hour. Remove cheesecake to rack and let cool completely before garnishing.

6a. PREPARE the garnishes: Make the simple syrup by placing the sugar and water in small saucepan over medium heat; as mixture simmers, stir until combined. Pour the syrup over the cranberries and let cool to room temperature; then, place it in the refrigerator for ½ hour.

6b. REMOVE the cranberries from the syrup and shake off any excess syrup. Place the granulated sugar on a large flat plate and roll the individual cranberries in sugar until they are lightly dusted. Place the sugar-coated cranberries on a large plate, making sure that they do not touch.

7a. MAKE the chocolate holly: Melt semi-sweet chocolate over a double boiler and let cool slightly. Place the melted chocolate between two pieces of waxed paper, and roll out the chocolate until it is 1/8-inch thick. Place on baking sheet and refrigerate until firm.

7b. USING a sharp knife, cut out holly leaf shapes and use the back of the knife to make leaf details. Garnish the top of the cheesecake with several clusters of chocolate holly leaves and sugared cranberries.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF EGGNOG
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHEESECAKE

Topping ice cubes with edible glitter: We love this idea from A Subtle Revelry. It’s spot-on for New Year’s Eve or any holiday of the year, plus celebrations like birthdays and festivities like the Super Bowl.

For sparkling wine, ginger ale, water and other light-color drinks, it’s easy to add glitter to your glass.

You can use them in darker drinks, of course, but they show best when light refracts through them.

Here are step-by-step instructions (which can be summed up as “make ice cubes” and “top with glitter”).

If you don’t want to use ice cubes—in the sparkling wine, for example—you can use the glitter as a glass rimmer.

In addition to sparkling glitter in some two dozen colors, there are gold stars, and dozens of other shapes and colors. Just check out these options.

Just make sure what you buy is edible (see the next section).
 
 
WHAT IS EDIBLE GLITTER?

Edible glitter is made from starch-based food products that can be digested by the body.

“Non-toxic” glitter may sound safe, but it isn’t edible: It is manufactured from plastic and is not digestible.

Don’t let the name fool you, either. Products names such as luster dust, pearl dust, sparkle dust, twinkle dust, shimmer powder etc., may sound edible. And online blogs and videos may promote their use.

But unless the product says edible, it isn’t.

Here’s more about it from the FDA.
  

What do you do when you’re a well-known Champagne house that wants to grow, but is constrained by lack of land and legal restrictions in the Champagne province of France?

Head to vineyards in the New World!

Some, including Mumm, Moët et Chandon, Roederer and Taittinger, have found success bringing their time-honored craft to the California.

Domaine Chandon was established in Napa Valley “way back” in 1973, Mumm Napa a few years later.

A more recent entry—the first bottling was released this spring—is Louis Pommery California, a Chardonnay-based wine with 4% Pinot Noir grapes. The effort yields a toasty-floral aroma and palate notes of apple, peach, and very well-balanced acidity and minerality.

At $24 a bottle, it’s affordable for holiday toasting, gifting…and year-round weekend dinners or apéritifs.

The sparkler pairs perfectly with appetizers, fish and seafood entrées, chicken dishes, pasta with white or oil sauces, lemon tart, and much Asian cuisine.

Discover more at ChampagnePommery.com.

New sparkler in town: Louis Pommery California, scion of the great French champagne house (photo courtesy Chilled Magazine).

Alexandre Louis Pommery, a retired wool merchant, co-founded his eponymous champagne house in 1856. But following his death in 1858, his widow, the former Jeanne Alexandrine Louise Melin, took over operations.

At age 38, she was the mother of two, and in charge of not only a family and household, but a vineyard and champagne house.

She had a very clear idea of the style of wine she wanted to make: delicate, fine, and very dry. In 1874 she developed the brut champagne style, steering the world away from sweet champagne to this drier style [source].

Today, brut is by far the leading sparkling wine style produced worldwide.

More about Champagne: