Friday, November 23, 2007

Nabisco Ginger Snaps... Or PURE EVIL?

So it's nine thirty Wednesday night, and I'm all set to start baking my traditional pumpkin cheesecakes (traditional in that this will be the second year in a row I have made them!) I chose a different recipe this year than I made last year, and this particular one called for a crust of crushed ginger snaps and, naturally, butter ("A little buttah makes everything bettah!"-Paula Deen.)
So I put the snaps in a Ziplock and commence crushing them with a rolling pin, and... Nothing happens. These gingersnaps WILL NOT BE BROKEN. Seriously, it was like trying to crush diamonds. Worried that I was losing my mind, I bit into one of them, and it actually hurt my teeth!
Hearing me swearing and fuming in the kitchen, Jim comes in on his white horse to save the day, first trying to crush them the same way I had (the plastic bag finally tore) and then trying to grind them up in a bowl with the end of the rolling pin, pestle and mortar style. The ginger snaps were still winning- it was like these cookies were starring in an all baked goods cast of Braveheart. "Freedom!" they were shouting to each other in silent ginger snap language, somehow, inexplicably, triumphing over their much stronger opponents.
I then had a stroke of genius, and dumped the cookies into the blender on the ice chopping setting. Do you think it worked? Well it didn't. And then, based on my clearly limited knowledge of blenders, I thought that maybe dumping in the melted butter with the cookies would help make them more choppable. Do you think THAT worked? Well it didn't. Are you thinking that instead it probably made a giant goopy mess stuck around the blender blades? Congratulations.
I finally gave up sometime around ten thirty and scraped the goo down the disposal. Then I called Jim, who was out renting movies, and requested a package of good ole' cinnamon graham crackers. While he was getting those, I mixed up the filling, constantly reminding myself that I was doubling the recipe. This was supposed to be a marbled pumpkin cheesecake, mind you, so I knew that at a certain point I was supposed to remove some of the basic filling and then add the pumpkin and spices to the rest. But did I remember to double the amount that I was supposed to remove? Did you guess no? Hey, you're catching on to the theme of this post!
So it ended up being in no way marbled, just a plain old pumpkin cheesecake on a plain old graham cracker crust, finally put into the oven at close to midnight by a very cranky yours truly. But it tasted fine and Thanksgiving was amazingly not ruined by my less than stellar dessert presentation.
For which I am thankful.

11 comments:

mamashine said...

That is just bizarre. I wonder why they're like that.

But I am glad your cheesecake ended up fine. :)

Mommy Daisy said...

Yikes, silly evil gingersnaps. Glad you had a nice Thanksgiving anyway. ;)

Marie Green said...

Your adventures in the kitchen sound alot like mine! We should probably never cook together. =)

Anonymous said...

Ooooo, post recipe please! I have a good recipe for ginger snaps (NON evil variety) and want to try them as a crust.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you had a nice holiday despite the evil cookies. The cheesecake sounds yummy!

Sarah said...

Well, I would post the recipe, but I tore it out of a magazine, and upon completion of the cheesecakes, I threw the page away in fury. Blush.
But I'm sure you could substitute the ginger snap crust with any cheesecake recipe- it's just twenty four snaps per one third cup of butter.

Ted Chronicles said...

Wow. I just bought some of these damn cookie to go with my pumpkin dip They're freakin' horrible. I decided I was going to buy a different kind and use these for a pumpkin cheesecake crust...Now I know better!!! I just wrote about them over at theysuck.net. You should too!

Anonymous said...

I just make my 3rd Lime Mousse Cake yesterday calling for ground ginger snap crust. The 1st time I used food processor--what a mess, 2nd time I used blender which was better, but still a mess, 3rd time I put them in freezer lock baggie & pounded them with smooth side of meat cleaver. They are all time consuming, but found the baggie works best & is faster. I even tried google...no luck.

kdkennedy said...

I experienced similar horrors while trying to crush ginger snaps for pumpkin pie. Then my genius mother sent me Gille Swedish Ginger Snaps. They are light and easily crushed - and taste much better than Nabisco!

Anonymous said...

The best way I've found to crush ginger snaps is to put a few in a ziploc, and use the flat side of a meat mallet. You could probably use a rubber as well, but I don't have one, so I don't know if that works well or not.

Anonymous said...

I forgot to mention that after using the meat mallet, there will still be some pieces that are larger than crumbs, so now is the time to use your rolling pin.