Amaretto Hazelnut Macaroon Cheesecake Recipe

* roasted 10 minutes at 350 F

Hazelnut macaroon: heat oven to 350. grease 10 inch springform pan. line with parchment. Grease parchment. Line a cookie sheet with greased parchment. Whisk together eggs and vanilla. Remove as much skin from the hazelnuts as is convenient.

Chop the nuts in a food processor with one cup of the powdered sugar for 30 seconds. Add both powdered and regular sugar. Pulse a few times to combine. With processer running, pour in egg mixture. Process for 15 seconds until smooth.

Reserve 1/2 - 1/3 cup batter. Pour remaining into springform, smooth with spatula. Pour reserved batter onto cookie sheet, spread in a 7-8 inch disk.

Bake crust 25-30 minutes, disk 20-25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Chop up the disk into 1/8 inch pieces and soak in 1/4 Amaretto.

Carefully remove crust. Replace bottom of springform with foil wrapped cardboard circle. Replace crust

Amaretto cheesecake filling: sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cp amaretto, let stand 5 minutes. Heat in sauce pan with hot (not boiling) water stirring for 4 minutes, leave in hot water to stay warm.

Beat cream cheese in mixer for 1 minutes. Add lemon juice and zest, mix. Beat cream to soft peaks. Fold 1/3 cream into cream cheese. Fold in remaining whipped cream. Fold in soaked macaroon disk bits.

Scrape into prepared pan, cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 3 hours (preferably overnight).