Pumpkin and Spice

I love Halloween. I love vampires (though not so much Twilight-y vampires...) In honor of the holiday, and my beloved gothy bloodsuckers, I created a bloody cheesecake for our Halloween party this year.

A hazelnut flavored cheesecake with a red chambord (raspberry liqueur) flavored swirl is topped with with a "bloody" splash of frangelico spiked raspberry coulis. The flavor is smooth, rich and creamy, and the sauce offers a tart, bright note. In fact, it's really lovely enough that if you left out the red food dye in the cheesecake, it would make a delightful dessert for any occasion.

I'm a little excited, because this week, the restaurant is going to be featuring a dessert I came up with. It's creamy, rich, indulgent and features everyone's favorite childhood treat- Oreo cookies! What is it? Cookies and cream cheesecake! I know, yum, right?

A chocolate cookie crust, vanilla cheesecake with Oreo cookies mixed in, topped with dark chocolate ganache and garnished with white chocolate-Oreo bark. Of course, C, my supervisor and I had to sample it. You, know, for quality purposes...