Recipes from the Book

Read The Ingredients of Us now!

To celebrate the launch of my debut novel, The Ingredients of Us, I’m sharing recipes from the book! Want sweet monthly recipes sent straight to your inbox? Head on over to Jenni’s Cafe, my monthly newsletter.

Heart-Stopping Cheesecake

Find the recipe on Page 254

“By now your mouth will be watering, the waft of cream cheese overpowering your senses as you hover over the mixing bowl.”

There are many cheesecake recipes out there, but nothing rivals a classic. This recipe is elegant, decadent, comforting, romantic…anything you need, this cheesecake will have your back.

Ingredients:

Crust

• ¾ cup coarsely ground walnuts

• ¾ cup finely crushed graham crackers

• 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter  

Filling

• 4 8oz packages of cream cheese, room temp

• 4 eggs, whisked

• 1 ¼ cups sugar

• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Topping

• 2 cups sour cream

• ¼ cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Steps: For Crust

1. Combine crust ingredients and press into a greased springform pan. Channel your inner Paul Hollywood and aim for an even layer of crust.

Steps: For Filling

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Beat the cream cheese with an electric mixer (or by hand, if you have superhuman arm muscles) until smooth and fluffy.

3. Add the rest of the filling ingredients and beat until smooth.

4. Spoon the filling into the springform gently, so as not to disturb that even layer of crust you created.

5. Set the springform on a cookie sheet (in case it leaks) and place in the oven on the middle rack. Baking time varies by cake size (obvs), but for a 9-inch pan, plan for 50 minutes. The cake should get slightly brown on top, and might crack on top a little—but don’t freak out, the cracks will settle when it cools and the topping will cover that up anyway.

6. Let the cake cool for at least 15 minutes before you do anything else to it.

Steps: For Topping

1. Combine ingredients and blend thoroughly. Yup, that’s it.

2. Spoon onto the top of the (relatively cool) cheesecake, spreading about a half inch from the outer edge.

3. Return to the oven for another five minutes of baking.

4. Let the whole thing cool, then pop in the fridge for 24 hours to set.

Serving:

Once the cheesecake has had a chance to set, you can use a knife to loosen it from the springform. Fresh berries look pretty on top. Personally, I like to garnish it with that syrupy cherry pie filling you find in a can, because 1) its sweet sharpness balances the mellow cheese, 2) the red color is pretty on the white cheesecake, and 3) it’s waaaay low effort, which—let’s be real—this cheesecake is complicated enough as it is.

About the Book: The Ingredients of Us

Love doesn’t come with a recipe

From debut author Jennifer Gold comes a delicious novel about the sweet and sour ingredients of life and love

Elle, an accomplished baker, has a recipe for every event in her life. But when she discovers her husband’s infidelity, she doesn’t know what to make of it. Jam, maybe? Definitely jam.

Fed up with the stale crumbs of her marriage, Elle revisits past recipes and the events that inspired them. A recipe for scones reminds her of her father’s death, cinnamon rolls signify the problematic courtship with her husband, and a batch of chocolate cookies casts Elle in a less-than-flattering light. Looking back, Elle soon realizes that some ingredients were missing all along.

After confronting her husband, Elle indulges her sweet tooth in other ways, including a rebound that just leaves her more confused. As secrets from the past collide with the conflicts of the present, Elle struggles to manage her bakery business and maintain the relationships most important to her. In piecing her life back together, will Elle learn to take the bitter with the sweet?