We like Monika Ahlberg a lot. She’s a Swedish chef, food editor, and author of 15 cookbooks (and she has also been a ballet dancer). Monika is married to the prominent actor/director Thommy Berggren, with whom she has three children. Anyway, we found a clever recipe by Monika that seems like it was made for a Swedish-American audience: A cheesecake with taste of “pepparkakor” (ginger snaps).

Ingredients
35 ginger snaps
5 tablespoons (75 grams) butter

Filling:
8 ounces (250 grams) white chocolate
16 ounces (400 grams) Philadelphia cream cheese
4 ounces Kesella (a kind of Swedish curd; in lieu of Kesella use Ricotta or drain cottage cheese overnight in a cheesecloth to thicken it).
1/2 cup (4 ounces) sugar
3 ounces (75 grams) dark chocolate

Decoration:
Lingonberries (or any other berry)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Melt the butter and combine it with the ginger snaps in a mixer. Thumb out the dough into a spring pan, and bake for 8-10 minutes.
Melt the white chocolate in a water bath. Chop the dark chocolate, but not too finely. Mix the cheese with the Kesella (or Ricotta or cottage cheese), and sugar. Slowly add the melted white chocolate to the mixture, stirring constantly. Then add the chopped dark chocolate.
Fill the pan and put it in a cool place until ready to serve, or freeze it and take it out 1 hour before serving. Decorate with berries.