Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

1 3/4 cups crushed gingersnaps (I made my favorite molasses cookies and they were great)

6 T butter, melted

3/4 cup pecans

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Press into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan.

Filling:

3 (8oz) blocks of cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup white chocolate chips, melted

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon cloves

Topping:

Sweetened whipped cream

Caramelized pecans

Caramel sauce

Preheat your oven to 350. Wrap your sprinform pan with two pieces of foil. Combine crust ingredients and press into pan. In mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Slowly add in the sugar. When well combined, add the eggs, pumpkin, vanilla and spices. Melt chocolate in microwave. With the mixer running pour or spoon melted chocolate in a steady stream into cream cheese mixture. Pour on top of crust. Place the springform pan into a larger pan (I used my roasting pan. I also placed my pan into an oven bag with the side pulled up about half way up the springform pan.) Fill the larger pan to middle of your springform pan with hot water. (Am I making any sense? We are doing a water bath here. If you don't know what I am talking about see the pictures and suggestions here) Bake 60-75 minutes. The center should be set: still jiggly, think firm jello. Remove from oven and water bath to cooling rack and let cool completely. Put in fridge for at least 12 hours. When ready to serve, remove outside of pan, top with whipped cream, caramelized pecans and caramel sauce.

Recipe source:

Our Best Bites

My Notes:

This was my first ever baked cheesecake and it turned out great. I lined my pan with foil and the oven bag because I was afraid it would leak and I didn't want a soggy crust. I thought it better to be safe than sorry. A note about mixing the filling: you do NOT want to overmix cheesecake filling. Having too much air in the mixture causes it to rise during baking and fall during cooling, leaving a monster sized crack in the middle. You want to mix it well, just not beat it too much. Also, if you are not a white chocolate lover, that is not the dominant taste in this cheesecake. The white chocolate just adds richness and depth. Try it! It is yummy!!

Pumpkin Brownies

The next few posts are some of my favorite fall recipes. Don't forget about my all-time favorite pumpkin cake though! I think it is still the best.

Pumpkin Brownie Sundaes

1/2 cup butter, room temp

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup flour

Ice cream

Butterscotch sauce

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in spices. Mix in egg and pumpkin and stir well. Add flour and stir just until combined. Line and 8x8 pan with enough foil to hang over the edges and lightly spray with cooking spray. Pour pumpkin mixture into pan and spread into an even layer. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. They will still look moist but won't be sticky to the touch. Let cool in pan. To serve, remove foil from pan and cut into bars. Top with ice cream and butterscotch sauce.

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin Roll

Cake:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2/3 cup pumpkin

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Get jelly roll pan ready by greasing, flouring, and then cover with waxed paper. Beat eggs on high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually add the sugar while still mixing. Add pumpkin and lemon juice. Mix dry ingredients together and fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour into prepared jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Let cool until warm. While cooling, get a clean dish cloth and sprinkle it with powdered sugar. When pan is warm turn cake onto towl and roll up from the short end. Let cool completely. Unroll, fill with cream cheese filling (follows) and re-roll. Chill before serving with ice cream or whipped cream.

Filling:

1 cup powdered sugar

3 oz cream cheese, softened

4 teaspoons butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat until smooth. Spread over pumpkin cake.

My notes:

This cake is also really good filled with ice cream! Just let the ice cream thaw until soft then spoon over cake. Re-roll, wrap with plastic wrap and freeze until serving.

The Best Pumpkin Muffins

These muffins are sooo good! They do require making a filling and topping in addition to the muffin batter. The filling needs to be frozen for 1-2 hours so plan ahead!

Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

Mix together and spread into a log on plastic wrap. Roll tightly and freeze for 1-2 hours.

For muffins:

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves

1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

4 Tablespoons cold butter

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

In two different bowls, combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients. Then mix the two bowls, just until moistened. Remove log of filling from freezer and cut into 24 pieces. Fill muffin cups 1/3 full and top with a filling piece. Scoop remaining batter over the top. Sprinkle with topping mix and bake at 350 for 18-20 minutes.

My Notes:

These seem like a lot of work...they are SO worth it! (and it really isn't all that much work) These are best cold so make them the night before and they are perfect for breakfast, although I think they work well for dessert too. Try not to eat the whole batch!

Apple Pie (Two Ways)

It just isn't fall without apple pie. There is great debate around here about which of these pies is better. I love them both and think that these two recipes are the only apple pie recipes you need. Mike loves the carmel apple one best, my good friend like the crumb pie best. We did decide to put a batch of carmel without the nuts on the crumb pie and that was delicious too.

Apple Crumb Pie

For crust:

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 egg yolk

3/4 cup butter, melted

Mix together until crumbly. Press half the crumb mixture into the bottom and sides of pie dish.

For Filling:

6-7 apples, peeled and thinly sliced

1/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together and pour into pie dish. Sprinkle with remaining crumb mixture. (It will be a heaping pie but will bake down some.) Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Carmel Apple Pie

6 cups apples (a variety works best)

2 Tablespoons lime juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pastry for double crust pie (Marilyn's No-Fail recipe)

2 Tablespoons butter

Carmel Topping (follows)

Peel and thinly slice apples into a large bowl. Squeeze lime juice over apples and stir. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt in small bowl. Add to the apples and stir. Place bottom pastry in pie plate (9" is what I use). Fill with apples and dot with butter. Put on top crust, flute edges and cut slits. Bake at 400 for 40-45 minutes. Watch closely and cover with foil if edges start to get dark. Make carmel. When pie is done, pour on top and bake for another 3-4 minutes.

Carmel topping:

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons whipping cream

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional--I love them)

Melt butter in saucepan, stir in sugar and cream. Stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add nuts. Pour over pie.

My Notes:

The carmel apple pie tends to end up leaking as it cooks so put some foil underneath or a pan to catch it. Otherwise you get a HUGE mess!