Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

This recipe is adapted from one I found at Allrecipes.com.  Did you know that the old fashioned way to cook a pumpkin is to put it in the oven?  Just rinse it, and put it in the oven, about 350 for an hour or so.  This is also a good way to cook squash.  No fussing over cutting... and this method gives no worries about some of the pumpkin being too done while other parts remain uncooked.  In about an hour, go back and turn it off.  Leave it there.  Let it cool for an hour or half a day.

You can make your own pumpkin puree, and it will taste fresher and more pumpkin-y than canned pumpkin (although the latter is really convenient and less messy).   I use a TV tray for cleaning pumpkin, because it might be too messy for a regular cutting board.  Just slice it into fourths, and use a spoon to scoop away the seeds and strings.  Then pare the skin off easily with a knife.  Cut into chunks.  If you have a food processor, you can whiz it, but don't add liquid.  Another way to puree the pulp is in a mixer for a long time. 

Gingersnap Crust:
Crush and whiz (in a food processor or blender) 1/2 cups of gingersnaps and 1 cup of graham crackers.  You want a fine mix, and I sift mine thru a sifter, because the gingersnaps sometimes don't chop up.  Add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 to 3/4 of a stick of butter.  I like to put my butter in the microwave for 15 seconds because I rarely have it at room temp when I begin.  This, you press into the bottom of a springform pan.  I don't have a springform pan, so I use a square 9x9 pyrex glass baking dish, a round custard dish or a 9x14 glass pan.  Just put it back in the fridge till you add the filling, and it can be hardening.

Mix 16 oz of cream cheese till creamy, and add 1/3 cup of brown sugar.  Here's where my recipe is a jazzed-up version of the online classic:  While my cream cheese is getting fluffy, I use authentic whole spices that I grind, crush or grate, myself.  I just put those on top of  the pumpkin puree that I will be adding.

I use about a teaspoon of cloves, taking just the buttons off of the top.  (Toss the 'forks' into your simmering potpourri, as they are tough.)  I crush them on an old Cherokee grinding rock using a round Cherokee stone that I found in the woods.  You could use a bowl and pestle. 

I use about a tablespoon of cinnamon that I got when travelling in the Carribean.  If you go South, don't miss a chance to visit a grocery store or town marketplace somewhere like Montego Bay.  You can get amazing fresh spices, whole, and they'll keep for a year or more if you don't refigerate them and leave them whole till ready for use. 

I crushed a fourth of a nutmeg.  That would be about 1/2 teaspoon.

I used fresh ginger root, grating it on a grater... about a tablespoon and that is a lot.

Add a cup of pumpkin puree and these spices, scraping down your bowl edges to incorporate all the cream cheese.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Or, you could also use a spoon of Frangelico at this step instead.

You'll get a creamy mix, richer than pumplin pie mix.  Gently pour it into the crust, and pop that into the oven.  Turn the oven to 350.  Add a big pot of water to the bottom to keep your cheesecake moist and avoid cracking.  Cook for 30 minutes or until the edges are puffy and the middle still jiggles.

There's a trick here:  You want to keep your oven steamy, so don't be opening and closing the door a lot.  Treat it like a souffle.

After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to 325, and set the timer for 15 minutes.  Make this topping:

1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon Frangelico

You can use Vanilla if you don't happen to have Frangelico.  (Frangelico comes from the liquor store and some people use it as a coffee flavoring.  It is rather expensive, and has a flavor of hazelnut and berries.)

When your topping is made, gently take the cheesecake out of the oven and pour this evenly over the top.  Avoid moving it around with a spoon if you can, so it won't break into the cake which is still cooking.  Then put it back in the oven, turn off the oven at the end of the timer above, and just leave it there for an hour, in the oven, still cooking but at an ever-lower temp.  After an hour you can take it out, insert a knife around the edges so it will shrink without splitting, and put it back into the cooling oven until both oven and cake are at room temp.

Now, for the hard part.  Cover it with foil and stick it in the oven to chill and set up overnight.  Next day, Eat It.

This is a great upscale recipe for holiday visits, but the cream cheese makes it dangerously rich and fattening.    Once in a while, it won't hurt ya.  Enjoy!  And do post any variations that you try.

Blue Pool Potholder

Today's delicious lil artsy potholder looks like a black and white striped air mattress on a cool pool.  Visit my Etsy store:  Island Retreat to see more.

Cinco De Mayo in Stilwell Oklahoma

Cinco De Mayo in Stilwell

Back From Hiatus

Zigmund Cadbury Snugglesworth

I've been on hiatus for a couple of days, but now I'm back.  If the weather clears up, I'll be posting some new art.  Just to keep things going, the next few days I apologize for the stifling indoor flash photos.  But I found this lovely pic from last week of our male British Shorthair, Ziggy.  He's such a doll to help me when I'm laying out a backdrop to take a picture.

And if you missed Cinco De Mayo, our little town of Stilwell had quite the hoedown.  Live music and fresh home made tamales and corn soup were just a few of the delights.  Thanks to Maria Maldonaldo at Cafe Mariachi who coordinated the event and made the paper flowers for the stage.

Its a Good Friday

Easter this year is a bit of an anomaly.  I always like Good Friday because it is an extra day off of work, and a play day.  I often spend it cooking for Easter or dyeing eggs or tee shirts.

This year, Easter will be different without my mother's touch as family matriarch.  She was a gracious hostess and a good cook.  Most of all, she had boundless energy and never was there a holiday where the cake was not themed, or any such thing.  I, on the other hand, somehow inherited the 'guy' genes in my family consisting of two girls, and usually I'm asked to bring the soda pop.  For years there, relatives told ME that the get-together was an hour earlier than 'real time' because I was habitually late... being the type of partygoer who just starts preparing for the party when it is time to be there.

Maybe I exaggerate.  I've been reputed to bring brilliantly delicious dishes from time to time.  And scarcely mediocre ones at other times.

My best Easter was when my sister lived down the street from my parents on Victor Street, and had 3 girls just of the age to wear wonderful Beatrix Potter empire waist chintz floral dresses with fantastic large sashes.  Back then, we had lots of children of the age to race across the yard in competitive Easter Egg Hunting.  Oh the pink velvet and lace tights!  One niece wore a shirt from her grandfather, "Just Say No To Hollow Bunnies."  We were a large extended family of 5 aunts and uncles, their children and grandchildren.  Every person on Earth should have the delight of such a large, fun, funny, handsome, competent, and loving family.

Nieces and nephews now have grown up and there is an equally charming age cluster of Oklahoma University cohorts consisting of not less than five of them this semester.  Now the darling dresses are replaced by crimson and cream jerseys with the number 14 on them.  (For those who may not know, that is Sam Bradford, OU's former great quarterback and Heisman Award winner, who happens to be Cherokee like all of our OU students in the family).