November Challenge: Sides

Challenger: Tiffany Schriever

Recipe: The best of all sides – pumpkin cheesecake!

Living in Canada as an American we are lucky to celebrate Thanksgiving twice. I love thanksgiving for the pie mostly so a side dish to me is only a filler to get you warmed up for the grand papa of all sides, the dessert. Desserts go on the ‘side’ of every dish, in my opinion. I decided to reproduce the Bloom family famous pumpkin cheesecake (recipe provided by K. Bloom).



Crust ingredients:

1 1/2 C flour

1 large egg, separated (lightly beat yolk)

1/4 to 1/3 C sugar

1/2 C butter, softened











Cheesecake batter ingredients:

5 pkgs of 8oz cream cheese (room temp., 1/3 less fat CC is what I used)

1 C sugar

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

3 Tbsp flour

4 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. ground cloves

2 tsp. ginger

1 Tbsp vanilla

1 C heavy cream (i.e., whipping cream)

1 can (15oz) of mashed pumpkin (or as I used 1 C of cooked pumpkin puree)



Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400

Sit out cream cheese, butter, and eggs for a half hour at least to achieve room temperature. By doing so the batter will be smoother without lumps of cream cheese.

Stir together flour and sugar in a large bowl. Form a well in the center, add the beaten yolk and the softened butter to the well and mix together with your hands. Set aside a small portion of dough, about a third. Press dough into the bottom of a spring form pan and up just above the point where the bottom meets the side of the pan. Must use large 9” or 10” pan. Bake for 12-15 min.



















ready to bake



Remove crust from oven and let cool.



Turn oven temperature to 425

In a large mixing bowl beat together cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer until creamy. Add in eggs and egg yolks a couple at a time, mixing well between additions.





Add in flour, cinnamon, cloves and ginger to mixture and mix.

Beat in the cream and vanilla, then add the mashed pumpkin on medium s peed just until mixed.





















Pour batter onto the crust and bake for 15 min,





then reduce the temperature to 275 and bake for an hour. Turn off oven and leave in overnight. I heard opening the oven door while the cheesecake is baking causes cracks to form in the pie so, I did NOT open the door. However, the finished cheesecake had a crack in it the size of the Grand Canyon!Don't fear, you can cover the crack up. To make a pretty finished looking cake, cover cheesecake with whipped cream and dust lightly with cinnamon.



Fresh whipped cream:

Chill beaters and bowl for 10 to 15 min before whipping cream. Whip up 1 C of heavy cream and 1 tsp or so of vanilla. After whipping for a while add in ¼ C powdered sugar and continue whipping until soft peaks form. Put whipped cream in fridge until ready to use.





Goes well with turkey!











Enjoy.