Spooky-easy Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake
Posted on Oct 29 in Food Porn, baking, cookbook, dessert, recipe, reviewby NikaPrint
We are just at peak fall color here, mother nature has decided to cool off, the kids are wearing their Halloween costumes all day long, and it feels like fall to me, finally. We were expecting lows of 29 F last night so I had to put row covers over the spinach, bell peppers, beets, and lettuce.
The thing that makes me feel most fall-like is the smell of wood fires from all the wood stoves around us. Our house is built really tight and gets lots of solar gain so we are not using our stove yet.
Something else put me in the autumn-mode. Last week I received a review copy of a cookbook by George Geary called “The Complete Baking Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Cookies and Cakes to Muffins and Pies
Can I just say first that the author, George Geary, is one super productive individual? Check out his site and you will learn about his teaching schedule across 9 different states, his four cookbooks (just signed for two more), his cooking classes at his new cooking school in Yorba Linda California, and foodie cooking tours across the world. Makes my head spin! Today’s cookbook of his just came out this October 12th and he has more in the works. Whew, if that were not enough, he was also the pastry chef and production manager for the Walt Disney Company and the Marriot Corporation.
This book has a nice introduction section that any occasional baker should read because it gets your mindset back into the baking mode if you have been mostly making savory meals. Its a required starting place for novice bakers as it will introduce you to the methods needed to make these recipes.
The 350 recipes are laid out in well planned sections, including:
- Cookies, Bars, and Squares
- Pies, Tarts, and Cobblers
- Cakes, Frostings, Glazes, and more
- Confections
- Grand Finales
- Breakfast Breads
- Holiday Favorites
The book has beautiful food photography every few pages and the photos do an excellent job of tempting you to make the shown foods. I know that my stomach was growling badly while I was making today’s recipe because I could see a beautiful photo of it as I stood at the counter and brought the ingredients together.
Just about every recipe called my name but I wanted to choose something that would make sense for the current holiday – Halloween. For this reason, I chose the Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake.
I made cheesecakes with my mom as a kid but I have never made one since becoming a mom. In a way, its because we don’t need the calories (OK, who does?) but also because I always felt like it was a major enterprise to make one.
This recipe could not be easier and it came out perfectly, first time out. Be ready with two large pans because this recipe makes a large quantity.
The flavor will simply make you groan in ecstasy. The dominant flavor that will fill your head is a burst of pumpkin pie goodness. This is like all of whats right with pumpkin pie paired with the utter decadence of cheesecake. You also get a fantastic bloom of citrus from the lemon juice that works surprisingly well with the rest of the flavors. Some cheesecakes can be chalky affairs that stick to the roof of your mouth but this one is not like that at all. I found that it is as thick and creamy as it should be without a moment of chalkiness.
My 4 year old daughter KD is my youth taste tester. She especially loves eating the food off the set after I have done my main shooting. I love catching her expressions as she chews into the latest treat. Below you can see she is enjoying the cheesecake with milk (notice the faerie costume).
Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake (Print the PDF) (Copied here with permission)
SERVES 18 TO 20
Two flavors for the fall that go well together are maple and pumpkin.
•Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C)
•10-inch (25 cm) cheesecake pan, ungreased, or springform pan with 3-inch (7.5 cm) sides, greased
Ingredients:
Crust
- 2 1â„2 cups graham cracker crumbs 625 mL
- 1 tsp ground ginger 5 mL
- 1â„3 cup unsalted butter, melted 75 mL
Filling
- 5 packages (each 8 oz/250 g) cream cheese, softened 5
- 1 cup sour cream 250 mL
- 2 1â„4 cups granulated sugar 550 mL
- 6 eggs 6
- 1â„2 cup all-purpose flour 125 mL
- 1 cup pumpkin purée (not pie filling) 250 mL
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract 15 mL
- 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 45 mL
- 1â„2 cup pure maple syrup 125 mL
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon 15 mL
- 1â„2 tsp ground nutmeg 2 mL
- 1â„4 tsp ground allspice 1 mL
Decoration
Classic Whipped Cream
(see recipe, page 239 – see below)
Directions:
1. Crust: In a bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, ginger and butter. Press into bottom of cheesecake pan and freeze.
2. Filling: In a large mixer bowl fitted with paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, sour cream and sugar on medium-high speed until very smooth, for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in flour, pumpkin, vanilla, lemon juice, maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
3. Pour batter over frozen crust. Bake in preheated oven for 65 to 75 minutes or until the top is light brown and the center has a slight jiggle to it. Let cool on a rack for 2 hours. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours before decorating or serving.
4. Decoration: Ice top of cake with Classic Whipped Cream or pipe a border around edge of cake, if desired.
Tip – If pure maple syrup is not available you can use about 1â„4 tsp (1 mL) pure maple flavoring.
Variation – Add 1 cup (250 mL) chopped hazelnuts into the batter for a crunchy texture.
(Here KD is going for a gulp of milk. Cheesecake taste testing is mighty thirsty work!)
Classic Whipped Cream (Print the PDF) (Copied here with permission)
MAKES ABOUT
1 CUP (250 ML)
Use this classic topping on almost any cheesecake or cake.
Ingredients:
- 1â„2 cup whipping (35%) cream 125 mL
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar 25 mL
Directions:
1. In a well-chilled mixer bowl fitted with whip attachment or with a hand-held mixer, whip cream on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. With mixer running, sprinkle sugar into cream and continue whipping until firm peaks form.
Variation
Ginger Whipped Cream:
Add 1â„2 tsp (2 mL) ground ginger to the cream after the sugar.
Product Details:
The Complete Baking Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Cookies and Cakes to Muffins and Pies
- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Robert Rose (October 12, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0778801764
- ISBN-13: 978-0778801764
- Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches
Technorati Tags: Halloween, costume, wood fire, wood stove, review, cookbook, George Geary, The Complete Baking Cookbook: 350 Recipes from Cookies and Cakes to Muffins and Pies, Walt Disney, Marriot Corporation, Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake, cheesecake, ecstasy, pumpkin pie, lemon juice, faerie, graham cracker, ginger, cream cheese, sour cream, pumpkin, purée, maple syrup, Whipped Cream
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That is so adorable! I love the pictures of your daughter as the taste tester! I want a big piece with a large glass of milk too!
Hillary: thanks! She is the best food photography model around … she will pause in mid bite for me to shoot something and will put up with my shooting for a few minutes. She is usually game for anything new and if she doesnt like it, she doesnt pitch a fit, she just wont eat any more
If you make this, milk is a definite requirement.
“Delightful and Delicious” is what you should have called this post! Your daughter looks like a real charmer and this cheesecake looks totally decadent! I LOVE the idea of adding ginger to whipped cream!
I love ginger in just about anything! Glad you like the cheesecake and the little faerie
Pumpkin in dessert isn’t common in my country, but BOY that looks good! (Too bad cream cheese is so expensive here too!)
manggy: wow, I guess this cheesecake would be fantastically expensive for you
Which country do you hail from? Here in the US, pumpkin seems to be used mostly as a dessert (around thanksgiving mostly too).
Haha! I’m from the Philippines. Philadelphia is about $3, making the cream cheese requirement for this $15! Very decadent.
I know of only one dessert here that uses mashed pumpkin/squash. There are plenty of savory dishes that use squash, though
29 degrees? Yikes! I’m sorry, I don’t know, but where do you live? The photos of your daughter are just precious. And that recipe is fabulous. It would be great for Thanksgiving, minus the ghost, of course.
Susan: We live in central MA. Hey, use chocolate to make a little turkey to put on your pumpkin cheesecake! 29 and no snow is a bit better than 29 and driving snow
We are looking at wind swept rain tomorrow from the hurricane , bleechh.