Fourteen for Fall- Recipe #2

Mom made a delightful choice for this week's challenge-- Pumpkin Cheesecake! The recipe comes from Tracy at Sugarcrafter.


But before I continue on, I want to finish giving the results from the Caramel Apple Cake from last week. If you want to check out my sister's review, you can visit her blog here: http://mystrongestlife.blogspot.com/2010/09/fourteen-for-fall-week-1.html. As for my mom, she gave this review of the cake: "It is delicious! I made it this PM. Very smooth texture and festive fall spice tasting. The kitchen smells wonderful!!" So if you hadn't decided to make it yet, maybe those reviews will win you over!

Back to the cheesecake...

I must admit, I have never made a cheesecake on my own before. I don't even own a springform pan. Honestly, I was always a little intimidated by the water bath - how are you supposed to do that without getting the cake wet in one of those spring form pans? And you wrap the bottom in tin foil? And you use boiling water to set in the pan that goes around the cheesecake that is covered with tin foil? It all seemed like a very big project. But when I saw that this recipe simply had you bake it without all the extra steps, I was even more excited to make it!

Because of all the baking over the weekend and the amount of food in my kitchen, I decided to go ahead and halve the recipe. I had a 'conference' with my mom and she said it wasn't necessary to buy a springform pan either, so I decided to forgo that for now as well. Usually I don't like to make many changes, especially on something so new, but I decided it would be ok.

The crust had only three ingredients and was quick to put together. Even though I halved the recipe, I think maybe I should have kept the crust recipe the same. I've heard from other bloggers that many of them double the recipe for crust unless they do less cheesecake. For this particular one, I feel that would be a good idea. More crust is a must!


The cheesecake part was whipped up with ease in my trusty kitchen-aid (thanks again Mom!). I guess maybe I've baked cakes too long, but the mixture was more smooth and pourable than I expected. I decided to use an 8" cake pan. It was a good size in my opinion. Here it is right before going in the oven.



During my 'conference' with mom she had advised that I reduce the original temperature of the oven and also cut the time in half for baking. So I baked the cheesecake at 400* for about 7 minutes. Then I opened the oven door, let out some heat, turned down the temp. to 200*, and then closed the oven door. The full recipe stated to bake the cheesecake at 450* for 15 min. and then reduce the temperature of the oven to 200* and bake for an additional hour. So I checked mine at the 30 min. mark and it didn't seem done. The recipe said the edges would be set and the middle would be wiggly-- but how wiggly I wondered? So I texted my sister and she said it would be almost like jell-o. Even with that, I still ended up leaving it in for the full hour and I think it was just right. It was still pretty wiggly which made me nervous, but I trusted the "jell-o theory" and took it out to cool.



I let it cool down, then covered it and placed it in the refrigerator. I didn't try a piece until the next day! I'll admit, the springform pan would have made it much easier to cut and remove the cake. But all things considered, I thought I got a pretty good-looking piece out.



I don't have a ton of expertise in the area because cheesecakes are usually special occasion desserts. But overall, I really enjoyed the cheesecake. It wasn't too pumpkin-y, which I thought was in its favor. You could still taste the pumpkin, but it wasn't overpowering which was nice. I didn't have any cardamom, which the recipe called for, so I'm not sure how that would have factored into the spice factor. I felt that there probably could have been a smidge more cinnamon and nutmeg, but, as I said, if the cardamom had been in there it might have been a different story. Sugarcrafter recommends drizzling some caramel sauce over the top, we didn't try this. I wanted to eat my first piece without any topping and after eating in plain, I don't think I miss the caramel on it. I might try one piece with it, but I think it would take away from the goodness that comes from the cheesecake alone.

**If you want to read my sister's review, check out her blog here: My Strongest Life. Mom said she enjoyed the cheesecake. She thought the ginger in the crust was an interesting addition and that it helped tie together the crust with the spices in the cheesecake. She also lacked cardamom and would be interested to see how this changes the overall taste of the cheesecake.**

I was very happy with how my first cheesecake turned out. Seems like lots of people have problems with the cheesecake cracking and such, but there was no such thing here. I believe I will save this recipe for sure and bring it out for special occasions.

To life... full of cheesecake without cracks and water baths!