Tag Archives: dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake

15 Dec

When a coworker’s birthday arrives, I always try to bake for the office.  It gives me a great excuse to bake and not have to eat it all.  For one coworker, Sam, I gave him a blank slate to choose what he wanted.  His choice: Pumpkin Cheesecake.  Wise choice, Sam.  Wise Choice.

I didn’t have a recipe that I loved, and usually actually wind up making no-bake cheesecakes (I usually prefer their texture).  For his, however, I did some searching around online to see what I could come up with.  My typical method for coming up with recipes is to check out some highest rated ones around the internet (AllRecipes.com is great), go to some of my most trusted resources for recipes (Food Network, Pioneer Woman, and Smitten Kitchen to name a few), then combine my favorite parts of each and my past recipes to come up with something a bit more Sara.  When I saw this recipe from Paula Deen, however, I decided to try it as-is.  And boy am I glad I did!  This was the best graham cracker crust I have ever tried.

You combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and cinnamon and then add melted butter.  This is pretty much the same set of ingredients as every graham cracker crust, however, the proportions and texture is just perfect.

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Then you press it into the bottom of a springform pan.

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And if you want to make a sample for yourself and your boyfriend to “make sure it tastes okay” before cutting into the big one the next day… fill the bottom of a non-stick baking cup.   

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Next for the filling, you need cream cheese at room temperature.  It’s amazing how long it takes cream cheese to get to room temp, so I used the kangaroo pouch in my apron to speed it along.  (TIP: Take your cream cheese out a few HOURS before you start) 

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Then you fill the springform with the combination of blended cream cheese, pumpkin puree, eggs (both full and yolks), sugar, spices, and sour cream (which I think really added a perfect flavor!)  The one edit I made is that I added more spices, since I love the flavors of fall.  I honestly could have probably added even more. 

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Then I put the same filling into the cups.

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 And set the whole thing to bake at 350 for 1 hour. (Or 30-35 minutes for the mini cups).

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Then let it cool for 15 minutes before slapping yourself in the forehead.  Why?  Cheesecakes are finicky little things.  They just LOVE to expose their fault lines as they cool.   Every other cheesecake I’ve ever baked I have put in a water bath (which regulates the temperature so it doesn’t crack as it cools), and I just plum forgot.  D’oh! 

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Honestly?  No one cared and it still tasted MARVELOUS!  I don’t think I would change a thing about this recipe with the exception of a bit more allspice and clove.

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And what would a Sara dessert be without a homemade schlag to go with it?  I thought a salted carmel schlag would compliment the pumpkin cheesecake… so I looked up a recipe and found out that it was basically just making caramel, adding salt, then adding in the heavy cream, letting it cool and then whipping it up.  Easy-peasy!

Unfortunately, however, my pot has a hot spot and it kept burning in one corner.  Damn.  It was still delish though!

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I added the cream once it browned…

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 And the cool cream instantly made it into cracked caramel sugar.  But a few spins over medium heat and it blended nicely into a delicious base for whipped cream.

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 And the minis?  Well… a bit overcooked.  I did it for 45 minutes, so probably more like 30-35 would be better (cheesecake shouldn’t brown, and should be a little loose in the middle).

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 But they popped out beautifully.

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 And made a perfect bite with the whipped cream.

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This is a fantastic recipe.  And a TRUE crowd pleaser.

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RECIPE
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Pumpkin Pie
(Borrowed with hardly any changes from Paula Deen via FoodNetwork.com)

Ingredients

Crust:

  • 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

  • 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
  • 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I would make this 1/4 or 1/2 tsp. depending on your love of cloves and possibly also add 1/4 tsp. Allspice)
  • 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:

In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

  

  

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Peach and Pear Crumble

10 Nov

I was reading TheKitchn blog and stumbled on this post, which led me to this recipe.  I had a whole bunch of peaches and pears to use up so I decided this was a perfect opportunity to bake up what sounded like a great recipe.

I first cut up all the fruit (I think it wound up being 2 large peaches and 3 large pears).  I mixed all that with 1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, two tablespoons of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a dash of freshly-ground nutmeg (just as the blog told me) and put it into the bottom of a pie plate.  It said not to grease it, but that always makes me nervous… so I sprayed it with Pam Butter Spray before I loaded it all in there.

Then I made the crumble by combining sugar, flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.  This was then mixed with the egg.  If you mix it by hand (and I literally mean squeezing the mixture between your fingers), you will get little nuggets of crumble.

I then put that right over the fruit.

And poured the melted butter over top.

And put it in the oven at 375 for about 45 minutes until it was nicely browned on top.  (My oven takes a bit longer for most recipes, so I would check it after 30 minutes)

It wound up more liquidy inside than I expected.

And it certainly needed to be served in a bowl to look pretty since it had no form.  But I wasn’t impressing anyone.

And it was perfectly paired with some whipped cream.

As far as recipes go, this was a damn good one.  But I would at least one tweak.  Mainly… there wasn’t enough BROWN SUGAR!  Now yes… I do like my desserts sweet, but the best part of a crumble, in my opinion, is the fruit paired with the buttery crumbly top and the bit of molasses stuff you get from the combo of brown sugar and fruit juice.  Also, the original recipe called for crystallized ginger, which I didn’t have… so I went without.  Perhaps that was the missing piece to send it over the edge.

Here is the original plum recipe: http://orangette.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-i-do-now.html

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Nomming thru Maine: Portland Day 2

9 Jul

Our day 2 in Portland was planned to be our foodie day.  We booked at 2 restaurants that were well acclaimed across the food world.  Our first stop was for lunch at Five Fifty Five.

They obviously know their audience…


The first thing on the menu that struck my eye was their cinnamon bun.  I think there are few things so indulgent as a stick, cinnamony, fluffy cinnamon bun.  And since my Weight Watchers points were out the window… this was just perfect.

And it was SO. GOOD.

They also served delicious table breads that I believe were current biscuits and little muffins.  They were served with homemade butter. Nom Nom Nom.

Mike ordered the pork sandwich.  This was good but nothing to write home about.

My truffle eggs with a chive popover, however, were out of this world.  I never knew eggs could taste that good.  Usually truffle is just a mild essence, that is sometimes too earthy for even my tastes.  This one, however, was absolutely delightful.

And I do love me some steaming popovers!

I was pretty impressed with this place overall, though I’m not sure if it was a MUST STOP since Mike’s meal was just so-so.

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10

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We had a bit of time to kill between lunch and dinner, so we booked ourselves a craft beer tour through the city courtesy of Maine Foodie Tours.  We started our tour at the Gritty McDuff’s Brewery.

They quickly took us behind the scenes to learn how beer is made.  I found the whole thing pretty awesome (though not quite as awesome as our tour of Mondavi where we learned SO much about how wine is made). It all starts with grain, and the toasting length determines the color and flavor (and the additives, like hops, really determine the flavor profile further).

We got to peer into the giant steel brewing vat to see what beer looks like during fermentation (maybe?)

Our next stop was at Sebago’s beer bar where we got to sample any 4 beers off the menu.  They had a nice display of grains toasted to different colors.

And I enjoyed my camera settings on this one.

Our final stop along the way was at a beer garden called Novare Res.  

The inside was quite cool and there were picnic tables for socializing outside.

They had quite the extensive draught list. I really liked how they put a flavor profile summary next to each one.

We got to sample two beers there.  One was Allagash White, which was good but one we’ve had in multiple places.  The second one was new and it blew my mind.  Marshall Wharf Deep Purple was described as “lager beer with peated malts. ‘smoke on the water.’” It tasted so smoky… almost like bacon… but in a VERY, VERY good way.

The beer tour was excellent and a lot of fun.  It really opened our eyes to how great craft beer is in Maine… we used this knowledge throughout the trip!

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Our last foodie destination scheduled for Portland was the one I was looking forward to the most.  Fore Street was the #1 restaurant that came up whenever I searched for or asked about where to eat in Portland, ME.  

Their kitchen area and ovens are pretty much in the middle of the space and fully exposed (which I love).  

They are big on the farm to table idea and their menu changes to reflect what is freshest at the time.

We were told that the wood oven roasted mussels were heavenly.  They certainly were!  The shells were so brittle that they just cracked away and they were easily the second best mussels I have ever had (after our epic mussel feast at Landmarc in NYC). 

The roast cauliflower was perfect cooked as a side.

Mike chose the two cuts of Maine Island Lamb (smoked shoulder and turnspit roasted leg) with roasted yukon potatoes.  Mmmm Mmmm this was GREAT!

I chose the pork chop with spice cherry and rhubarb sauce and pickled rhubarb.  I seriously nearly licked this plate clean.

We were epically stuffed, but not too stuffed for dessert!  I believe Mike went with the chocolate peanut butter torte.

And I chose the chocolate cake.  I couldn’t believe how good it was.

The best dessert I have ever had that I just couldn’t finish no matter how hard I tried!

I was actually so stuffed from this meal that I was nearly sick. My body just wasn’t used to eating like that after these last few weeks of dieting and 15 pounds less to stuff the food into!

The meal was sensational, however.

Total Nom points: 8.5 out of 10


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