Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

Rose's Heavenly Cake, Page 247: Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust: I didn't make the gingersnap crust. I made digestive biscuit crust instead, cos i forgot to buy gingersnaps! :p i was lazy to bring out the food processor and used my hands to crush the digestive biscuits. I baked the crust for 10mins and put in the fridge to harden a bit.

Pumpkin Filling: While reading instructions for this (ok, ok, i didn't read the instructions prior..i read only last min) I realised by now that i still need to take my food processor out of the cabinet..argghh! Well, at least the next part - making the batter was easy. Rose said to smooth the batter with spatula, but my batter was very liquid..so nothing to smooth and it made me quite worried. But after baking, the pumpkin cheesecake did set, much to my relief. i wrapped aluminum foil over the springform pan which based on my experience, when baking via waterbath, water will leak through the springform pan if it is not covered with aluminum foil (or maybe my springform pan is lousy..lol!). After 45 mins, I removed the waterbath first and baked at 130C for 10mins more (just in case i figured..since my batter was liquid remember?) and then turned off and cooled the cheesecake in the oven for 45mins instead of 1 hour as instructed cos i was too impatient as i wanted to clean my oven asap.

Caramel Piping Glaze: Am I or smart or what? Or shall i say TOO smart? LOL! Instead of making caramel piping glaze, i made caramel candy instead! hahahaha! Look at the photo below. Now i have a batch of caramel toffee instead to go with my pumpkin cheesecake! Seriously, i don't know what i did..but i was happy stirring...more stirring and when i put in the butter i was still stirring over heat..i thought it won't do any harm. Then i added a tsp of brandy...and still stirring..lol! When i thought it was ok..it actually hardens into candy when cooled..and if i knew i was making toffee, i would have added some fleur de sel..would have been sooo good! It's still good now without fleur de sel....sticky, chewy & buttery. ;P See, this is a perfect example of not reading instructions properly!

Too burnt out to redo the caramel glaze, so i melted some chocolate and piped a huge flower on top of the cheesecake and put the pecan in the flower centre and as leaves. The less pecan nuts the better..i don't like them...:)

Verdict: Yummy!! Creamy and yet not too rich! Everyone loved it including my office colleagues. This cheesecake is extremely smooth & it melts-in-your mouth. Pumpkin taste is not so overpowering and blends in really well with the cheese! This recipe is definitely a keeper (minus the caramel glaze..hahaha) and i'll make it again, worth the effort of bringing out my food processor (sometimes i wish i have a bigger kitchen where i can put the food processor, kitchenaid mixer etc, on all the kitchen table..so i don't have to bring them in and out of my kitchen cabinet).

NOTE: Rose left a comment on Marie's blog..i cut & pasted it here as a way to remind myself not to worry about the thin batter...otherwise i might forget..

Rose Levy Beranbaum said...

fantastic job marie and everyone else who posted their versions. it's so fun to see how different they all look.

two important comments:

if the caramel comes off the slice in one gob it's because it was taken to too high a temperature. At a lower temperature a spoon or fork goes through it with ease. but i see loads of comments about thermometers so i'll say no more!

i appreciate the comment about the fear that the cake wouldn't set because the filling was so thin and i wrote to smooth it with a spatula. that's the danger of copy editing! my copy editor suggested adding this to all cakes and clearly it is not necessary for my cheesecake batters that flow into a smooth surface by themselves (note i never wrote this in the cake bible.) sometimes one's initial instincts best reflect what one actually does so i never should have added that phrase and i'm now taking it out for the next printing. thanks for calling it to my attention. it's great that this bake through will help to continue to perfect the book!