Pumpkin Cheesecake & Cheesecake-lets

Now, I have never been the biggest fan of cheesecake. I will eat it when the time comes (like when we go to the Cheesecake Factory; then I will eat all $7 worth of that giant piece of cheesecake they give you that probably has about 50,000 calories in it), but I have never actually made it for myself. So, the opportunity presented itself  in the form of my friend Jessica's 22nd birthday (yes, the same Jessica who helped me save a piece of the hamburger cake).

Jessica had mentioned in passing that she loved cheesecake, so all I had to do was figure out which kind she liked the best. I gave her roommates the stealthy task of discovering, and a few days later I got a text message simply saying "pumpkin". Well then, she'll get pumpkin cheesecake!

It is the perfect time of year for it because I could get everything I needed pretty cheap because it was right after Thanksgiving. Without further ado, here is Pumpkin Cheesecake:

Disclaimer - cheesecake recipe adapted from Paula Dean's cheesecake recipe at the Food Network.

Your cheesecake is made up of two parts: the crust, and the actual cake.

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 Degrees Faranheit. Grease 9-in round pan* and set aside.
*You are suppose to use a spring-form pan, but alas, I did not have one. Therefore, I used a regular cake pan and it worked fine.

Crushed graham cracker

Crust:

Ingredients
1-3/4 cups crushed graham crackers
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 stick (1/2 cup) melted butter



Directions

Crush graham crackers in plastic bag (I found that about one sleeve of graham crackers is about the right amount crushed). Add the graham crackers, brown sugar, and cinnamon together and stir. Add melted butter  and stir together. Press into greased pan and set aside.

Cake:
Ingredients
3-8 oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature*
1-15 oz can of pumpkin pureee

Me trying to get my cream cheese at room temp.

3 eggs plus one egg yolk
1/4 cup sour cream
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Beat the cream cheese until there are no lumps in the bowl. Next, add the pumpkin puree, eggs and egg yolk, sugar, the sour cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves (you can be liberal with the spices, the directions aren't exact). After thoroughly mixed in, add in flour and vanilla (again, you can "eye ball" it). Mix well.
Pour the cake batter into the prepared crust, and make sure that it is even in the pan. The batter will be pretty liquid-y at this point. Place the pan in the oven at 350 degrees F for one hour.

Remove the cake from the oven -- it is done when you can wiggle the pan and the batter doesn't jiggle. Or, if you press the top of the cake and it doesn't spring back.

Let the cake cool down (about 20-30 minutes) and then place covered in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Et voila!

 
* Now, when I put my cream cheese in the mixer, I thought it was room temperature. And it definitely wasn't! I mixed and mixed thinking that it was pretty smooth, and then when I added in all the rest of the ingredients I ended up getting a lot of lumps. That is why I ended up using the whisk for my Kitchen Aid -- to try and get some of the lumps out.

As you can see in the picture, I ended up with more than just one cake! I think the spring-form pans are a bit taller, so I poured in about 3/4 of the batter to the 9-in round pan and it was full. So, I quickly put together some more crust (I cut everything in half) and then made what I like to call "Pumpkin Cheesecake-lets", or tiny pumpkin cheesecakes in muffin tins. I ended up cooking those for about 40 minutes in the same oven as the cheesecake.

In the future, I would probably bake the crust some before putting the cake. It was a good crust, but it ended up being more soft than I thought it would be, and I like a harder crust.

And as for the spices, I tend to just "eyeball" everything that small. So, every time I make it the flavors may be a little bit different, which I am perfectly ok with. I operate with the firm belief that some of these ingredients are suggestions, so I will change them as I please.

And Jessica loved her cake!