Bake 52 Week 46 - Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

This week we did cheesecake.  This was an interesting recipe for me.  I ended up getting it started late on Monday so I had to abbreviate the recipe a bit. 

The baking wasn't that complicated.  I made a crust of gramham crackers, melted butter, sugar, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.  Mixed it all up in my food processor and pressed that all into my springform pan and baked it for about 15 minutes. 

While the crust baked and cooled I got started on the filling.  I started by spreading the pumpkin puree on a bunch of paper towels.  This was the weirdest part but I just spread it like frosting and trusted that it would work.

Then I covered it with more paper towels and pressed the pumpkin between the two to stacked of paper towels.  Then I left it like that while I put everything else together. 

I mixed the sugar with all the spices.  That smelled yummy, a lot like my dad's Christmas cookies.  It uses a lot of the same spices.  Plus I loved all the colors.

Then it was just a matter of mixing everything together one thing at a time.  When it was time to add the pumpkin I was surprise by how easy it was to get it off the paper towels.  I essentially just rolled it up...

I almost ran out of room in my bowl  getting everything mixed together and smooth.  I spread butter on the crust which I'd only let cool for about 25 minutes.  Then I dumped the mix in on top of the crust.  That's when I remember I was supposed to wrap the pan in two layers of aluminum foil, put it in a roaster pan (that had a kitchen towel in it), then put the whole contraption in the oven and poured boiling water into the roaster pan.  So elaborate!  I wish they'd explain why all that is required, but as usual I just followed the directions.

I stuck it in the oven for an hour and a half.  When the timer went off I was glad to see that it was higher than 150 - probably meant that it was over cooked but it meant I could go to bed.

The recipe calls for a really elaborate process for cooling the cheese cake.  I just left it out on the stove over night.  Not the right thing to do from a food safety perspective but I figured it wouldn't kill me.  :-)

The next morning I stuck it in the frig and went to work.  After work and dinner I pulled it out to have a piece.  I have to say it tastes exactly like the name, pumpkin, spice and cheesecake.  I really liked the crust.  It was almost like toffee.  It was my favorite part. 

If you like pumpkin and cheese cake I'd recommend this recipe.  It was really pretty easy (a little long) and turned out perfectly even though I didn't bother to do everything for cooling it properly.

If you want to try it check out Amanda's blog for the full recipe.