A Sure Sign that Fall is Here.........Pumpkin Cheesecake!

I'm a huge fan of fall. I love the changing colors of the leaves. I love the musky smell of piles of leaves wet on the ground. I love the cooler nights and shorter days. I love using it as an excuse to bake lots of things with pumpkin in them. So today I present to you a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Graham crust finished off with pecan nougatine(fancy word for caramelized sugar with nuts thrown in, usually almonds, but pumpkin and pecan are just so nummy together). I'm not the biggest cheesecake fan, but I do love this one. As I'm feeling a bit short of words today, I'll just give you the recipe!

Pecan Graham Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I just whirred a bunch up in my food processor)
1 cup ground pecans (ditto on the above technique)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
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-Prepare a 10" spring form pan by buttering it and placing a parchment paper circle in the bottom.
-Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whirrrrrrrr it until it resembles moist sand.
-Press into the bottom of the spring form pan and set aside.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (filling adapted from Marcel Desaulnier's Death by Chocolate: The Last Word on a Consuming Passion)

2 pounds room temperature cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound (2 cups) pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 tsp ground cloves)
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-Preheat oven to 300f.
-In the bowl of a food processor combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt and process, scraping down the sides every once in awhile, until smooth.
-Add the eggs one at a time, processing well after each addition.
-Add the vanilla, pumpkin puree and spices and process until well blended and smooth.
-Pour the mixture over the crust in the spring form pan, wrap the bottom of the spring form pan in aluminum foil.
Before Baking:
-Place the spring form pan into a baking dish deep enough to hold a water bath that will go about 2 inches up the sides of the spring form pan. Place this into the oven and fill the baking dish with water 2 inches up the sides of the spring form.
-Bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes, or until the cheesecake is slightly pulling away at the sides and jiggles like jello (it will continue to set up as it cools and it will pull away from the sides once it is completely cooled). Turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool inside with the door propped open for about one hour, remove from oven, let cool at room temp another hour, then refrigerate overnight.
After Baking
After chilling overnight and unmolding:Pecan Nougatine:

1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice
1/2 cup pecan pieces
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-Place sugar, water and cream of tartar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat to boiling and allow to boil, swirling the pan a bit, until the sugar has turned a nice golden brown (also wash down the sides of the pan a bit as the sugar is cooking with a pastry brush and some water, or for the first three minutes of the boil, cover the pan and let the condensation wash down the sides for you).
-Once the sugar is a nice golden brown, stir in the pecan pieces. Pour mixture immediately onto a buttered sheet of aluminum foil or a sheet of parchment paper. Do not touch, it is hot! Allow to cool and then break into desired pieces, and place on pumpkin cheesecake as you like!Slice, dollup with whipped cream if you want and enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea, or cider, or coffee or........

Happy baking!

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Pumpkin Takes the Form of Fudge!

Pumpkin fudge. Who knew? I certainly had never thought of or heard of pumpkin fudge until a weekend or so ago when my Mom mentioned it. I knew this was something I just had to try, and with my Mother visiting me this week, today became the perfect day for an experiment.

Now, I haven't made fudge in ages. I remember Mom making fudge when I was a kid. The pan would sit on the counter to cool, and I just wanted to dig into the hot chocolate glop. I didn't quite understand the concept behind cooling to 110 degrees, then stirring until the fudge started to set up. I understand the basics of it now...You let it cool down and then stir stir stir (your arm will feel tired, you will want someone to help, luckily G was available to assist me a bit) so that the little crystals in the fudge line up nicely and you end up with a fairly smooth melt-in-your-mouth hunk of yum (at least that is my understanding....it is possible that I am wrong). Because this fudge turned out so lovely, I feel much more secure in my ability to make more fudge for the upcoming holiday season. Another thing I seem to remember about making fudge (or any candy, for that matter) is that the weather can have an effect on the end product. Rainy or damp days are not the best for candy production, unless you live in an airtight temperature controlled room. I am lucky the rain hasn't seriously started here in Silicon Valley (having moved here a few months ago I'm not sure when it will start), or my fudge may have not set up as nicely.

I encourage people who haven't made fudge the old fashioned way to give it a try, the texture is different and the flavor is much deeper than any of the newer recipes that use marshmallow as a base. With that, on to the recipe!

Pumpkin Fudge:

3 cups white sugar
1 cup whole milk (I didn't have whole milk and used half 1% milk and half heavy cream)
3 Tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (canned or home-made)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I used 3/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger and a few grates of whole nutmeg)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts or peanuts or whatever nut you think will be tasty
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-In a heavy bottomed saucepan, stir together sugar, milk, corn syrup, pumpkin puree and salt. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly and brushing down sides of the sauce pan with water.
-Reduce heat to medium and cook without stirring to 234 degrees f on a candy thermometer or until the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into ice water.
-Remove from heat and stir in spices, butter, vanilla and pecans.
Set aside and allow to cool to 110 degrees f. This seems to drop about 10 degrees every ten minutes, but this was in my coolish apartment. It may take more or less time for you. Don't stir it while it is cooling.
-Have an 8"x8" pan greased and ready.
-Once the mixture reaches 110 degrees f, begin stirring. Stir Stir Stir Stir. Stir some more. Maybe stir it a bit longer. You are to stir until the mixture loses its gloss and starts to thicken considerably. Stir some more, you aren't there yet...Stir till your arm feels like it's going to fall off, then switch hands and stir a bit more...you get the idea. It does take some time and patience and lots of elbow grease to get there, but fear not, it will. Once the mixture starts to thicken and lose it's gloss (not before this happens) immediately pour, or scrape..I found my bowl scraper very handy for both working the mixture and scraping it to the pan...into the prepared 8"x8" pan. Let it set up.
-Cut into about 36 nice little squares.
-Share the love.


Happy Candy Making!

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Fall Beckons, or, I Succumb to Pumpkin

I'm starting to feel Autumn creeping up on me. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. Having moved this year from Wisconsin, where the seasons announce themselves with gusto, to Northern California, I am afraid that I will be missing the seasonal changes. It is a bit cooler here now, the days are getting shorter but I am not sure if the leaves are going to turn the warm palette of colors that they do back home. I know I will miss the musty smell of the leaves on the ground just after a cool rain hits them.

I am going to try to make up for this with other things I like this time of year. And there's nothing I like better in the Fall than pumpkin things. The colors of the pumpkin remind me of the colors of the leaves. Jack o' lanterns are great fun to carve. Pumpkin incorporated into baked items is a joy to eat. You will start to notice a few posts involving pumpkin from here on out.

I woke up Sunday with a craving for some pumpkin muffins. These are a favorite of mine year round, but I haven't made them in a few years and decided I really needed to start making them again. These are wonderful muffins. Moist with pumpkin, spicy with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger (or pumpkin pie spice if you have it on hand, I did not, so I had to make due with what I had). The best thing about them is that you can refrigerate the batter and it will last a few days. You can have fresh baked muffins everyday!


Pumpkin Muffins: Makes about 20 muffins.

15 ounces pumpkin puree (should be one small can of pumpkin, or if you prefer to use your own pumpkin puree, I think that would be grand)
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice ( I didn't have pumpkin pie spice on hand, so I used 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger and I grated a bit of nutmeg into it)
4 eggs
3/4 cup oil
3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
cinnamon sugar blend to sprinkle over the tops
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-Preheat oven to 350f
-Mix together pumpkin puree, sugar, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
-Add eggs one at a time mixing after each addition until blended.
-Slowly add oil while mixing to incorporate.
-Sift together flour and baking powder. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix just to blend. Add nuts, and mix just to distribute.
-At this point you can keep the batter refrigerated in an air tight container for up to 3 days.
-Prepare a muffin tin by spraying with pan spray, or lining with paper muffin cups. Scoop batter into cups filling about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the tops of the batter with cinnamon sugar mixture.
-Bake at 350f for about 20-25 minutes or until the top of the muffin springs back when you gently push on it.
Mmmmmmmmm enjoy! Great for breakfast, great for tea, great for anytime!

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