After spending the first few hours of my Saturday morning reading alone on the couch(not complaining), I got a call from my mom wondering what I was up to. After quickly realizing I didn't want to spend the day couped up alone in my apartment, my mom and I decided to use the weekend to cook and bake together (pretty much my favorite kind of weekend). Thirty minutes later, I was off to Arlington.
A few weeks ago, my dad found a cheesecake recipe in the new Sunset magazine. Once he read the words 'salted caramel' he HAD to have it, and has been desperate for my mom and I to make it ever since. I'm pretty sure I saw drool on the pages when he handed us the recipe. (It happens to the best of us).
When we got home from the grocery store, after getting everything we needed for the weekend, I suggested that we have a glass of wine while we bake. My mom simply replied, "Well, YEAH. You think Julia never drank wine while SHE baked? Come on! You've heard her voice in some of those videos!"
..insert mine and mom's imitations of Julia's voice here...
Alright, so I've come to a few conclusions. Either Julia never really drank while she baked OR she holds a glass of wine much better than
We had a few mishaps. No big deal.
So I may have forgot to set the cream cheese and eggs at room temperature before we got everything started. That's okay. We just put everything on pause for thirty minutes or so and drank more wine.
So I almost forgot to add the pumpkin to our pumpkin cheesecake. Meh. I caught it just in time! (Mom told me no more wine til' dinner.)
So my mom wrapped the baking pan in foil far before she was supposed to. Didn't matter!
Because our cheesecake turned out beautiful and perfect and beautiful!
Tis' the season! The decadent holiday baking has commenced!
Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel
(Adapted from Sunset November 2011)
*This cheesecake turned out much more 'orange-y' than 'pumpkin-y'. To give it a better balance, I would maybe only use the zest of one orange next time, or increase the amount of pumpkin, or both.
CRUST
1 package (9 oz.) chocolate wafer cookies
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
FILLING
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon flour
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
Zest of 2 medium oranges
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
TOPPING
6 tablespoons store-bought caramel topping, or homemade caramel
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
Flaked salt* (such as Cyprus sea salt flakes or Maldon salt), for garnish
Preparation
Make crust: Preheat oven to 350°. Whirl cookies in a food processor until finely ground. Whirl in butter just until incorporated. Pour crumbs into a 9-in. springform pan and press over bottom and about 1 in. up inside of pan. Bake 7 minutes, then let cool on a rack. Reduce oven heat to 300°.
Make filling: In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, sugars, and flour until smooth. Beat in eggs on low speed 1 at a time. Add remaining filling ingredients and beat until just blended. Wrap bottom of pan with foil, pressing it up the outside.
Set springform pan in a roasting pan and pour filling into crust. Pour enough boiling water into roasting pan to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cheesecake barely jiggles in the center when gently shaken, about 1 1/4 hours. Let cheesecake cool on a rack 1 hour, then chill until cold, at least 5 hours.
Whisk caramel topping and table salt in a bowl and spoon over cheesecake. Arrange pecans around rim and sprinkle flaked salt over pecans.
*Flaked salt has large, hollow, crunchy crystals. Find it at well-stocked grocery stores and online.
Note:
For a fissure-free cheesecake, beat your filling just until it's blended--no more. (Too much air in the mixture will make it deflate, and then crack, in the oven.) Find pumpkin pie spice in your baking aisle, or make your own: 4 parts cinnamon, 2 parts ground ginger, 1 part nutmeg, and 1 part ground allspice.
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