Pumpkin Cheesecake Puffy Cups

Here's something which I made very recently for a bake sale we were having at work, and the popularity of which took me completely by surprise. I originally made these in the form of galettes (round, flat pastries with a cheesecake center), but the super-puffiness of the galette with cheesecake at its heart was a little too flaky for my liking, so I decided to try an alternative presentation.  I liked it this way much better -- not only was it more compact, so the pastry dough didn't get as dry and overly-flaky, but the look is quite unique, which always appeals to me. ;) Since puff pastry can be found in the freezer section and does not necessarily have to be made from scratch (you can try to do it yourself, if you've got the time & patience...and I have neither), you'll have to set it out to thaw well in advance.  But believe me when I say that you will look like a genius or a culinary master if you've never used puff pastry before and use it for this recipe.  People will be so impressed with you!  ;)  The pre-made pastry makes this a super-easy recipe, and one that can be made in parts, the first part well ahead of time.  (Especially handy when dealing with lack of time during the day of a big event in your life!)  In my opinion, the hardest part of this whole process was removing the puffs from the muffin tins without completely destroying the pastry if it gets stuck to the sides of the muffin well.  Also, it is worth noting that you will need to use large/jumbo muffin tins, not small ones, containing 6 muffin wells.  The smaller muffin tins simply will not be big enough in this case.

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Ingredients:
1 8-oz brick softened cream cheese (can be reduced fat)
1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
½ C sugar
⅓ C brown sugar
½ can (about 7 oz) mashed pumpkin
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 puff pastry sheets
Decorative sugar and extra pumpkin pie spice for garnish
Powdered sugar

Directions:
Take puff pastry out of freezer and place on counter at least 1 hour ahead of any other preparation so it can thaw and soften up.  With a stand mixer, cream butter, sugars, salt, and vanilla together.  Add cream cheese and beat until well-incorporated.  Add mashed pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and flour.  Continue beating until well-blended, scraping down sides of bowl and beater as needed.  Pour mixture into an air-tight container and place in refrigerator to chill. (Can be made up to 3 days in advance.)

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray the individual wells of two muffin trays with cooking spray.  Lay puff pastry sheets out on parchment paper laid out on a flat surface.

Take a pizza cutter or knife and divide sheet into 4 even squares.  

Take each square and place into muffin cups. Corners hanging out are OK.  

Liberally sprinkle pumpkin pie spice over puff pastry dough.  Take cheesecake mixture out of the fridge, and using a small scoop (½ oz), drop a generous scoopful into each well.  When finished, sprinkle decorative sugar over the edges of each pastry.

Stick muffin trays into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are puffed up and are golden brown. Remove from oven. (Cheese centers will puff up during baking, but then completely collapse once removed from the heat, just FYI.)

When completely cooled, remove puffs from muffin tins and generously sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve.  Can be stored overnight without refrigeration for one night.

Makes 1 dozen cups.

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GBAdams
12/12/2012

Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake

I started this dessert with a basic New York-style cheesecake recipe, and modified it to incorporate mashed pumpkin & pumpkin pie spices. Sort of a regular pumpkin pie, made all the more decadent by the addition of cream cheese.  I think it turned out decently...although next time around I won't use as much caramel sauce. (I used the entire jar on my cake; for the recipe that follows, I reduced it by half.)

I've seen other recipes for pumpkin cheesecakes, but nothing like this one.  It's a relatively simple mixture, and there's no bourbon or whiskey incorporated like others I've seen out there. (Although that may be something I experiment with in the future!)  Try it...I hope you enjoy it like my Thanksgiving guests all did!  :)

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Ingredients:
Crust - 
1¼ C graham crackers (2 packages of a 14.4-oz box)
6 Tbsp melted butter or margarine
¼ C sugar
½ t salt

Filling - 
2 lbs cream cheese (4 - 8oz packages)
4 eggs, slightly beaten
½ C sugar
½ C packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp flour
½ t salt
2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1¼ Tbsp lemon juice
½ can cooked, mashed pumpkin (7-8 oz)
1 C (8 oz) caramel topping for ice cream (such as Mrs. Richardson's or Smuckers)
pinch gourmet sea salt (optional)

Will need a 9" or 10" springform cake pan.

Directions:
In a food processor, crumble up graham crackers until they have been reduced to very fine crumbs.  (Can also be done using a gallon ziploc and a rolling pin.)  The finer the crumbs, the more even your crust will be.  Add sugar, salt and melted butter.  Mix until butter is well-blended in the crumbs.  Press mixture into the bottom of a springform pan; try to make the bottom as packed in and even as possible.  Place in refrigerator to firm up.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Beat cream cheese in a mixer until smooth.  In the meantime, combine beaten eggs, sugars, salt, pumpkin pie spice, lemon juice and mashed pumpkin.  Mix well.  Add to cream cheese slowly.  Sides of bowl and beater blades will have to be scraped, as the cream cheese is denser and stickier than the liquid mixture.  Once the entire thing is well-blended (meaning there aren't a lot of cream cheese clumps visible), pour into chilled springform pan. Place pan onto a cookie sheet and bake for 1½ hours.  Cheesecake is done when top has cracked and center has solidified (i.e. is no longer "jiggly").  Remove and cool completely, 2-3 hours.

When cheesecake is cooled, use a butter knife to loosen cake from the sides of the springform pan.  Release cake from pan and place onto serving plate.  Spoon 1 C caramel topping onto top of cheesecake and spread evenly over the top, alowing it to spill over the sides a little.  (Sauce might need to be warmed up for a few seconds [30-60] in the microwave in order for it to reach spreadable viscosity.)  Optional sea salt can be sparsely sprinkled over top of sauce.  Slice cake and serve.

Makes 12 servings.

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GBAdams
11/25/2011

5-Minute No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

Here's a recipe for those of you who are severely time-constrained but have to come up with a dish or dessert, like for a potluck.  It is unbelievably easy and quick to make, and will probably be a hit at the dinner table or whatever event you might bring it to.  ;) 

I made this up on a whim last night without having had the benefit of a prior recipe as a starting point....so I'm relieved to say it turned out pretty good!  ;)  I have tried to see if there's another recipe out there just like it, but so far I've had no luck in finding one, which is surprising considering I'm using pre-made cheesecake filling.  You'd think there'd be a ton of recipes out there for this filling, but not so much that I've found.  (If you do find one, let me know, would you??)

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Ingredients:
1 tub Cheesecake Filling
½ can pumpkin (about 7-8 oz)
1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice
1 pre-made graham cracker pie crust

Directions:
Take out pre-made pie crust & remove the plastic lid.  Set aside.  In a bowl, empty tub of cream cheese filling.  Add canned pumpkin and the tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice.  Fold in and mix well. Pour into pie crust. Ready to serve as is, or you can cover and chill for serving later.

Makes 8 servings.

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GBAdams
11/02/2011

Autumn Pumpkin Muffins w/Cream Cheese Frosting

Variation on a theme: pumpkins!  ;)

A few years ago I tweaked my banana bread recipe by incorporating pumpkin instead of bananas.  It took several tries, but I did eventually get it right.  And then this year I had a "eureka!" moment.  What if I tweaked it some more so that I could make muffins out of the recipe.  Aha! So I did. And here is the result.

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Ingredients:
Dry
2 C Flour (all-purpose)
1 C white sugar
¾ C dark brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1-2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Liquid
2 whole eggs, slightly beaten
½ C melted butter (1 stick) or canola oil
1 C milk (can be substituted with soy milk)
15 oz. (1 can) plain mashed pumpkin
4 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:
8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened to room temperature
1 block of cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1½ C powdered sugar (3/4 lb powdered sugar)
2 tsp vanilla

Prep:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Line 10-12 large muffin baking pans with paper liners. Set aside.

Directions:
Mix together flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Add eggs, butter and milk.  Stir until everything is moistened, then add the mashed pumpkin; combine well.  Mix in the vanilla.  Divide batter evenly and pour into prepared muffin cups.  Bake for 50 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

While muffins are baking, prepare frosting: in a bowl, beat together softened butter and cream cheese with a mixer at medium-high speed.  Once fully incorporated together, add powdered sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating slowly.  (Or else you’ll kick up the powder and will end up wearing it. LOL)  Once all the sugar has been added and initially mixed in, add vanilla.  Beat mixture on medium-high to high speed until fully creamed and smooth, about 4-5 minutes.  It’s a good idea to stop after about 2 minutes and scrape the sides of the bowl (especially if you have a stand mixer) to make sure that all of the butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla are fully mixed in. Chill mixture in refrigerator to help it set up; take out 15 minutes prior to frosting muffins so it can warm up a little and be more pliable. You definitely don’t want either the muffins or the frosting to be warm when you apply it to the tops; if the muffin is still warm, the frosting will melt and/or slide right off the top.

Once muffins are fully cooled, frost with cream cheese mixture.  Can be piped on and decorated or spread with a rounded knife.

Makes about 10-12 muffins.

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GBAdams
10/11/2011

Harvest Pumpkin Pancakes

So a friend of mine recently gave me an idea on a new breakfast idea, just in time for autumn.  If you use pancake mix and canned pumpkin, this is a very simple and easy recipe to make.  You can, of course, always use your favorite from-scratch pancake recipe and/or homemade mashed pumpkin, but this was infinitely easier and faster to make, especially if you're as busy as most people I know with kids. 

Hope you enjoy it! :)

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Ingredients:
10 oz pancake mix (such as Shake N Pour)
2 C cool water
7 oz mashed pumpkin (about ½ a can)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
butter or cooking spray for the griddle



Directions:
Combine pancake mix and water; mix well.  Whisk in mashed pumpkin and pie spice. 

The mix should not be the consistency of cake batter, it should be about the same or slightly thinner than regular pancake batter.  So if mix is too thick, thin with water or milk until desired consistency is achieved.  Pour batter onto greased griddle (you can use butter or cooking spray on the griddle) that's been preheated on medium to medium-high; be careful not to pour too much at once so pancakes don't run into one another. 

When the pancakes start to lift on the edges and the batter has large bubbles throughout, flip.  Cook for another 7-10 minutes, or until other side is golden brown.  Serve with butter or margarine and syrup. 

Makes about 15 medium-sized pancakes.

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GBAdams
10/09/2011

Germ’s Pumpkin Bread

This autumn/wintertime favorite of mine took quite a bit of trial and error to get right.  Dare I say it's still a work in progress, even after all these years.  (I even recently tweaked it a wee bit -- and then I also made muffins! But more about that later...)  I started with my banana bread recipe and tried it out with pumpkin...and quickly found out it's not an even swap.  My poor husband was such a good sport about it, gamely trying each iteration until I got it right.  And he's not even a huge pumpkin fan.  I did eventually get it right, even to the point where I sent loaves of these to friends & family as holiday gifts.

So here is the winner.  I hope you enjoy.  :)

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Ingredients:

Dry
2 C Flour (all-purpose)

1 C white sugar

¾ C dark brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1-2 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Liquid

2 whole eggs, slightly beaten

½ C melted butter (1 stick) or canola oil

⅔ C milk (can be substituted with soy milk)

15 oz. (1 can) plain mashed pumpkin

4 tsp vanilla extract

Prep:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Thoroughly grease (or spray w/cooking spray) 1 large, 2 medium-sized or 4 mini loaf pans

Directions:

Mix together flour, sugars, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Add eggs, butter and milk.  Stir until everything is moistened, then add the mashed pumpkin; combine well.  Mix in the vanilla.  Pour into large loaf pan or divide mixture evenly between medium or mini loaf pans. 

Bake for at least 1 hour or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Can be served plain or frosted with cream cheese frosting, like so:

Makes about 12 servings.

High altitude:
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.

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GBAdams
01/06/2008