This recipe is made up by me but if you have a favorite cheesecake recipe, you can use that recipe with these techniques. An easy recipe is the one found on the Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese. Just know that my recipe makes a huge cheesecake--one 9-inch springform AND a 9-inch pie. I usually make the springform size to bring to potlucks and parties during the holidays and Secret Agent Man gets upset when we get home because there isn't any cheesecake for him. Hence, the extra 9-inch pie. So,here we go...
Ingredients:
Graham Crackers- enough to make 2 cups of crumbs
1/4 c. Granulated (white) sugar
6 Tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. Cinnamon
5 pkg. (2.5 lbs) Cream Cheese
1 c. sour cream
1 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 can (15 oz) 100% Pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 Tbsp. Cinnamon plus any other spices you like: ginger, clove, nutmeg
Directions:
1. Make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature. If you need to, place the eggs (still in their shells) in a bowl of warm water. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Crumble your graham crackers. Use a food processor or your fingers. You should make enough crumbs to measure out about 2 cups. This is not precise and it's better to have more crumbs than not enough.
3. Add 1/4 c. sugar and cinnamon to crumbs. Mix.
4. Melt 6 Tbsp. butter and pour into crumb mixture. Mix. You may need to add more butter until the crumbs looks like wet sand.
Remember Apple Pie #2? This graham cracker crumb mix will smell fantastic. Control yourself.
5. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with oil.
6. Dump crumb mix into pan and spread around evenly. Then, take the bottom of a glass, measuring cup, or in my case a candle holder and press down on the crumb mixture firmly working from the middle outward. When you get to the edge, push down and against the side of the pan. It'll make the crumbs climb the side and stick up.
7. You are going to blind bake this crust. Meaning, stick the crust into the oven and bake it for about 10-15 minutes. You will know when to take it out when you smell the crumbs toasting.
8. Meanwhile, dump your softened, room temperature cream cheese into a big bowl or mixer. You may need to microwave your cream cheese for a few seconds (*hint* take off the aluminum wrapper) if the temperature of your room is around 30 degrees.
9. Beat the cream cheese for about 1 minute until creamy. Add sugar. I decided to use brown sugar instead of white sugar here (told ya, I make this up as I go along).
10. Add one cup of sour cream to mix and make sure that everything is well incorporated before adding eggs--one at a time.
***We interrupt this regularly scheduled program with this important message: Do NOT whip or beat the cream cheese mixture from this point on. If you are using your mixture, turn it down low so it basically stirs the mix. The more air you whip into the mix, the more likely you will have an uneven cheesecake and one that sinks after it cools. Be patient and add one egg at a time-stirring the mix. And now we return to your program***
11. Add the egg yolks to the mix, one at a time. Set aside.
12. In a large bowl, empty a can of pumpkin puree. Mix in spices of your choice, like cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice and/or nutmeg.
13. Add one more egg to the pumpkin puree and mix well. Add one half of the cream cheese mixture to the pumpkin mixture and fold it together.
14. Dump the rest of the cream cheese mixture directly into the crust.
15. Now, spoon the pumpkin mixture over the cream cheese mixture. Be very gentle. You want the pumkin to float on the cream cheese.
16. Smooth out and put into the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees.
17. You will have left over pumpkin/cream cheese mixture. You can put this in the refrigerator for later or you can bake it in a second pie plate at the same time.
18. I mis-timed my cheesecake but you want to turn off the oven before the cheesecake is completely done to avoid cracking. How do you know when this is? Obviously, you would be asking the wrong person since there's cracks in my cheesecake--most people won't care about the cracks so don't worry. Basically, you want to gently shake the cake. If it's still jiggly in the middle but firm around the sides (about 1 hour in the oven) then turn off the oven and allow the residual heat to continue cooking the cake and slowly bring the temperature down. Once you pull it out of the oven, run a knife around the edge.
19. Let it cool for another few hours in the pan. You may stick it in the refrigerator once it is cooled completely to room temperature. When you are brave enough, unmold your cake. Take off the ring and run a knife under the cake to loosen and slide onto a plate. It's easier if you have a cake cardboard to slide under the cake then transfer to a plate.
20. Serve this baby up--look at those lovely layers! The best way to cut a cheesecake, is to use a chef knife and run it under hot water after each slice. Learned this from a chef friend about 12 years ago. Never failed me yet!
Final words...this seems like a lot of work and super complicated but it really isn't so difficult. You can definately stop at the cream cheese mixture and leave out the pumpkin. It's also easier to bake this in a 9x13 glass pan or a 9-inch pie pan. You won't have to worry about cracking tops and it only takes about 45 minutes to bake at 300 degrees. This is really flexible and difficult to mess up. One last work--have fun with it! Try replacing the graham crackers with oreo cookies (minus the cream centers--trust me). Yum.
Now, go and impress your friends.
Sweet*mama
Why is the holiday food gone? This looks SOOOO good. Love the pumpkin stuff!
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