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Pumpkin Cheesecake

Welcome back! 
Today, we have a delicious Thanksgiving treat: Pumpkin Cheesecake! Pumpkin is a wonderful seasonal ingredient that works well in many contexts, and since we had already made a Pumpkin Basque Cheesecake, we decided to incorporate pumpkin in a more traditional-style cheesecake this year. This cheesecake features a spiced, nutty crust in addition to the smooth, creamy filling for a rich blend of flavors and textures.

Pumpkin Cheesecake


Makes a 7" cheesecake

Ingredients:

Crust:
  • 30 grams pecans
  • 70 grams cookies such as Biscoff or Speculoos
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling:
  • 2 boxes (16 ounces) cream cheese, softened
  • 300 grams steamed pumpkin (we used a kabocha pumpkin)
  • 2 eggs
  • 40 grams Greek yogurt
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon corn starch
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Prepare the crust:
    1. Add the pecans and cookies into a large food processor or mixer and pulse until the mixture is fairly fine.
    2. Add in the butter and salt and pulse to mix.
    3. Pour the crust mixture into the cake pan (preferably with a removable bottom) and press down with a hard surface (such as the bottom of a cup or a spoon) to pack and solidify the crust.
    4. Bake the crust at 350°F for 8 minutes.
  2. Prepare the filling:
    1. Add the pumpkin and cream cheese into the food processor and pulse until mixed together. It may be fairly dry at this stage.
    2. Add in the eggs and Greek yogurt and pulse to smoothen the mixture.
    3. Add in the sugar, brown sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt, and mix until homogenous.
    4. Pour this filling into the cake pan over the crust.
  3. Bake the cheesecake in the oven at 325°F for 60 minutes.
  4. Chill the cheesecake in the fridge to be ready to cut and serve!
The key to a good pumpkin cheesecake is having pumpkin that is dry enough. Kabocha pumpkins, as we used, are typically drier than the average orange sugar pumpkin. However, it's still very much possible to make this dish with those pumpkins, we would just recommend baking the pumpkin rather than steaming in order to remove some of the moisture before adding it to the filling.

-Chefpo
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