Recipe - Pumpkin Cheesecake

A couple of weeks ago my son, Dylan, was helping to plan a nice dinner with his friends for their dates to the Homecoming dance. One boy's grandma agreed to host an Olive Garden style dinner in her backyard, with the other boys bringing smaller parts of the meal.  Dylan a bit presumptously volunteered his sister Jessame's famous Pumpkin Cheesecake for dessert, then hurried straight home from school and called her at work to solicit her cooperation.  As luck would have it, she was planning to come home to visit that weekend anyway, and she emailed him a shopping list of ingredients.  Their agreement involved his promising to devote his Friday evening to helping her in the kitchen, then doing the clean-up.  I stayed out of the way, and I must say what emerged the next evening was truly spectacular.  After a few tense moments which involved she and I trying to move the cheesecake to a platter, (Jessame successfully disguised any flaws with extra caramel sauce and ginger snap crumbs) we safely delivered the "Pretty as Olive Garden" servings of cheesecake to the dinner location with sighs of relief.  The next day, Dylan told us that one of the young ladies enthusiastically proclaimed it "the best thing she had ever eaten in her life."  I have asked Jessame to share her recipe with you for this beautiful fall dessert.

Jessame is also responsible for Guest Posting this week's Tip of the Week.  She really has her ear to the ground when it comes to finding great deals on almost anything!  Her post describes how four of us had a big breakfast at Chik-fil-A one morning for only $3.34 total!  I think you will find her advice on taking advantage of promotions and coupons from local eateries very interesting and informational.  See Tip of the Week below this post.

Olive Garden Pumpkin Cheesecake

Hi everyone! Jessame here. I'm so excited to share one of my favorite recipes with you! I've made a few adjustments to this recipe and included some of my own advice, but the base recipe comes from CopyKat Recipes at copykat.com. 

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup ginger snap cookie crumbs

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

8 tbsp melted butter

Pumpkin Layer:

3 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese

1 15-oz. can pumpkin puree

2/3 cups packed light brown sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Sour Cream Layer:

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

Whipped Cream:

1 pint heavy cream (you may not need to use it all)

1/8 cup sugar (Taste and add more sugar to desired sweetness)

1/4 tsp. vanilla

Additional topping:

Jar of Caramel sauce

Gingersnap crumbs

Instructions:

1. Get your cream cheese and eggs out of the fridge so they can come to room temperature before you mix them.

2. Drain the pumpkin using paper towels and/or a wire strainer. CopyKat suggests that you gently wrap the puree in paper towels to remove the water and continue doing so with new paper towels for about an hour before mixing up your cheesecake. I prefer to put the pumpkin in a wire strainer and press it with paper towels to push the excess water out. If you do this several times until the pumpkin feels quite dry and no more water is coming out, it will take significantly less time than CopyKat's method.

3. Grind your graham crackers and gingersnaps separately from each other in a food processor or blender until they are quite fine. Use these fine crumbs for your crust. Grind the gingersnaps for the topping separately so that they are not so fine---I prefer putting several in a plastic baggie and smashing them up good rather than actually grinding them so that they are chunkier for the topping.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

5. In a medium sized bowl, combine the crust ingredients and mix well. I like to use my hands to do this. Press the crust into the bottom and halfway up the sides of an 8 inch nonstick spring form pan. You do not need to grease the pan. Refrigerate the crust while you mix up the filling.

6. Beat the cream cheese until smooth. A professional cheesecake baker once told me that the secret to good cheesecake is mixing it up by hand, and I tend to agree. But if your cream cheese isn't soft enough or you just don't think you have the strength to mix it by hand, use an electric mixer.

7. Once the cream cheese is smooth, beat the eggs in one at a time, mixing one egg in completely before adding another. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until very smooth.

8. Remove the crust from the refrigerator and pour in the filling.

9. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Don't take it out of the oven yet. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and cook for 30 more minutes. When you remove the cheesecake, it should be a little jiggly in the center. Leave the oven on at 325 degrees.

10. Begin preparing your sour cream layer after the cheesecake is out of the oven. Blend all the ingredients for the sour cream layer and then spread it evenly over the cheesecake.

11. Put the cheesecake back in the 325-degree oven for 8 more minutes so the sour cream layer sets.

12. After the cheesecake is completely cool, remove it from the springform pan.

13. Use an electric mixer to whip your cream with the sugar and vanilla until it forms stiff peaks.

14. Pipe or spread the whipped cream over the cheesecake. Refrigerate the cheesecake if you're not ready to serve it yet.

15. When you're ready to serve the cheesecake, drizzle the top with caramel sauce and the chunky ginger snap crumbs.

16. Enjoy!