Right as the seasons start to change from the sweltering heat of Summer to the cool Autumn breezes I come to life with this ecstatic need to bake. Sometimes I don't really have an excuse to bake, I just have to create something but I love to share those beautiful goods. I had been invited to a harvest feast and was informed that it was a little like mid-fall Thanksgiving. When I was told what was going to be prepared by the hosts of this event I put myself to think about what I could create that would complement their already bountiful feast.
Well it seems like my pie plate is getting a lot of use this season... I had thought to create something with pumpkin which is one of my favorite flavors. Now everybody thinks to make pumpkin pie but I wanted to add a little bit of a twist and make a pumpkin cheesecake.
I set myself down and produced a mental inventory of everything I may need, cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar... these are all things I have in spades. I had some left over ricotta and only a few eggs from an experiment with quiche that I made last week. I set out to try to "find" a recipe to use for a pumpkin cheesecake just to find out there are a million and one different recipes but not one calling for all the things I knew I wanted to bake with. This was a task that was set forth before me, I had to research enough to create a recipe that used the right amount of ricotta and the right amount of pumpkin and not too many eggs. I spent the better part of a day looking into what I needed.
Then it hit me, cheesecakes normally use some sort of cookie crumb crust. I was all set to have sat down to make some pie dough but I had not even thought about it for anything else. I proceeded to think about it and went with an old reliable recipe that I have used for gingerbread cookies or ginger cookies as most recipes will call them. My favorite part of baking gingerbread is using molasses. I never have an excuse to use molasses so it sits in my cupboard being brought down for just the right recipes.
There is something about sifting the ingredients together mixing the butters and then watching as it all forms into a doughy ball that you know that there is magic there. dropping these balls on my sheet I wondered if they were going to be as good when they came out of the oven the first time as they will when they are crusted (spoiler: it turned out fine). As the gingerbread cookies cooled I could not help but to taste one or two, by now I have had at least 10. And when debating to go with store-bought cookie crumb crusts or making your own, just think of how much fun crumbling a delicious cookie into crumbs is.
With the crust in place I started mixing the filling, When I am mixing anything I like to get down into it and put my own energy into the mix. I am sure this is why sometimes even those no-bake mixes come out so much better for me. Well with using ricotta and pumpkin and cream cheese I found that I had a lot of mixing to do, you don't want to over-beat any batter so I have learned how to get that simple tea spoon through the sugars just enough to blend properly.
I am going to have to update this after tomorrow, for that is when the feast is, but if it's smells are any conciliation my pumpkin cheesecake is going to be yet another magical recipe I will have to add to my repertoire
