The Great Pumpkin Blog

We love pumpkin flavored things in the Coats household. The hard part about pumpkin things is it’s a seasonal product. It is a true find if you can find pumpkin puree at the grocery store in July. I think we are going to have to add that to our food storage. I would like to let you in on a couple of our favorite pumpkin recipes so everyone can make them before the pumpkin runs out.

The first recipe is from our friend Kathryn. These cookies are what she is famous for. They are so lovingly called Pumpkin Crap Cookies. You can call them Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies if that brings up unwanted imagery. This is hands down my favorite cookie recipe. They are soft and really addictive when they first come out of the oven. I never would have put pumpkin and butterscotch together, but they were made for each other. They are culinary soul mates!

The second recipe is from a favorite blog of mine called noblepig. Holli and I had some really good pumpkin cheesecake from our friend Nate’s ice cream shop in town. When I asked him if he could give me the recipe he said he doesn’t have one and makes it up as he goes. Then I stumbled across this bad boy! We will be making this for a Thanksgiving pie contest at Holli’s family’s house. I have a feeling we will take home the 1st place prize, or at least an honorable mention. We did a test run on Sunday and it was amazing. It uses a gingersnap chopped pecan crust that is to die for! I also have a secret recipe that I made up! It’s a homemade vanilla bean whipped cream! I guess it’s not so secret now. If you have a chance to make any of these for your thanksgiving they will be the talk of the night for sure. You will be a hero!

Pumpkin Crap Cookies

1 15 oz can Pumpkin puree (Not pumpkin pie mix)

½ C. soft butter (Not Melted)

1 C. Sugar

2 C. Flour

1 Egg

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla

½ tsp. Salt

1 Bag Butterscotch Chips

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Spray cookie sheets with PAM. In a bowl combine all ingredients by hand (no electric mixers) and then gently fold in the butterscotch chips with a spatula.

Drop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them a few inches apart. Bake for about 12-14 minutes. Insert a toothpick and make sure it comes out dry. Allow to cool if you have the patience.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

1-1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

Filling:

Three 8 ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

To make the crust, preheat oven to 350° F. Butter an 8" springform pan (make sure it's the right size). Cover the outside of pan with 2 layers of foil. Stir together all crust ingredients. Press into bottom and up sides of pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

To make the filling, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and both sugars until light. Beat in eggs and yolks, 1 at a time. Beat in pumpkin, sour cream and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour and spice. Pour into crust.

Place cheesecake into large roasting pan, as you see here. Fill pan with 2" of hot water. Bake until cake is set around the edges but still slightly jiggly when lightly shaken (cake will firm as it cools), 55 to 65 minutes. Once you check the cake for doneness, turn off the oven and leave the door closed for several hours. It is the sudden changes in temperature that cause cracks in the tops of a cheesecake so let it slowly cool down in the oven.

After several hours it will still be warm, go ahead and pull it out of the oven, still in the roasting pan of water and let it cool more on the counter. Once cooled, remove it from the water, cover it and refrigerate it overnight or up to 2 days.

Marbled Lemon Curd Cheesecake

I normally like to post about a recipe a week, but this weekend was packed so fully with food I thought it would be too much for one post. So I am breaking it up a little bit. My good friend Liz sent me her copy of Gourmet Today and I promised her I would post some blogs from it. It didn’t take a lot of time for me to bust that bad boy open and get started.

Our friends Stephanie and Michael stayed at our house this weekend and they love to cook and eat as much as we do. We used to do gourmet nights with them every Wednesday and watch Lost. Now that they live in Tennessee I don’t know what we are going to do. The premise of Gourmet Night was that we would trade off who did dinner and who did desert. This weekend Steph did desert out of Gourmet Today. So Liz without further ado... Marbled Lemon Curd Cheesecake! I’m not usually one for Lemon deserts, but this one rocked my world!

Marbled Lemon Curd Cheesecake
Ingredients
For lemon curd:
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For crust:
• 1 1/3 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (5 oz)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
• 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Special equipment: a 9- to 91/2-inch (24-cm) springform pan

Process
Make lemon curd:
Whisk together zest, juice, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Add butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubbles appear on surface, about 6 minutes.

Force lemon curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide shallow dish, scraping bottom of sieve, then cover surface with wax paper. Cool completely, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Make and bake crust:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Invert bottom of springform pan (to make it easier to slide cake off bottom), then lock on side. 3Stir together crust ingredients in a bowl, then press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan and bake 10 minutes, then cool crust completely in springform pan on a rack.

Make filling and bake cheesecake:
Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.
Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until combined.

Pour two thirds of cream cheese filling into crust, then spoon half of lemon curd over filling and swirl curd into filling with a small knife. (Avoid touching crust with knife to prevent crumbs getting into filling.) Repeat with remaining filling and curd.

Bake cheesecake until set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center trembles when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. (Center of cake will appear very loose but will continue to set as it cools.) Transfer springform pan to a rack and immediately run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen. Cool completely, about 2 hours, then chill, uncovered, at least 4 hours. Remove side of springform pan before serving.

Notes:
•Lemon curd can be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.
•Crust (without filling) can be made 1 day ahead and kept, covered, at room temperature.
•Cheesecake can be chilled, loosely covered, up to 2 days. Cheesecake must be completely chilled before covering to prevent condensation on its surface.