Happy Birthday, hubby! Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

It's my husband's birthday today!  He finally caught up with me (for a few months).  He LOVES pumpkin pie, so when I offered to make a pumpkin cheesecake for him tonight, he enthusiastically said YESYESYES!

I found a recipe on Once Upon a Chef that looked promising...

Ingredients:

• Crust
• 7-1/2 ounces gingersnaps (or 1-1/2 cups finely ground gingersnap crumbs)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• I doubled it because I wanted to go up the sides a bit.  It was too much! I'll probably toast the left over crumbs to use as a crumble for something...

• Filling
• 1 15-ounce can pumpkin purée
• Not pumpkin pie filling, or it'll be too sweet and too spiced!
• 1-1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• Three 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 5 large eggs, room temperature

• Caramel sauce
• There is a recipe on the original above, but I'm opting to use the Apple Cider Caramel I made last week.  Yummmmmy!!

Instructions:

1.  Mise en place the crust:
   
2. Preheat oven to 325°F.
3. Wrap a 10" springform pan in several layers of aluminum foil (heavy duty is best) and spray the inside with non-stick cooking spray.
    
• This step is to keep the water out when you do the water bath.  We discovered later that I didn't have a roasting pan the right size, so really didn't need to do this step. Oh well.
4. Blitz the cookies and brown sugar in a food processor until a fine dust.
5. Stream in melted butter while pulsing until combined
6. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the springform pan and up the sides a bit, as desired.
7. Bake crust @ 325° for 15 minutes.
8. Remove and set on a cooling rack while you make the filling.
9. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil to use for the water bath.
10. Mise en place the filling:
    
11. In a sauce pan, combine pumpkin, sugar, spices, and salt.
12. Bring to a "sputter" (this mixture is too thick to really boil), stirring constantly.
13. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 5 minutes until it is thick, dark, and shiny.  Stir constantly!
    
14. Put the hot mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer (you can use a large food processor if you have an 11-12C one).
15. Beat for a minute or so to release steam and smooth out the texture.
16. Add the cream and cream cheese and process for 30 seconds to a minute.  Scrape the sides of the bowl, as needed.
     
17. Add the eggs and lightly mix until just combined (15 seconds at most).  Do not over-mix this!
     
18. Put the foil-wrapped springform pan and crust into a larger roasting pan with high edges. Pour the batter into the cooled crust.
    
19. Pour enough boiling water (step 9) into the roasting pan to reach 1/2 way up the springform pan.
• I didn't have a roasting pan (ooooops), so I put a cake tin filled with water into the oven to at least introduce some moisture.  My cheesecake cracked a little, but not enough to worry about.
20. Bake at 325° until just set - about 1 1/2 hours.
21. Remove and put the entire roasting pan on a wire rack to cool for 45 minutes.
22. Remove the springform pan from the water bath, discard the foil, and put on a wire rack to continue to cool for 3 hours.
23. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (and up to overnight).

Here it is all ready to go - we just have to wait 7 hours for it to cool!

Apple Cider Caramel

I found the recipe on Cookies and Cups... and knew I wanted to make some to go with the baked doughnuts that are coming up next!

Ingredients
1 cup apple cider
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup salted butter, cut into cubes and room temperature
¼ cup heavy cream, room temperature
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. On medium-high heat, bring cider to a boil on the stovetop.
2. Boil for ~12 minutes.  It should be reduced to about 1/4 cup.
3. Add in sugar, butter, cream, cinnamon, and salt.  Stir until combined.
4. Boil for 2-3 more minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
6. Cool.

Lake of molten caramel

An apology, a promise, and a teaser for things to come very soon!

So... You've probably noticed that it's been ages since I posted.  Life got a wee bit chaotic for me and work has been intense (in a good way)... so I have had very little time or (if I'm being really honest) energy for baking at all.

But it's October.  It's Autumn.  This is my favorite season (even if Arizona weather isn't cooperating).  So.... an apology for being so absent, in the form of my favorite thing: fresh apple cider and the things we can make with it.

I haven't found good apple cider here yet, so I'm saving my hot spiced cider recipe for later.  For now, I grabbed a gallon of the store brand (after making sure it was really cider and only cider).

Things I'm planning on making:

• Apple Cider Caramel (yes, really)
• Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts (probably doughnut holes since I don't have a doughnut pan at the moment)
• I'm still on the hunt for a molasses cake doughnut recipe - My grandfather used to get us some from somewhere in Maine and, although I haven't had them in years, I still crave them.  (When I say years, I mean like... 20-30 years probably).
• Hot Spiced Cider (with a twist) once I find a local cider
• Maybe I'll entertain the idea of making my own cider...

**Funny side note: I've now written "Cider" so many times, it looks wrong...

I call this stuff.... "Elf Bark"

I'm fighting a cold this weekend, so I'm not feeling up to cooking for real.  I thought this would be a good time to post something I've already tried and loved!  (This is also why my pictures are cell-phone quality.)

The original name is "Christmas Crack" from the Passionate Penny Pincher, but I was taking this to work and really needed a name appropriate for the corporate office in which I work. Thanks to my friend, Kim (Hi Kim!), we came up with Elf Bark instead.

I really like that there is so much you can do to this to make it your own. Saltines or pretzels or graham crackers or butter crackers; salted vs unsalted butter; milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, dark chocolate... heck, even white chocolate might work; top with nuts or peppermint or salt or nothing.

When I make something for the first time, I always stick pretty close to the original recipe and adjust later once I figure out what I like about the original.


1.  Gather your stuff!
There isn't as much to gather with this recipe, but it's still a good practice.  Remember - put things away once you've used them for a faster cleanup when you're done!

• 1 cup salted butter (NOT margarine)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• ~40 Saltine crackers

I added 2 items because I love them:

• kosher salt (salted dark chocolate is my kryptonite, I swear!)
• crushed peppermint candies

2. Prep your pan(s)

Heat the oven to 400.

Line a 12x17 jelly roll pan with foil.  Make sure it's a pan with edges... otherwise the melted sugar we pour over the crackers shortly will go all over the place and make a hot, sticky mess! (Trust me on the foil - do this.  Don't skip it and just plan on cleaning the pan later.  We're playing with molten sugar... it won't be pretty.)

Spray well with cooking spray.  (Again, trust me.  You don't want to have foil stuck to your bark.)

Place Saltines all over the pan.  They should be touching each other and fill the pan as completely as you can.  You want one full, even layer of saltines.

3. Make the toffee

Put butter and sugar in a saucepan on the stove top and heat on high until gentle boiling, stirring constantly.
Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 4-6 minutes until the mixture is thick and sugar is dissolved.

For me, I found that it was cooked when the white-ish foam (see photo below) was gone and the whole pot was a dark toffee/caramel color.  Stir frequently or constantly.  You do NOT want to burn the sugar; It'll taste bitter and ruin the candy.

Pour butter and sugar over the crackers evenly.  Take your time and be careful.  Boiling sugar doesn't mix well with skin!!

Bake 5-6 minutes in 400 degree (F) oven.

4. Melt the chocolate

Remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 2-3 minutes.
Sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top and put the pan back into the oven for 20-30 seconds.
Remove the pan again and with a spatula carefully spread the chocolate evenly across the candy.

5. Top it and... wait. (This is the hardest part!)

Sprinkle the top with kosher salt and peppermint candy pieces.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

6. Break it up and ENJOY!

Once cold, break the bark into bite-sized pieces (I tried to make them fairly small, so you can just pop a small piece in your mouth).  The peppermint candies made it very sharp and difficult to break up, but SO worth it.

I stored these in zip-top bags in the fridge with no problem.  The original recipe mentions storing in the freezer as well - that works too.