2021 Tuesday To-Do #40: Pumpkin Cheesecake With Salted Chocolate Caramel Top

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?

You know you've not been in the sewing room enough

when your calendar is a couple weeks behind...oh well.

Due to the holiday, I don't have much quilty stuff to

share for today's Tuesday To-Do Link-Up so after I

talk a little quilting, I'm going to share the recipe for

our Turkey Day Grand Finale.

(If you're not into the chocolate-pumpkin combo hey,

I'm not much either so trust me on this one.  It's nom.)

I might start including a favorite recipe in all of my

TTD posts but we'll just see how that all plays out.

Thankfully, I wrote most of this post ahead of time

so now, after learning my son's truck was stolen, and

I'm finally sitting down to do some editing, I'm grumpy

and not in the mood.  Well, this ain't our first rodeo;

it's not even that son's first rodeo [aka vehicle stolen],

the poor kid.  And I'll leave it at that.  Wait--no I won't.

Do you know how hard it's going to be to replace it

in this current car market?!?

Okay, now I'll leave it at that and then try to focus

on the fact that no one was hurt.

UPDATE!  THEY FOUND IT!

But we have some things to fix.  Ugh.

And we'll be switching back to full-coverage.  Today.

(What a scare!)

And I'm tired of editing and a little emotional so just

lemme know if you see any major typos--LOL.

Back to normal things...

Over the holiday I was busy getting ready, then busy

serving it up and then busy doing a lot of nothing with

my fam.  I finally hit a couple LQS's and now have most of

the fabric needed for my grandson's quilt--no small feat.

A review of my obstacles/complications:

* Needs to match his sister's quilt if at all possible,

or at the very least just not clash with it. 

*I should to be subtracting fabric, not adding!

*My daughter likes modern--I have very little

*It's really hard to find boys' fabric that's not

just flat out silly or overly-cutesy/juvenile.

(I'd prefer he didn't outgrow it in a year!)

Knowing all the above issues, I'm pretty happy with what

I have so far.  There might be some finger-crossing going

on but that usually works out alright for me. 

(ie: stretching that peachy-orange into a manly orange

and drawing out the gray that's barely there.)

I have a couple fabrics in the stash I'll probably add

and I did order up a couple more:  one is a larger print

of the construction vehicles for a border; the other is

another gold--the exact fabric that is in his sister's

quilt so that should help pull things together a bit.

As for his sister's quilt, it still needs the binding.  With my

shoulder screaming at me daily, I kinda keep putting it off.

Next week's to-do's:

1)  Bind and label G's quilt

2) Cut out J's quilt

3) Quilt Hudson Valley Palisades

That's a hefty list considering the million other things I

have going on but I'm still going to attempt it.

 

Now, for that recipe:

I'm a pumpkin purist.  Don't even talk to me about

the can.  It's just not that hard to make the pureé and

the difference is night and day.  Directions are all over

the Internet but I'll sum it up for us quilters:

Cut pumpkin in half and clean out inside, saving seeds

to bake later for warm and healthy quilting snack.

[Or, if you have chickens, they're a natural de-wormer.

The rest of you probably did not want to know that, right?]

Pop halves into the oven face-down on foil-lined pan

at something like 325'.  Set the timer for, I dunno, like

an hour and go sew.  Whenever it gets fairly soft, you're

done--pull it out and go back to sewing while it cools.

Whenever you need a break from sewing, remove peel

with a paring knife and pureé the meat.  Refrigerate or

freeze to have available whenever you want.

(It keeps 5-6 days in the fridge.)

Go sew.

And never use that canned gook again.

Especially with the following recipe:

A note about baking cheesecake:

You know how you always bake it in a water bath?   I'm

here to tell you:  forget wrapping that springform pan in foil.

After having this leak just once--resulting in a very soggy

crust <cringe!!>--I always double-foiled...until one fine

day I stumbled across the idea of using a crockpot liner.

Cue the angelic choirs and sing along:  Hallelujah!

A much, much more trustworthy method!  I haven't

used foil for years--and I make a LOT of cheesecake.

(Just kinda roll the excess of the liner down a little bit so it

doesn't get too close to the oven's upper heating element.)

*I didn't know I was going to post this so

these are the only pics I have

 Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake

(Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Nov '21)

Crust

6 oz chocolate wafer cookies

4 T butter, melted

2 T sugar

Pinch of salt

In a food processor, grind cookies till fine (1 1/2 c).  Add

sugar and salt and pulse a few times to mix in. Add

Add butter and pulse until evenly moistened.  Press evenly

into bottom and about an inch up the sides of pan.

Refrigerate for 10 mins.  Preheat oven to 350'.  Bake till

firm, about 12 mins.  Reduce oven to 325'.

Filling

3 pkgs (8oz ea) cream cheese soft/room temp

1 c sugar

2 T flour

3/4 c fresh pumpkin pureé

1 t cinnamon

1/4 t ground ginger

2 t vanilla

1/2 t salt

3 large eggs, room temp

Beat cream cheese and sugar on low until smooth,

scraping sides and bottom so no lumps remain.  Add in

flour, beating to combine.  Add pumpkin, spices, vanilla

and salt.  Add in eggs, one at a time, beating to combine

well after each addition (again scraping sides and bottom).

Pour into prepared crust.  Place pan inside a crockpot

liner; then place the liner/pan combo in a larger pan.

Fill larger pan about halfway up with hot water. 

Bake till just a tiny bit wobbly in center, 70-75 mins.

Cool 2 hours.  Place in fridge, uncovered; after 1-2 hours,

cover tightly and chill 8 hours, up to 2 days.

Salted Chocolate Caramel

1/2 c sugar

3/4 c heavy cream

generous pinch kosher salt

3 oz Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips

Run a knife around outside of cake; release sides of

pan and remove from cake.  Cook sugar and 2T water

in a small saucepan over med-high heat, stirring until

sugar has dissolved.  Stop stirring and cook, swirling pan

occasionally, until amber (3-5 mins).  Remove from heat

and whisk in cream and salt (it will bubble).  Return to

heat and whisk to dissolve any hardened particles.  Stir

in chocolate.  Cool 20 minutes, then pour over cake.

Refrigerate till set, at least 30 mins up to overnight.

Garnish with a pinch of flake sea salt in center.

You know what is so great about cheesecake?

I mean besides the obvious.

They are better after chilled a good day or two which

makes them PERFECT time-savers for any formal meal

when you want to focus on other things on the day of!

This is really the main reason I make them all the time!

Happy holiday baking and quilting!