Pumpkin Cheesecake

Valentines's Day has come and gone. So how was your Valentine's Day? I know that some people spent it alone, nothing wrong with that. For some it was business as usual, taking care of the kids, laundry, cooking and whatnot.

Others spent it as a family, dinner at a crowded restaurant with screaming kids in tow, a reminder of many Valentine's past that brought them to their present situation. And for the young and not so young lovey dovies in the throes of fresh new love, ah.... roses, chocolates, a romantic dinner date with a sweet ending to the evening. So how was PH's Valentine's Day?

The truth be told, I actually forgot it was Valentine's Day. muahahaha! It was chicken breasts at the cold section at Cold Storage that jogged my memory. I was inspecting the packets of chicken breasts and squinting my eyes to check the packing date. It said 13-02-2015. Was that fresh? What is today's date? It took me many seconds to recall that it was 14-02-2015. Good Lord! How could I forget? My conclusion? Forget about the chicken breasts. Let's move on to the oink oink section. To cut the story short, I bought myself some Chorizo for my Paella project. Hah! You will be reading about it soon :D

When I got home, I did what I usually do. Laundry, wash toilet and some other housekeeping stuff. I cooked myself a simple lunch. For dinner it was a pork rib soup with carrots, onions and Chinese cabbage. Just a soup because my Valentine recently adopted a low carbohydrate eating plan. And it's really great for me as we now go low carb together.

Then we watched an old movie, Raise the Red Lantern, starring a very young and beautiful Gong Li. I love watching movies with my Valentine because we like to drop funny remarks at certain scenes and have a good laugh. It was an interesting movie. I like the part where the four wives had to stand at their door at a certain hour of the day to see at whose house the red lantern lands.

If the lantern is placed and lighted at your front door, bingo! Old man is coming to your crib tonight. The chosen one will have a smug and satisfied look on her face, hmmph! Then you see the look of consternation on the other 3 wives faces as they turn and get back into their houses. And my twisted mind is thinking, well if they had Astro back in those days, the other 3 would feel a sense of relief. Like phew!, can watch Korean series with no interruptions, yeah! My valentine however, was not so amused.

Anyway, the movie had a sad ending for the protagonist and frankly speaking, I had no sympathies for her. She could have done very well in that household had she played her game right. But arrogance and spite got the better of her. Yikes, I am supposed to talk about Pumpkin Cheesecake!

Coming back to this Pumpkin Cheesecake, this is a cheesecake that I had been wanting to bake for the longest time. But it did not happen because at the time, I just could not find the time nor the will to make pumpkin puree. But now, hey! I have a few tubs of pumpkin puree in the freezer that I need to get rid of. 

As with anything pumpkin, this cheesecake did not disappoint me. But I found it too sweet and further reduction to the amount of sugar is needed. Other than that, this is a lip smackingly good dessert. This cheesecake, as with  most cheesecakes, can be baked in advance and frozen. Just thaw it in the fridge the day before serving. As a matter of fact this cheesecake you are looking at was baked and kept frozen some 3 weeks ago.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Recipe source : Joy of Baking
(Makes one 6" cake)

Ingredients :Ingredients :

- 100g digestive biscuits, finely crushed

- 50g melted butter

- 250g cream cheese, at room temperature

- 100g pumpkin puree
- 1/4tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 100g caster sugar (I found this too sweet. To adjust to 70g in future)

- 2 eggs

Method :

1. Generously grease a 6" springform pan with butter. Wrap the bottom of the pan with double layer of aluminum foil and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, mix crushed digestive biscuits with melted butter until mixture resembles wet sand.

3. Pour mixture into the pan and using your fingers, press the mixture evenly onto the bottom of them pan. Bake the crust at 140C for about 8-10 minutes (or place pan in the fridge to chill while you prepare the filling. Set aside to cool.
4. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl add cream cheese and sugar.

5. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until it is creamy.
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

7. Add vanilla extract and pumpkin puree and beat until just combined.

8. Pour the mixture into the cake pan.

9. Place the pan into another bigger baking pan. Fill the bigger pan with boiling water until water level reaches halfway up the cake pan.

10. Bake at 140C for 1 hour or until the outer ring of the cake is firm but the middle is still jiggly.

11. Leave the cake in the oven with door ajar for 30 minutes.

12. Remove from oven and leave to cool before unmoulding the cake.

This post is linked to Cook and Celebrate Chinese New Year 2015 organised by Yen of Eat Your Heart Out, Diana of The Domestic Goddess Wannabe and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids.