Monday, October 5, 2009

Pumpkin-Time!

For some reason, I am appreciating Fall more than ever this year. On Saturday we decorated our porch/door for Halloween (I'll post a pic soon). I was so happy!! I can't get enough of Halloween, Fall, soup, hot chocolate... mmm. I love it! I know it'll be gone soon since Logan's Fall lasts approximately 2.3 weeks before the snow comes... but I'll take what I can get.

As part of my "loving Fall" mood, I really wanted to use pumpkin in a dessert to go with the soup I was making for a woman in my ward. Since I'm not a fan of pumpkin cookies (much to Mike's dismay), I went to my endless recipe book... the internet. I found a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake on Kraft foods (gotta love it!). Although I probably shouldn't experiment with food I'm taking to other people.... it was fantastic! I know some of you have had my 4-layer pumpkin cake, and although the cheesecake's presentation does not stand nearly as impressive as that, I'm giving it the boot this Thanksgiving for this yummy (and much easier) cheesecake! Yum!! I highly recommend it.


Recipe:
2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened **Healthy Tip: next time
I'm going to try this with 1 pkg of Neufchatel and 1 pkg of regular cream
cheese to cut down on the fat**
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Dash of ground clove **I didn't have clove so I used a dash
of pumpkin spice instead because I had it in my cupboard**
Dash of ground nutmeg
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust (6 oz.)

PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Remove 1 cup of the batter; stir in pumpkin and spices.

POUR remaining plain batter into crust. Top with pumpkin batter.

BAKE 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. **We baked this about 10 min. longer than it suggested so it would set as described. Also, we refrigerated it for about 5 hours. It had wonderful texture but I'll be interested to see if it's different depending on the length of refrigeration.**

12 comments:

Wish upon a Starr said...

Wow, that looks so good! Is that your picture or did you get it from the internet recipe? It looks very professional! I'm sold, and thanks for the recipe! If your kicking out the other cake, then I'm all for trying it. You still need to send me that recipe for your OJ french toast. I'm dying to try it!

Rob and Vienna said...

I love fall too, even though Logan doesn't give us enough of it. And I'm definitely going to have to try that cheese cake; it looks deelish!

Megan and Mike Glines said...

I'm confused about the counter, will it change daily? And have you changed your goal on the game? What is the goal for the end? Good luck!

The Mansfields said...

Megan, the idea was to update the step counter bi-weekly. We both changed our goal from 3000 to 5000. We were trying to compete who got the most steps at the end of the month... but we've had a few glitches. First with starting at different times, then with the mini-goals, wearing it different places and getting waay more steps than we took. Also, we're going to have to do a challenge for the mini-goals as well because Mike is beating me on steps but I'm beating him on mini-goals. We'll figure it out and update it soon. Thanks again for the steppers! It's the first thing we put on in the morning and last we take off at night! =) Sometimes we wake up earlier than the other just so the game will tell us we started first! =)

Liz, Karl, Madison, Brooklyn, Aubrey and Zachary said...

That looks so yummy!!!!!! You're making me hungry.

Linnea said...

I love fall so much, too!! So excited that it is here. :-)
Glad to see you are having fun!

Tannie Datwyler said...

It really was delicious - thanks again!!

About Us said...

I have never been a huge fan of other flavored cheesecake. I like plain with cherries on top (go figure). But I will have to try yours this holiday season (make sure you don't get stuck with bringing a salad then). ;)

Michele and Wyatt said...

Cheesecake has always been one of my favorite desserts. and pumpkin cheesecake sounds delicious. I'll be looking forward to it for Thanksgiving, if I don''t try it myself before then. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Anonymous said...

that looks so yummy! my mom makes a pumpkin cheese cake for thanksgiving, so delicious. Can't wait to see your front door!

l + j said...

um... i'll be making that dessert tomorrow. seriously.

Nate and Keshia said...

Oh that sounds so delicious. You make me want to get into baking and decorating. So inspiring! :) All the pictures of the cakes were fun to see too. I love you, miss you, and can't wait to see you again. (Hopefully soon because my baby is so excited to meet you)