I think I mentioned in my last post that Thanksgiving was a little out of control for me this year. Without having advertised at all due to concern about being in the hospital getting my kidney sliced up in little pieces or something, I have booked more shoots in this month than I have all summer. And many of them were this weekend. I will tell you more about everything that's been going on here lately, but in the meantime, the highlights of what I cooked for Thanksgiving dinner. (Where 'highlights' = 'dessert')
Recipe 59: Pumpkin Cheesecake
This is one fussy cheesecake. Seriously. Look at it wrong, and it will crack or slump or be runny in the middle. Respect its weird rules, and it may well be the best cheesecake you've ever had.
Ingredients
For The Crust:
1½ cups of crushed speculaas cookies (recipe below)
½ cup of finely chopped pecans
⅓ cup of butter, melted
For The Filling:
4 packages (8 ounces each) of bar cream cheese, very soft
1¼ cups of granulated sugar
3 tablespoons of all purpose flour
1 cup of pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon of ground ginger
½ teaspoon of ground cloves
1 vanilla bean
½ teaspoon of salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
Method
Preheat oven to 350F. In a medium bowl, mix together the crushed cookies, pecans, and butter. Press into the bottom, and about 1 inch up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake crust 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Set aside to cool.
In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed until smooth. Mix in flour, being careful not to overmix. Add the pumpkin purée, spices, vanilla, and salt; mix just until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated before adding the next.
Place springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour filling into springform, and gently smooth top. Transfer to oven; reduce oven heat to 300 degrees. Bake 45 minutes. Turn off oven; let cheesecake stay in oven 2 hours more (without opening).
Remove from oven; cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours. Unmold before serving. Top with candied pecans (recipe below).
Recipe 60: Speculaas
These are traditional Dutch cookies for St. Nicholas Day, but after determining that a simple graham cracker crust just didn't contribute enough to my pumpkin cheesecake, I decided to bake these, then crumble them up with ground pecans for the crust. They really are a delightful cookie on their own though, sharp and spicy.
Ingredients
3 cups of all purpose flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 tablespoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon of ground aniseed
½ teaspoon of ginger
½ teaspoon of white pepper
1 cup of butter, softened
1½ cups of dark brown sugar
3 tablespoons of rum (more if you need to taste it first, to make sure it's still good)
1 egg white, lightly beaten (only if you are making the actual cookies, not just making cookies for crumbs)
½ cup of slivered almonds (also just for cookies)
Method
Preheat your oven to 375° F.
Into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.
In a bowl of an electric mixer beat the softened butter together with the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir the rum. Gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until it is well combined, and form the dough into a ball. Knead the dough on a board sprinkled with flour and roll it out into a rectangle 1/4 inch thick. With a sharp knife or
cutter cut the dough into rectangles 2 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches. (This is the traditional method. I like cutting them into shapes to be prettier, and since I normally make them for the St. Nicholas/Christmas season, mine tend to be stars.) Put the rectangles on
a buttered cookie sheet, decorate them with blanched almonds, halved or slivered, and
brush them with lightly beaten egg white. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are browned and firm.
Recipe 61: Candied Pecans
Because making a cheesecake that already requires me to make cookies to smash up for the crust, and needs to be left alone to meditate or something in the oven after it finishes baking for two hours just still didn't seem quite fussy enough.
Ingredients
1 large egg white
½ cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon of salt
2 cups of pecan halves
Method
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brush large rimmed baking sheet with butter.
Whisk egg white in bowl until foamy. Add sugar, spices, and salt. Whisk until mixture is thick and opaque. Add pecans; stir until coated. Using forks, transfer nuts to sheet, spacing apart; discard remaining coating.
Bake nuts until deep golden brown, about 35 minutes. Cool completely on sheet. Transfer to container; cover and store at room temperature.
Recipe 62: Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Aidan assured me that ice cream was a necessary accompaniment to the cheesecake, making this a new record for the blog, squeezing four recipes out of effectively one dish.
Ingredients
2 cups of heavy cream
2 cups of whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 egg yolks
½ cup of granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
Method
Combine the cream and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add vanilla bean and heat until mixture almost boils, about 5-10 minutes. Reduce heat to low.
Meanwhile, beat the yolks, sugar and vanilla extract in a small bowl until light yellow and smooth. Add 4 tablespoons of the hot cream/milk mixture and stir until combined. Gradually add the egg yolk mixture to the warm cream mixture, stirring continuously to prevent the eggs from curdling. Cook over low heat until slightly thickened, and the mixture coats the back of a spoon - about 3-5 minutes. Cool completely.
(This can be done by refrigerating overnight in a covered container, or chilling in an ice bath for 30 minutes if you're running out of time.)
Once cool, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the ice cream mixture, discard the shell. Stir until well combined. Pour into your ice cream maker and follow the machine instructions, mixing until the mixture thickens, and then freezing in an airtight container for at least 2 hours.
