Thanksgiving is coming, and along with the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and cranberry sauce it also means pumpkin desserts! Yes, I usually eat so much at the main meal that I swear I won’t have dessert. If we’re being honest here, I’d much rather have another helping of stuffing over dessert, but at the end of the day, if Thanksgiving is about anything, it’s about gluttony (oh, and giving thanks), so there’s always room for dessert.
Every year I bring a pumpkin dessert to the festivities, because I know it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without something spicy and pumpkin-y to end the meal. Well, the first part of the meal, anyway, because later in the evening, the first round of sandwiches come out. In any case, I’ve tried to remain somewhat creative in my choices for dessert, avoiding the traditional pumpkin pie, and opting for something a little less obvious. Because of this, I’ve browsed through many recipes, and I want to share some of the ones I’ve tried and some of the ones I’ve wanted to try in a series of posts. This first entry focuses on pumpkin cheesecake!
A great alternative to pumpkin pie is the pumpkin cheesecake. The only drawback is that cheesecake is quite heavy and may not be the best accompaniment to such a huge dinner. It is delicious, though. In the past I’ve tried Emeril Lagasse’s recipe. It turned out really well (even though I skipped the bourbon spiked cream, which I’m sure is delicious). I liked that it was made in a food processor (mostly because I don’t have a standing mixer). However, my food processor at the time didn’t fit the whole cake and I had to do it in batches. This recipe does make an enormous cake, which may be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your situation.
If you want some other choices, this recipe for pumpkin cheesecake crumble squares looks interesting. I like that there is some ginger in the filling; I’m sure that adds a great flavor. The topping has sour cream in it, though, and I’m not a big fan of sour cream in my cheesecakes.
Epicurious has a great selection of unique pumpkin cheesecake recipes. There’s a pumpkin-pecan cheescake that includes a caramel praline topping. I’m sure it’s delicious, but it’s a lot of steps, for me, and I’m a little afraid of sugar work.
Epicurious really loves those sour cream toppings. If you dig them too, you should check out these recipes: pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon sour cream topping and pumpkin cheesecake with marshmallow-sour cream topping and gingersnap crust.
If I were going to try one this year, it would definitely be this recipe for pumpkin ginger cheesecake.
Do you have a favorite pumpkin cheesecake recipe? Are you going to be trying one this year?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Nov 17, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
