From My Cookbook

Because absolutely no one requested it! My by now traditional holiday fare: the maple pumpkin cheesecake.

Sinfully delicious with a creamy texture it tastes just like you’d think a cross between a pumpkin pie and a New York cheesecake would (while still being light enough for those who don’t normally like cheesecake to enjoy). That slight hint of mapley syrupy goodness just rounds out the flavors. It’s more than enough plain but I tend to have a topping (mostly to hide the ever-occurring cracks from cooling – you eat with your eyes first and all that). This year I went with a maple caramel (In the past I’ve tossed some nuts – walnuts, typically – in with but went with the plain version this year) but a sweetened sour cream topping or some kind of peanut butter or chocolate ganache or fruit flavored topping or anything else could easily be applied. Ask me again next year and I’ll probably have a different recipe because I’m always tweaking it, but here’s this year’s (successful, according to my family) version:

Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake with Maple Caramel Topping

Crust

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (fresh crushed)
• 4 tbl butter (softened)
• 2 tbl sugar

Cheesecake

• 16 oz (2 packages) cream cheese (softened)
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 16 oz (1 package) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (any kind of applicable liqueur works here)
• 3 tbl maple syrup
• fresh ground cinnamon (to taste)
• fresh ground nutmeg (to taste)
• fresh ground cloves (to taste)
• 1/3 tsp ground allspice
• 1/4 tsp salt (kosher, for preference)
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper (fresh cracked is best)
• 4 eggs

Topping

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup cream

Equipment

• spring-form cake pan (wrap the bottom in aluminum foil and place in a larger baking dish filled with boiling water for a home-made bain marie)
• blender
• large bowl
• oven
  

Cooktime

• Crust: 10 minutes
• Cake: 60 minutes
• Cool: overnight

Oven to 350°F.

Crumble the graham crackers (I find putting them in a plastic bag and having at them with the heaviest pan I can find works wonders for dealing with anger issues. And, of course, reducing the crackers to particulate matter.) and cut in the softened butter (just leave it out on the counter for a bit, along with the cream cheese and you’ll be fine) and sugar until everything’s well mixed. You can use a fork or a whisk as I start out with but I always end up using my hands somewhere along the way. Line the bottom of your springform pan, pressing down firmly until you have a solid floor of sugary crumbs, and up the sides if you have any left over.

Toss it into the oven for a good ten minutes or at least until the butter’s melting and the crackers are drying out so the crust will stay solid. Wrapping the bottom in aluminum foil will keep the butter from dripping out. Afterwards, set it aside to cool long enough so that it’s no longer to hot to touch.

While the crust is cooking, it’s time to mix up the cake batter. Start by creaming the cream cheese in your blender. You don’t have to mix too slow but you should avoid mixing at the highest speeds here if only for the mess factor. Add the sugar and mix it in well with the cheese until the mixture is soft and liquid and starting to form little waves as it pulses through the beaters (And, yes, I have an ancient mixer. Any older and it would be steam powered. You could mix all this by hand or with a stick blender, I suppose, but you could also wash your clothes by beating them with a rock next to a river.). Then, add the pumpkin (you want just pure mashed pumpkin here, not any kind of pre-made pumpkin pie mix. You're basically making your own pumpkin pie mix inside the cheese mixture so get the pure, uncut Schultzy stuff) and blend until well mixed. Then the sour cream. Blend. Then the vanilla. Blend. Then the maple syrup. Blend (sensing a pattern here yet?). Then add the spices. I try to grate or grind them fresh because, well, yum, and try to get at least 1/3 teaspoon of each, give or take. Already ground stuff works fine, too, as would a different blend of spices. Really, anything you wouldn’t mind having in a pumpkin pie will work because, well, that’s what I use. Remember to taste as you go along to see if you need to adjust anything. Next, add the salt and pepper. Yes, pepper. Just a couple cranks from the pepper mill. Trust me, it works. Finally add the eggs one at a time getting them well blended in before adding the next. Tilt your blender (or however it is that your get your beaters out) and let whatever’s on your beaters spin off into the bowl for a bit before turning it off.

Now carefully pour the batter into the by now cooled crust. Slowly at first so the crust doesn’t crack under the pressure of the onrushing torrent of cheesy pumpkin batter. Tamp the pan down – gently - to get any air bubbles out.

If you want to try for a water bath (which does help to prevent cracking during the cooking process but is not strictly necessary) then you'll need to seal your pan with the aforementioned foil and then stick it into a larger roasting pan so it comfortably rests along the bottom. Place the roasting pan in the oven and then, and only then, pour boiling water into it. Should reach up to a few inches on your springform pan. This is a cool little trick because boiling water will help regulate the temperature around your cheesecake in the event your oven has any hot spots (It has to do with how water converts to steam when it boils. Really, just makes me all kinds of chemistry geeky. What? Like there's any reason beyond edible chemistry experiments to learn how to bake.). This is also a dangerous trick because you'll have a pan full of boiling water sloshing around if you try and move it, so, again, make sure it's well and truly in the oven before you pour the water in. Unless you like second degree burns or something.

In either event set the timer for about an hour (or more). It’ll be done when the edges around the pan are solid but the center is still slightly wobbly when you shake the oven rack. Set it aside to cool for an hour or so. Once it’s cooled down you can transfer it to the fridge or just leave it on the counter to cool overnight. The top will probably crack by this point if it hasn’t already – always does for me – but that’s okay, it happens.

And that’s what the topping is for, anyway. To make that just combine equal portions of cream and maple syrup in a pan over medium to low heat. Just hot enough to get things boiling. Stir them well together until you get a brown looking cream. Boil the mixture, stirring so it doesn’t boil over, for about twenty minutes until it turns into a caramelly syrup. The longer you cook it the harder the caramel will be after it cools. I like it at the point where it sticks to the back of a spoon (A good way of checking the consistency when it cools is to toss a spoon in the freezer or just under some cold water and dip it in the mix. Hold on to the spoon for a few seconds and take a taste. That’s how I do it, anyway.). Feel free to throw in nuts or anything else you might think tastes nice at this point. Once you’re satisfied just pour the syrup over the cheesecake and put it in the fridge to harden.