Best Halloween leftover food ever a.k.a. Pumpkin Cheesecake

Halloween is over and there are extreme amount of leftovers from our scary pumpkins. So how to “recycle” the pumpkin after the party is over?  Pumpkin soup is boring, pumpkin bars can be interesting but not a big deal, pupmkin dip…No, I already made some….:)…But If you are also a cheese lover as I am you might think about making a mixture of these two delicious ingredients.

I was searching for a perfect pumpkin cheescake on my fav gastro blogs but it seems that inside Europe noone has ever thought about making something out of pumpkins, therefore the only options I found where from the US of course.  However this had raised some problems :

1. The old American recipes are totally different from the  average European taste .

2.  Most of the ingredients are products that we have never seen on the old continent 🙂

3. We  are just unable to digest that amount of sugar. 🙂 No offense, I love my American friends and their cuisine also, but I need something closer to healthy…. So after dealing with my thoughts for a couple of hours I decided to recreate the pumpkin cheesecake recipe from 3-4  recipes that I found online to fit my own taste.  ( You can find those ones at the bottom of the page as a reference)

So here you are, the almost healthy Halloween leftover Pumpkin Cheesecake ( named Rosie… no particular reason why I named her Rosie, but she definitelly smells and lookes like a Rosie 🙂 )

Ingredients

Crust :

• 250 gr / 8 ounces of oatmeal
• 100 gr / 5 ounces of melted butter
• 50 – 80 gr / 2-3 ounces of roasted peanut, unsalted
• 1 tbsp xilitol or cane sugar
• Pinch of salt

Filling:

• 1 package ( 200 gr / 7 ounces) of cream cheese
• 1 package ( 200 gr / 7 ounces ) of mascrapone
• 300 gr / 10 ounces of pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
• 2 dl / 0,8 cup  sour cream
• 3 tbsp xilitol or cane sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp Bourbon vanilla powder
• ¼ tsp ginger powder
• 1 tbsp of corn starch

Prepation:

For the crust:

Mix the oatmeal, the chopped nuts, a pinch of salt, the sugar and the melted butter. Put all the crust in a nine-inch spring form pan and press it down flat with your hands or a glass. Put the crust in the fridge while you are preparing the filling.

For the filling:

Beat cream cheese, mascarpone and the sour cream until smooth. Add the pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sugar and the spices. Add  corn starch and beat together until well combined.

Pour  the creamy filling into crust. Spread out evenly and place in oven the for 30-35 minutes on 180 Celsius ( 356 Farenheits) . Remove from the oven and let sit for 15-20 minutes.

You can serve it warm or you can either cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3- 4 hours. Refrigerating helps the cream stay strong and thick but I am sure that you can not wait hours to taste it.

Serve it with some pumpkin pieces and peanut.

I hope you enjoyed it and let me know if you have any ideas in mind how to fine-tune the recipe 🙂

References:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-cheesecake-recipe.html

http://rizsazzunk.cafeblog.hu/2014/07/28/3-ev-es-meg-egy-torta/

http://www.nlcafe.hu/gasztro/20150126/zabpehely-receptek/

The perfect cheesy brunch for a rainy Sunday :)

In general I am not a morning person but I definitelly prefer having a proper breakfast or a brunch than going out to fancy   restaurants. The whole atmosphere of these places are so mind-blowing and every time I am  having my coffee, croissant, sandwich, omlett or porridge out I feel like a real queen…its like giving yourself and early treat and having the best kick off for a perfect day. I think its really important to start a day positively and acknowledge as early as possible that you deserve to be given the best of everything…( inlcuding a shower, but that’s out of the point now…)So I decided to follow this rule each and every day and surprise myself in the morning…. also my friends if they are
fit enough to come over to my cave… actually it is better to be enjoyed with others, but you’ll never know who might show up:)

I had plenty of time to wonder a little bit ont he bus on the way back from work about the best brunch menu and I think I quite did a good job and created a list of delicious things that could fit to the autumn mood and a lazy Sunday. Of course homemade cheese took a great part in it and I also wanted to try out a farm-style fresh cheese recipe I recently found online…

Some of the dishes might need a little bit of preparation but I promise that this might help you and your friends to survive a rainy and cold Sunday.

So here is your perfect menu with YOUR homemade spicy farm-stlyle cheese, spicy pumpkin dip, fresh avocado cream and toast with garlic.

Farmer’s Cheese

• 1 gallon milk
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Fresh oregano, thyme and basil
• 1 large pot
• Plastic colander
• Cheesecloth or old bandana

Heat your milk to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and add vinegar. Leave the milk to settle for 25-30 minutes. Once the milk is separated, pour the whey and curds into your colander lined with cheesecloth over another large pot, but you also do it over the sink if you don’t want to keep the whey. ( I actually reheated the whey for extra 20 minutes and added vinegar again. The outcome was a more creamy and sweet ricotta like cheese.) So,  stir in salt and herbs to the curds, then tie up the cheesecloth with a twisting motion to press out whey. Place it back to the colander and allow to drain for an hour and voilá here’s your homemade cheese.

Spicy pumpkin dip… that’s easy also and you can prepare it while the milk is settling 🙂

• 1 small pumpkin
• ½ teaspoon coriander
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Preheat the oven to 200 celsius, chop the pumpkin to 4 parts and put them to the oven for 25 minutes until they get a bit of roasted. Once it is done smash the pumpkin with a fork and stir it together with all the other ingredients until it gets creamy.

Avocado cream…

Peal the avocado and chop it to little pieces, add some salt, pepper, a squeeze of lemon juice, ½ teaspoon of olive oil and stir.

It seems that everyhing is ready now to enjoy the morning … except coffee, but I won’t get into details about coffee making 🙂

And finally,  toast some bread, put some garlic on top ( optional) and enjoy the last day of the week 😉

I hope you have a good morning!

Source:

http://pocketpause.com/farmers-cheese-easiest-homemade-cheese-recipe/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/spicy-pumpkin-dip-recipe.html