Buffalo Baked: Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pumpkin Seeds

Music-Black Sheep- Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

I got this album and have been listening to almost nothing but this since. Amazing album with amazing samples behind Dres's smooth rapping. One of the pinnacles of hip hop! If you guys remember that commercial with the cars and the hamsters over this summer the song was off of this album.

Baking-Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pumpkin Seeds

Well this was a rather annoying venture out into the pumpkin world. Brian and I decided to make this pumpkin cheesecake with real pie pumpkins. It was the first time Brian and I worked with real pumpkins before and we soon found out its really annoying to work with pumpkins. So because of being so annoying at the pumpkins we kinda forgot to take pictures of the process... but there still are plenty of before and after pics! sorry!

So I'll first tell you how i prepared the pumpkin; you only need one pumpkin but we had two so we used two.Preheat oven to 350. First cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the string and seed. Then spread oil on the cut parts of the pumpkin and also on a baking pan in which you'll be baking the pumpkins in. Put the pumpkin cut side onto the pan and fill up to about 1/2 inch of water. Then put into the oven for a long long long long time! i don't know exactly how long cause we kept taking it out and finding out that it was yet too hard to scoop and stuff. arggh the frustration! we must have spent like two hours taking the pumpkin in and out. like the fast food chain except less delicious. Well after the pumpkin is nice and soft scoop out the meat, mash it up and puree it!

Scoopin' stuff outside the Pumpkin

Cut Pumpkin

Pumpkins in my Pan!(PIMP)

We also make pumpkin seeds by just seperating the seeds out of the stringy stuff, spicing it with some cinnamon and salt and baking it at 350 for some time. we kinda eyeballed this one. its an extra little thing.

Pumpkin Seeds. Salted and Spiced

So while the pumpkin was baking we started on the crust of the cheesecake. For that we needed:

1 cup (100 grams) graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cups (50 grams) finely ground ginger cookies, homemade or store bought

1 tablespoon (15 grams) granulated white sugar

4 - 5 tablespoons (56 - 60 grams) unsalted butter, melted

So just mix all this stuff together and cram it onto a bottom of a spring form pan. I find using the bottom of a flat measuring cup works really really well. refrigerate it while you work on the filling and while your waiting for those god damn pumpkins to soften!

So the next objective of our mission is to create the actual filling. For this we needed:

2/3 cup (145 grams) light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 pound (454 grams) cream cheese, room temperature

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (210 grams) pure pumpkin puree

if you don't want to go through all the pumpkin stuff just get canned pumpkin. im sure it won't make too much of a difference.

First beat the Cream Cheese until smooth. then add in the sugar gradually and beat until smooth. Afterward add the eggs one at a time and then finally vanilla, pumpkin puree and spices. The spice is really up to the baker. Brian is crazy for cinnamon and other spices so we added a lot more than what the recipe recommended,maybe 3 times more? idunno we kinda eyeballed it with an eyeball. I kinda liked it more spicy, cause it really went well with the pumpkin and gave the cheesecake a kick.

Well then we poured the cheesecake filling into a pan and baked at 350 F for like 30 minutes. Then turn it down to 325 and bake for 10-20 more minutes. Bake until the center is kinda jiggly and the sides are nice and set.

While the cheesecake is baking we can make the sour cream topping! for this we needed:

1 cup (240 ml) sour cream

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

just whisk them all together and pour it on the cheesecake after it comes out of the oven. rotate the cheesecake so get the topping to spread evenly over the cheesecake. then bake for another 8 minutes or so to let the cheesecake set. Then refrigerate overnight and EAT!