My little pumpkin cheesecakes

A new addition to the family has left me with little time to bake - let alone bake and blog. But here I am almost a year since my last post (is anyone still following me?) with a new recipe to share - straight from Mrs. Butter Ya'll - Paula Deen.

While my lil' pumpkin was taking a nap, I whipped up these super easy lil' pumpkin cheesecakes. 

Here's what you need:

Crust:

1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

3 tbsp. light brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 stick melted butter 

Filling:

3 (8oz.) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

1 (15oz.) can pumpkin puree

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or 1/8 tsp. each of ground cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg)

2 tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

Here's what you do with this stuff:

For the crust: Melt the butter (on a burner or microwave). Remove from heat and pour over the crumbs, brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir with a wooden spoon until the crumbs are moistened. Press a palm-full of crumbs into the bottom of cupcake liners (for mini cheesecakes) or spread and press the entire bowl of crumbs into the bottom of a springform pan for a full cheesecake. 

For the filling: Using a hand mixer or the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, whip the cream cheese together until smooth. Add the pumpkin, eggs, yolk, sour cream, sugar  and spices and beat on high until well combined. Make sure to scrape the sides on the bowl every so often, otherwise the cream cheese will clump together. Add flour and vanilla and stir until combined. 

Pour the mixture into cupcake tins or springform pan over the crumb crust and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. 

Remove the cheesecakes from the oven and let stand for 15 minutes on a cooling rack. After 15 minutes passes, cover cheesecakes with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. 

When placing the plastic wrap over the cheesecakes it's important to note that you do not remove the cheesecake from the tin or pan. Remove the cheesecake from the baking tin/pan after it has been refrigerated. Also make sure that the plastic wrap is laid directly on top of the cheesecake. This will lessen the amount of moisture that will collect over the cheesecakes in the fridge. No one likes to have "juice" swimming over their cheesecake - gross! 

After at least 4 hours in the fridge, remove and dig in!

I decided to split the batter into one large cheesecake and 24 mini cheesecakes, but you can use the batter for just one large cheesecake or 48 or more mini cheesecakes. 


Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!


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Here are some photos of homemade bucatini I made as well, thanks to my husband who bought me a pastamaker for my birthday. He knows me well.