Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake

You will want to begin processing your pumpkins by cutting them in fourths and cleaning out the insides. Be sure to save some seeds for next years garden. Put them face down on a rack in a roaster or a crockpot and put about 2 inches of water in the bottom of the roaster

They should just fall apart like this when cooked long enough.

Bake them at 350°F (180°C) until they are quite soft. Honestly this is more like steaming than baking. When they are done steaming, let them cool and then puree them in a blender or food processor until they are the consistency you want.

Ingredients

Crust

  • 1 -1/4 cup graham cracker crumb (GF: ground nuts and coconut)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup melted

Filling

  • 4 packages of room temperature cream cheese.
  • 4 eggs room temperature
  • 2 cups processed pumpkin
  • 1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk (recipe below)
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 2 tblsp flour (GF: rice flour, tapioca flour)
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp cloves
  • 1/4 tsp mace
  • 4 threads of saffron ( Optional: I only make this once a year and I splurge)
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
  2. To make the crust blitz the ingredients together in a food processor and press them into the bottom of a springform pan. If you want to bake this for 10 minutes at 300 degrees you can but I don’t bother.
  3. Mix cream cheese and eggs until well creamed.
  4. Add remaining ingredients one at a time.
  5. Pour over the crust in spring form pan.
  6. Place in oven and cook for 1 hour or until a tester comes out clean. The cheesecake will fluff up like a souffle a bit.
  7. Turn off the oven and let the cheesecake cool in the oven.


Sweetened Condensed Milk

Ingredients

  • 6 cups organic whole milk
  • 1 stick butter
  • 4 1/2 cups organic evaporated cane juice
  • 1 vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

Directions

  1. Melt the stick of butter in a 3 quart sauce pan.
  2. Add milk, sugar and vanilla.
  3. Bring to a boil and simmer for for an  hour or until the mixture reaches 235 degrees; stirring frequently.
  4. Take it off the heat and allow to cool.  This thickens as it cools, so don’t worry if it isn’t as thick when it is hot.