A Spooky Pumpkin Cheesecake

Like every year on Halloween, I like to bake something for the occasion. Halloween celebrations are becoming more ingrained within the Spanish cultural landscape and I don't mind it at all! I think it's a fun way to express our dark side in a totally benign manner.  

I have made cookies, cakes, muffins and more for Halloween. This year I went for a cheesecake, my soft spot in the dessert world! What's a pumpkin cheesecake like? Extra creamy and full of the wonderful pumpkin pie spice flavors; you really can't ask for more! 

Like all recipes that have a substantial amount of spices, the flavor is always better the following day, so do take the effort of preparing the cheesecake one day before serving. Let your imagination go wild and surprise your guests, your friends or your family with this perfect end for a gorylicious Halloween dinner party. 

Let´s start baking.

For the crust you need: (18 cm spring-form pan; serves 6-8 people)

• 100 g digestive cookies
• 25 g melted butter
• 1 tsp brown sugar

Place the cookies in a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin until you have a coarse powder. Place the pulverized cookies in the spring-form pan, add the melted butter and sugar, mix well then press the mixture to cover the bottom and the sides of the pan. Bake in a preheated oven (180 C) for 8 to 10 min. Leave to cool.

For the filling you need:

• 600 g cream-cheese at room temperature
• 3 large eggs at room temperature 
• 100 g sour cream (or thick yogurt,)
• 130 g sugar (70 g brown sugar and 60 g granulated)
• 120 g  pumpkin purée (mine is homemade)
• 1 tbsp flour or cornstarch
• dash of salt
• 1 to 2  tsp of pumpkin spices, adjust the quantity to your liking (I used: cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, star anise, allspice, fresh and powdered ginger and a bit of cardamom)
• 1/2 tsp of bourbon (optional)

In the mixer bowl, add the cheese and mix on a low speed with the paddle attachment for 2 to 3 minutes. Then add the sugar, sour cream, spices, salt, pumpkin purée and flour and mix again until well blended and no lumps are visible. Add the eggs one by one and keep mixing on a low speed. Finally add the bourbon mix for a bit. 

Pour the batter in the pan, and bake in a preheated oven (150 to 160 C). 

Usually it's customary to wrap the spring-form pan with aluminum foil and place it in another pan filled with warm water and then bake for the required time; that is one hour to one hour and a half (oven-dependent) for a pan of this size.  This bain-marie method of cooking is needed to bake your cake at a gentler heat to avoid surface cracks.

What I did is different though. I put in the middle layer of the oven a pan and filled it with warm water then placed the cheesecake pan over a cookie sheet and put both over the pan. This created  a steamy environment in my oven and allowed the cheesecake to cook all the way through while retaining a smooth creamy texture and most importantly with no surface cracks whatsoever.

After one hour, turn off your oven, shake the tray, make sure the middle is still wiggly and leave the oven door cracked open for another half an hour to an hour. 

Let it cool completely before you put it in the fridge overnight. 

Before serving decorate the cheesecake to your liking. I added some crushed digestive cookies, and decorated a sugar cookie following this tutorial to resemble a tombstone. I also added some royal icing spiders and pine nuts as maggots for that extra graveyard feel. 

And there you have it: a gory but delicious dessert for your Halloween party!

For other Halloween recipes click here, here, here and here

A Halloween Special: Bloody Cake!

When the fall season setts in, I try to make good use of its wonderful products. Pumpkins and squashes become a staple of mine during this time of the year. I also like to share a recipe or two that feature pumpkins purée as main ingredient. This healthy fruit never ceases to amaze me with its complex flavor that goes so well in both sweet and savory dishes. 

In recent years, the use of pumpkins was popularized with the spread of Halloween celebrations to almost all parts of the world. Now, as a foodie, pumpkins are definitely not mere decoration for me, but they are the front and center of my Halloween  gory cake. Now I call it "gory" as I drew inspiration for the cake's decoration from the traditional "goriness" that surrounds Halloween celebrations and to satisfy "The Walking Dead" fan in me. If you are a fan of the series too and you have seen the season's premiere, you would understand my choice better. Irrespective of how you will decorate the cake, if you follow my recipe you will really love the cake's flavor and texture. 

Besides pumpkin, the other main ingredient of the cake was cranberries. I was not sure of how well these two flavors will combine, but they did and they did so beautifully. The cake was moist, largely due to the use of pumpkin purée, with spicy notes and bound together by the touch of tartness cranberries add. Of course, cranberries put the "bloody" in this special Halloween cake!

Now, it's time to do some baking.

For the cake (6 to 8 persons) you need :

• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 100 g brown sugar
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 150 melted butter 
• 8 g baking powder
• 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 210 g cake flour
• 220 pumpkin purée (bought or homemade)
• 100 g frozen or fresh cranberries
• 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp mixed spices (cloves, star anise, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg)
• dash of salt
• zest of half an orange
• 1/2 tsp of cointreau (optional)

Start by combining the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and spices and set aside.

In your mixing bowl, beat the eggs on a high speed and add the sugar gradually. When the mixture triples in volume, becomes pale and thicker, add the butter at low speed and mix until combined.

With a spatula add the pumpkin purée, mix again, add the orange zest and cointreau and mix. Lastly, fold in the flour mixture and the cranberries.

Pour the batter in three 15 cm pre-prepared pans (or in two 23 cm) and bake in a preheated oven (180 C) for 25 minutes. Remember that the baking time might vary so check on the cake after 20 minutes.

For the frosting you need:

• 250 g soft butter
• 250 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 220 g powdered sugar
• Flavoring: 1/4 tsp mixed spices and few drops of vanilla extract.

Combine all ingredients and beat for about 5 min until creamy and fluffy.

For the cranberry sauce:

• 100 g cranberries, fresh or frozen 
• 75 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 strip of orange zest

Combine all ingredients and cook over  a gentle heat for few minutes. Pass the mixture through a sieve to get rid of the pits and skin. Let it cool down.

Assembly:

Smear some frosting on your cake tray or stand. Put the first cake layer and pipe a generous amount of frosting, and splatter a teaspoon or two of the cranberry sauce. Add the second layer and repeat. 

Cover the last layer with the frosting. Now all you need is to splatter the rest of the cranberry sauce over the cake and to add some pine nuts that will mimic the appearance of maggots for that extra touch of goriness!

Happy Halloween!

(For extra recipes featuring pumpkins, click here and here.)

Autumnal Apple, Pumpkin and Walnut Cake

It has become a habit of mine to post a recipe or two around this time of the year featuring pumpkin purée as a main ingredient. Pumpkins are brilliant, versatile, delicious and very healthy. In baking pumpkins do wonders to the texture of cakes and of course add subtle, autumnal and  comforting flavors; flavors that keep you coming back for more.  Pair this ingredient with the smooth and wonderfully spiced apple butter, sprinkle in some walnuts and you're in for a superb autumnal cake that will surely please everyone!

The recipe is perfect for less a gory Halloween celebration or for a sweet finish to your next thanksgiving dinner but it's also perfect for any rainy day when all you want to do is just cuddle under your blanket, drink tea and enjoy a sweet piece of moist  and delicious cake with a soft and creamy frosting. Sounds perfect, right?

Let´s start baking then.

For the cake (6 to 8 persons) you need :

• 3 eggs at room temperature
• 210 g brown sugar
• 150 browned butter (the French call it beurre noisette)
• 9 g baking powder
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 210 g cake flour
• 115 pumpkin purée
• 115 apple butter
• 100 g lightly toasted and roughly ground walnuts (leave some big chunks if you like)
• 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp mixed spices (cloves, star anise, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg)
• dash of salt

Start by combining the flour, walnuts, baking powder, salt and spices and set aside.

In your mixing bowl beat the eggs on a high speed and add the sugar, when the mixture triples in volume and becomes pale and thicker add the browned butter at low speed and mix until combined.

With a spatula add the pumpkin purée, the apple butter and the maple syrup, mix again and lastly fold the flour mixture.

Pour the batter in three 15cm pre-prepared pans (or in two 23cm) and bake in a preheated oven (175C) for 25 minutes. Remember that the baking time might vary so check on the cake after 20 minutes.

For the frosting you need:

• 250 g soft butter
• 250 g cream cheese at room temperature
• 220 g powdered sugar
• flavoring: 1 tsp maple syrup, 1/4 tsp mixed spice or just use vanilla essence.

Combine all ingredients and beat for about 5 min until creamy and fluffy.

Assembly:

Smear some frosting on your cake tray or stand. Put the first cake layer and pipe a generous amount of frosting. Add the second layer and repeat with the second and third layer. Cover the last layer with the frosting. 

I decorated the cake with marzipan apples, pumpkins, acorns and leaves and colored the frosting to go along with the painted fruits and leaves.

Do take some time to make this cake and I´m sure you will like it.

Finally I wish everyone a Happy Halloween.

For more pumpkin recipes click here, here and here.

Spicy Pumpkin Cookies, a Treat for Halloween

Pumpkins are now officially a culinary obsession of mine. Although nowadays it's readily available your long, it's mostly in autumn that I like to buy it every time I go food shopping. 

Once home, I roast pumpkins and divide them into small portions. I use what I need and freeze the rest for later. Roasting pumpkins really brings out their natural sweetness and imparts a delicate smoky flavor to their flesh. I puree the roasted pumpkin and use them in as much recipes as possible. 

This time, I wanted to use pumpkin in a sweet treat specially made for Halloween. The pumpkin flavored sugar cookies will be decorated and themed to fit for this special holiday, I love decorating cookies but I don't always have the time to do so, this occasion gave me enough motivation to get back to do what I really enjoy doing. 

Getting the cookie the perfect shape to be iced and decorated is really a tricky job, especially if you want to modify the ingredients of the basic sugar cookies, which I intended to do! 

I headed to the kitchen and played around with the basic recipe and luckiIy I got the texture and taste that I wanted. The addition of the pumpkin created a whole new flavor dimension to the cookies and even if you don't want to decorate them, trust me, you will enjoy their taste and I can guarantee that your home will be filled with an enchanting and festive aroma for the whole day!  

Let's get baking!

For the cookies you need:

• 440 g flour
• 160 to 180 g panela sugar (I used 160, 180 if you´re not decorating with royal icing)
• 6 tsps of cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp of ground cloves, 1/4 tsp ground star anise, 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 to 1 tsp of ground cinnamon (to your liking)
• dash of salt
• 180 g  of butter, room temperature
• 1 egg at room temperature (you need a small egg or 50 g of a larger one)
• 60 g roasted pumpkin purée

Start by sifting the flour, cocoa powder, spices and salt and set aside. 
With a paddle attachment (if you don´t have one use whisks) beat the butter for a minute, add the sugar and the pumpkin purée, beat for 2 or 3 min until well combined. Add the egg and beat again for just a couple of minutes.

Add the flour mixture, and mix just a little bit at a low speed and stop even if not all the flour is combined. Drop the dough over a clean working surface and gently knead until the dough comes together.

Form your well combined dough into a 2 cm (just over 3/4 of an inch) thick rectangle  and wrap it with plastic film or put in a ziplock bag and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours or over night.

Cut your cookies using the shapes and molds you like and bake them for about 10 to 15 min in a preheated oven (180). The baking time will depend on the thickness and the size of the cookies! Keep an eye on them and bake them until the edge is slightly golden. 

If you want to decorate these cookies in a more elaborate way then follow the steps I explained in the chocolate cookies post I made for Easter!

For this occasion, I opted for a simpler decoration, I pipped the silhouettes with  royal icing and added black filigree on the edges for a dramatic finish. To give the iced cookies a vintage and darker look I used cocoa powder brushed gently over the surface of the iced cookies.  

Happy Halloween everybody!