Monday, October 27, 2008

Sugar crash



Okay. This was crazy sweet. I'm reducing the sugar a lot in the final draft, here. We were all drowsy and headachey this afternoon after a cheesecake snack this morning.

I love love love almond extract in cheesecake. You will, too.

Gingery Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Crisp Topping

Makes 1 9" cake

2 cups Mi-Del Ginger Snaps (Or, a bag minus the ten you shoved in your face)
Earth Balance® (maybe 3 Tbsp)

1 8oz. container vegan cream cheese
1 aseptic box of extra firm silken tofu
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 cup pumpkin purée
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup pecans
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp Earth Balance®

Preheat the oven to 350°

Throw the ginger snaps and 1 Tbsp of the Earth Balance in a food processor, and pulse until crumbs form. Keep checking the crumbs and adding EB and processing until it's moist, but not totally greasy. This will be your cookie crust. Press the crumb mixture into a 9" springform pan. Bake the crust for about 10 minutes (while you're making the cheese filling). Rinse the processor and blade.

Process the cheese, tofu, cornstarch, lemon juice, sugar, and almond extract until smooth. Scoop out a cup, and spread that in your crust. Add the pumpkin, brown sugar, and spices to the rest of the cheese filling still in the machine, and process until smooth. Now, pour that into your pan on top of the cheese layer. Put the pan in the oven and bake at 350° for about 30 minutes.

Mix together the topping ingredients with your fingers until crumbly and there aren't any big chunks of margarine in there.

Top the cake with the topping, and return to the oven for 25 minutes. The top should be golden brown. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

7 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

You big tease!!
Sleep well, rest easy.
:)

River (Wing-It Vegan) said...

Holy Mother of all that's good and pure! So dreamy!!

Virginia said...

ooooh that looks so good and perfect for the holidays!! can't wait to see the recipe!

Anonymous said...

*gasp* You're such a tease! I'll be anxiously awaiting the recipe!

A.M. said...

O my gosh, that looks sooo good!

Anonymous said...

*drool*
recipe soon, please!

Anonymous said...

Holy crap! I'm sitting here eating a salad with raw beets and I look at that. You're making the sugar reduction in my life very difficult!

Also, I've been pretending I know who you are and keeping my eye out for you around the neighborhood. Not in a creepy way, promise.