Tip of the Week! Happy Halloween!

Back in action... So, I took a little time off to figure out some new ideas to post!  This weekend I discovered a tip that everyone should know about during Autumn time.  Canned pumpkin puree + brown sugar = a delicious add in for any recipe.

What exactly do I mean by that?  It means if you take any ordinary recipe you can easily change it into a delicious pumpkin recipe for fall time.  Sugar cookies, pancakes, vanilla pudding, yellow cake, etc.  All of those can be transformed into pumpkin goodies.  All you have to do is make the recipe that you want to transform into something pumpkiny and right before cooking or refrigerating add the pumpkin and brown sugar.

Use this helpful tip when adding in pumpkin: 1 cup of pureed pumpkin : 1/4 cup of brown sugar.

Let me know what you try to turn into a fall treat!

Happy Halloween! Check out more blog posts in November for some great Thanksgiving Dessert ideas!

Pecan Crusted Pumpkin Cheesecake

Sorry to be so late on posting, but this week was hectic.  With the fall weather coming in slowly but surely, it was time to go to Epcot's Food and Wine Festival this weekend and, boy, was it a good time.  I tried some amazing food that will definitely be inspiring my blog in the near future. Also, today is my best friend's birthday (Happy Birthday, Jackie!!).  So between those two things, baking wasn't looking too promising for this week.  But, I made a promise to post every week so, I found time.

This week was simple.  Pumpkin Cheesecake.  Yes, we are still in the pumpkin theme, so if pumpkin really isn't your thing, you'll have to wait until October is over.  I have declared October to be national pumpkin month on my blog.  You heard it here first:) 

So anyways, back to the Pumpkin Cheesecake.  I decided to take an old classic and really spice it up, literally.  This cheesecake has the same spices as a pumpkin pie and has a pecan graham cracker crust.  It's not too rich and not too sweet.  Just the perfect balance.  Try it for yourself! Let me know what you think...

Pecan Crusted Pumpkin Cheesecake

For the crust:
1 cup of graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup of pecan chips
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
5 tablespoons of butter

For the filling:
3 (8 ounce) blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin
3/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ginger
1/4 teaspoon of cloves
2 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, pecans, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter.  Once all combined nicely, press into a 9inch springform pan to form the crust.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth.  Add the sugars, eggs, sour cream, and spices until blended.  Add the flour and vanilla and blend until just combined.

Pour the filling over the prepared crust and bake for 50 minutes to one hour.  Remove from the oven and let cool.  Put into the refrigerator until set.


**Tip: If you are allergic to pecans or do not enjoy them, just add 3/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs to the 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and you will then create a graham cracker crust instead of one using pecans, you may just need to add a tablespoon or two more butter depending on the consistency:)

Recipe adapted from Paula Deen's Pumpkin Cheesecake

Keep the Pumpkin Coming!

This weekend I had a breakthrough... with my fall best friend, pumpkin.  Sure, I could've come up with a really awesome recipe for pumpkin pie but we all know the best one lies on the back of the Libby's Canned Pumpkin.  Kudos to you, Libby.  This week I had many ideas of what to make but I just couldn't decide.  Brendan had suggested pumpkin cookies.  So I thought, okay I can work with that.  My objective was to make this cookie a mix between the flavors of pumpkin pie with the texture of pumpkin cake.  Thanks to the wonderful idea from significant other and my favorite can of pumpkin, that is exactly what I did.

I wanted to make these cookies extra delicious so I made cream cheese frosting to go on mine.  Mmmmm mmm mmmmmm.  But, of course if you don't like cream cheese for some crazy reason or you don't want to spare the extra calories, they are of course delicious on their own.

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

14 Tablespoons of butter, softened
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp of vanilla
2 cups of flour
1 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of ginger
1/4 tsp of cloves

Cream butter, sugar, and pumpkin until creamed together.  Add egg and vanilla, mix together.

Sift together rest of the ingredients and add to the pumpkin mixture.  Blend together until everything is mixed.

Bake at 350 degrees on an ungreased cookie sheet for 10-12 mins.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz block of cream cheese
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
1 tsp of vanilla

Cream together butter and cream cheese until blended.  Add powered sugar and vanilla and blend until mixture looks like frosting.