Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake

I was invited to a party to commemorate the end of summer and the beginning of fall.  Fall themed foods were a must and my contribution to the party was this Pure Pumpkin Cheesecake.





I think that the last time I made a cheesecake may have been more than 10 years ago, which is a sad and depressing fact.  To be honest, I've been a little intimidated by cheesecakes ever since I saw the Good Eats episode on the subject.  Custards, hot-water baths, springform pans - the very idea of these things sends me into a panic.

Granted, it's a very small panic.



I've always thought that the best part of any cheesecake is the crust.  In my mind, a really good crust is buttery and a bit salty to contrast with the creamy sweetness of the cheesecake.  The ginger snaps in this crust give it a bite that cuts through that creaminess even more.



The actual cheesecake part was ridiculously simple.  Everything basically gets heated up and then chucked into the food processor.  But even though this step was easy, the next step nearly left me in tears.

I wrapped my pan in many, many layers of aluminum foil because I am paranoid like that.  I didn't want any leakage at all.  Below is my wrapped-up cake resting in a roasting pan that I got from the Dollar Tree and filled with about an inch of water.



Unfortunately, I neglected to read the portion of the recipe that noted that the water bath should be hot before going into the oven.

After an hour in the oven, I was depressed to find that my cake was still very liquid.  I hoped that the carry-over heat would continue to cook it and cause it to firm up so I let it rest on the counter for an hour.  When that didn't work I had a mild anxiety attack before putting it back in the oven for yet another hour.

And five hours after starting, I pulled a slightly overdone yellow cheesecake out of the oven.  At this point, it was far too late to start over and I was feeling tired and punchy, so I made the decision that if people didn't like it, then they would just have to deal with it.



What else could go wrong?  In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have asked myself that question as I was about to embark on my first serious foray into caramel making.



And the first thing I did was burn the sugar.  And while caramel is basically burnt sugar and cream, this was burned way past the point of what was acceptable.



The caramel came out super-dark and very bitter.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough ingredients to re-make it.  Also, after panicking over the cake, I had developed a strong ennui towards the caramel and decided to just bottle it up and use it.



The bare cake:



And it looks so very much better with the caramel and pecans applied to the top.  Once I started applying the caramel, I was confronted with the fact that I didn't really know what I was doing.  This resulted in a bunch of odd and uneven squiggles.



I placed the pecans so that there would be one per slice, which ended up working out perfectly.



I was relieved when I cut into it at the party and it didn't fall apart into a horrible mush.  Even though it had been a lot of stress and work, the cake was delicious!  And the crust was the best.  I could just eat that.  So good.



The party was wonderful.  There was hot hard cider, chili, cornbread, butternut squash macaroni and cheese, pumpkin bars, caramel popcorn, beer, and whipped-cream flavored vodka.  A lot of whipped-cream flavored vodka.  So good.



We all ate and drank way too much and then sat around the fire pit chatting and laughing at the two-year-old as she ran around around until it was time to go home.  It was a pretty great night. :)