PUMPKIN PIE CHEESECAKE

Oh Yes, Orange Heaven Cheesecake...

We are not big on Halloween in Australia, and I personally don’t get into ‘spooky’ food, but I have always been big on Pumpkin Pie…something that pretty well fills my kids with suitable Halloween style horror. Vegetables? In dessert? But trust me, they’ll never know…just call it Halloween Cloud Pie, or Orange Heaven Cheesecake. Personally…I am good with pumpkin in most things. So..er…Happy Halloween, in the best way possible.

NEED:

Crust;

130g butter

Finely grated zest 1 lemon

50g dark brown sugar

1 tsp Heilala vanilla extract

1tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

160g plain flour

1 pinch sea salt

75g each pecans and almonds

Filling;

340g roasted pumpkin (The weight refers to apres roasted weight)

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground allspice

(If you don’t have all of these handy but you do have commercially pkged ‘Mixed spice’ use equivalent amounts of that)

1 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

140g vanilla sugar (see below)

500g cream cheese

3 eggs

Whipped cream to serve

DO:

Crust;

Preheat oven to 180ºC on a fan forced setting.

Place butter, zest and sugar into Thermomix bowl and melt for 3-4 min/37ºC/speed 2.

Add remaining crust ingredients and blend for 15 sec/speed 6.

Press into springform cake tin with paper lined base. Reserve about 1 cup of the crust for the topping.

Bake for 18 minutes or until golden and fragrant. Cool.

Filling;

Place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blend 20 sec/speed 7. Scrape down if necessary and pour into base. Top with crumble mixture and steam in steam oven for 1 hour….OR, if you are being a Thermomixer of extraordinary talent, place 1L water into Thermomix bowl, place cheesecake on top of a pair of chopsticks (for easier steam circulation) and steam for 60 min/Varoma/speed 3.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C on a fan forced setting. Place steamed cheesecake into oven for 20 minutes until golden and a little crispy on top.

Cool completely. Serve with dollops of whipped cream or mounds of the best vanilla bean ice cream available to you, which of course if you live in WA would be Azzura Gelati’s award winning version and available at your local IGA store.

Now if that amount of delcious calories doesn’t spook you…what will?

Vanilla Sugar

Roast a vanilla bean until crispy, about 10-15 minutes in 200ºC oven and then place in Thermomix bowl with 140g good quality sugar of choice. Mill 10 sec/speed 10. Store in airtight jar until use.