there's no squash quite so adorable as the pumpkin!Canadians will be celebrating Thanksgiving this upcoming Monday. I am gearing up by buying little decorative pumpkins for the kids and I'm looking around for things to do with pumpkin puree as I just opened this massive can and have so much left over!
mini pumpkin cheesecake brulées: smooth, creamy and not over-spiced!
I used my mini cheesecake pan from Williams Sonoma to make some Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes. I bruléed the tops after they finished their overnight cooldown in the refrigerator and topped them with these adorable little chocolate "plastic" pumpkins. No, it's not plastic! It's made out of quality bittersweet chocolate and corn syrup! These are more yummy than the fondant pumpkins I made last year for my cupcakes. "You can't go wrong with chocolate" is my motto. I have plenty of this chocolate playdough left over from making those chocolate roses from the other day. I'll be doing a chocolate rose tutorial soon. Come back and check it out later!
The recipe I created makes only 8 mini cheesecakes. I just wanted to use one brick of cream cheese, and I kind of just made the recipe up along the way.
MINI PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BRULEE
Crust:
- 1/2 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
- 1 T sugar
- 1 T melted butter
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine all the ingredients together, mixing well. Press an equal amount into 8 mini cheesecake molds.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool while making the filling.
Pumpkin Cheesecake filling:
- 8 oz (250g) Philadelphia cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg, room temp.
- 1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
- 1/2 t. cinnamon
- 1/2 t. pie spices
- 1 T. milk
- Lower heat to 300°F.
- Beat cream cheese in a standing mixer until creamy and smooth.
- Add the sugar, pureed pumpkin and spices and beat on medium speed until well combined.
- Add the egg and continue to mix for about 1 minute. Finally, add the milk and mix thoroughly.
- Spoon equal amounts of the cheesecake filling into all 8 prepared molds.
- Bake the cheesecakes for 20 minutes at 300°F
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the molds.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Remove the cheesecakes and brulee just before serving.
Serving:
- Sprinkle granulated sugar over each cheesecake and use a brulee torch to caramelize the sugar until golden brown.
- Top with a mini chocolate pumpkin. Form small balls of chocolate plastic with your hands and use a toothpick to form grooves on the pumpkin and veins on the leaf. see tutorial
36 comments:
Those are adorable! Bothe the mini cheesecakes (I love mini food) and the "plastic" pumpkin! You should do a tutorial on them also!
These are so cute, I love it!!
This is THE MOST adorable thing I have EVER seen! I'm dying to get a mini cheesecake pan like yours. I absolutely LOVE anything with pumpkin in it, so I am especially excited about this recipe. :o)
I STILL have never made those scones that I got the recipe from you for. :o( I really should get on that! Hmm, I'm going grocery shopping this Saturday, maybe I'll put the ingredients for them on my list. :o) Hope you're having a great day!
Bravo, you are the winner in my eyes for the most tantalizing dessert!
My goodness! I've fallen off the face of the blogging world for 2 months, and I see magical things happening on your blog! Such beautiful chocolate molding!
Thank you everyone for your kind words! I will also try to get on the "plastic" pumpkin tutorial soon too! However, it isn't really hard. If you can roll a ball and wield a toothpick, you've got it made!
ahhh, these look so yummy! it is sooo bad i just got my wisdom teeth pulled and i'm being teased with such goodies!!! :)
This is so adorable!
Those look fantastic. I love that you brulee'd the top! Your pumpkin on top was such a nice touch.
I want one!
BTW, Happy Thanksgiving and I'll be back to see what other pumpkin filled desserts you made!
~ingrid
Hi, I love you blog. Your recipes are lush.
I have added a link from my blog to yours. Hope you don't mind.
Erin x
How beautiful are these. Now you've got me thinking that I need to take a trip to Williams Sonoma -I'm sure that place will be the ruin of me. Happy Thanksgiving.
Yay. I found you again! I am so happy you commented on another blog, I had lost your URL!!! I am going to read the post and be back again = )
wow these are ideal for halloween. I like the plastic chocolate pumpkin. I m eager for your tutorial I already bought all the ingredients needed to do the chocoalte plastic. :)
These are amazing. I love them! :)
These look beautiful! I love when someone else already goes to the trouble of making a recipe smaller. Sometimes I think all baking recipes were created in the day when people all had 10+ kids.
I have that little pan! I think some pumpkin brulee cheesecake is in order. :) Love the "plastic" pumpkin. I would love to see a "How to"
You made the recipe along the way? I'm very impressed! And it looks very professionally done too!
If you still don't like fondant but want an orange pumpkin, you might consider using white modeling chocolate tinted orange in the future, then giving it a light spray of green spray frosting (I just know of the one from Wilton :)
Think I could use ramekins instead of mini cheesecake pans? I'd prefer to not have to buy a bunch of mini pans, and figure with the crumb bottom, it won't be a problem popping them out.
thoughts?
Hi anonymous,
Actually, the first time I made these cheesecakes, I put the leftovers in a ramekin. The graham cracker crust actually sticks into the bottom really well and is very difficult to remove without destroying the whole little cake in the process. In fact, I don't use individual tiny cheesecake molds...they are designed like a muffin tin (with straight sides) and the bottoms have a hole with a removable bottom. I understand not wanting to buy extra bakeware...actually, not really! :) but you may want to line the ramekin with something removable like foil or parchment.
Hi Cakebrain,
I have to say this looks incredible. I don't know where or how you got such fantastic pictures. I have to try making these now and I would love it if you let me add it to my site http://www.cheesecake-recipes.org
Hi Kathy,
Sure, you can link to my post!
Thanks so much for saying that about my pics because I've been trying really hard to take better pictures. All the pictures you see are by me. I'm an amateur photographer and I do all my own food porn for this blog. I'm generally just fiddling around with my Nikon D90 and hoping things come out okay. I've never taken a photography course and I love it when people tell me what they think about my pics! Unfortunately, this particular post didn't get it onto tastespotting! I submitted the first photo, but I got back the general form rejection. Don't really know what she doesn't like about it. The huge list of possible reasons she didn't like covers everything from lighting, to focus to various nebulous things such as not fitting in with her aesthetic... but I suspect she thinks it's too dark. I notice she likes all her pics to be slightly overexposed or with a white background.
omg these look and sound amaaaazing. way too cute!
Pumpkin cheesecake is really good and those pumpkin toppings look great!
These sound incredible!!
Mmm I love pumpkin, love cheesecake and love creme brulee so this sounds (and looks) delicious! Such a cute little pumpkin too. I just randomly discovered your blog when doing a google search for the shelf life of marshmallow creme and I'm very happy to have found it! So many yummy baked goods plus I'm from Vancouver too. =)
Has anyone actually made these cheesecakes?? I made them tonight with the William Sonoma pan. They look GREAT but the taste is off. I think sugar was left out of the filling. Was this on purpose or by accident??? Thank you.
Anonymous,
Yikes! I'm so sorry, I think you're right! Because I halved the recipe, I only used a little sugar in the cream cheese filling...a scant 1/4 cup. Because I added a brulee topping, I used part of the 1/4 cup for the tops. I have fixed it by adding the 1/4 cup of sugar. Again, my apologies for this oversight.
They looks delicious.
So, sugar will be 1/2 cup? or just 1/4 cup for a 8 oz. cream cheese?
I'm planning to do them for Thanksgiving.
Thanks!!
anonymous,
If you like things sweet: I would go with 1/4 cup with the 8 oz of cream cheese plus additional sugar for sprinkling and bruleeing (lots if you like a thick, crunchy crust!)
If you don't like stuff as sweet, then use 1/4 cup total--where you hold back a few teaspoons for the tops and put the remaining into the filling...then after baking, brulee with the held back sugar.
Hi ... say I wanted to make a full-sized, regular old 9" cheesecake. Any idea what the recipe proportions would be?
hey anonymous,
check out www.recipegirl.com for a whole whack of recipes for cheesecakes.
Oh this looks absolutely divine! If the only way to go to heaven is to take a bite of this I'll be in heaven in no time.
Excellent recipe - I have bookmarked your site. Happy to see you are from Vancouver as well! Thanks for the recipe - Enjoy your sunny Thanksgiving!
meljohnstone,
Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
Hi there! This recipe looks awesome! I dont have enough time to order the mini cheesecake pan, but if I use a mini muffin pan, will it be difficult to get these out given the crust? Thank you and happy thanksgiving!! :)
Ashlee
Ashlee,
I think mini muffin pans would be pretty difficult. They're so small. I don't know how you'd get a spatula or tool under to help ease it out. A standard muffin pan might be more feasible...only if you line it with something like a silicone cup, parchment or foil (foil might leave an ugly pattern on the sides of your cheesecake if you go up the sides).
I can imagine the pain and suffering that you'd be going through trying to pop these out. Another option would be just to use a silicone muffin pan. Good luck!
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