As promised I am sharing my pumpkin cheesecake experiment! I did fail the first time, but that is okay…you learn from your mistakes! The second time around it turned out so much better, in fact they turned out great! I still think I have to work on it, maybe we can come up with a perfect recipe together, try it out and come back and tell me what you did differently or if you changed anything at all. Can’t wait to hear all about it!:)
Lets start off with the failed ones first, well I added a bit too much pumpkin…okay a lot more! I think that is where I messed up! I used 1 whole bag of graham cracker crumbs, and 3 cups of icing sugar and I still couldn’t get it to firm up! Second time around I added the pumpkin last and measured with a tablespoon, it worked out great!
Another thing I wanted to share was, the first time around because the filling didn’t firm up, I melted chocolate and with cupcake liners turned them into ‘cups’ like the chocolate candy. My neighbours kids loved them, not mine as they don’t like chocolate with pumpkin…I didn’t know that at the time…I learned something new! The second time around I used white chocolate candy melts along with some orange. My kids loved it, I did too actually, I made a couple with chocolate to compare and I found that the chocolate over powered the pumpkin, while the white didn’t have much flavour so you can taste the pumpkin cheesecake. You can try both and see for yourself.
What you will need:
- 1 pkg cream cheese softened
- 3 tbsp pumpkin puree
- 1/2-3/4 cup icing sugar (powder sugar)
- 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Start with 1/2 cup icing sugar and add more as you go along, same with the pumpkin spice and cinnamon, taste and adjust as you go along. If you find its not firming up as you want add a bit more cracker crumbs or icing sugar as you go along.
Cream cheesecake until smooth and creamy, add in the graham cracker crumbs, icing sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and then add in the pumpkin a spoonful at a time. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
It will be a bit sticky, water helps so that it doesn’t stick to your hands.
Lay a piece of wax paper over a cookie sheet, shape mixture into balls, makes about 18 balls. Refrigerate again to firm for an hour. Melt chocolate, I use a double broiler as I don’t have a microwave, if you do you can use that instead.
Dip the balls into the melted white chocolate or chocolate if you are using it, and place back onto the wax paper lined baking sheet. Candy melts harden quickly so you will want to add the sprinkles or coloured sugar right away if you are using any.
Keep refrigerated. Enjoy!
I’m trying this at home.