Pumpkin cheesecake

It had been following me around for ages, yet somehow it always got away. Not that it was stalking me. Though maybe it was. This cheesecake, I mean. A cheesecake made with pumpkin, or just pumpkin cheesecake. To make it you need pumpkin purée. Yesterday evening the opportunity came along to make it for the first time.

What helped was a dramatic message I got at about 19.45. I’d just got back from a bike ride and had no intention of setting foot outside again when a photo arrived. It’s no secret, actually. This is what it looked like:

Yes, Kaja knew how much it hurt that Lidl had run out of cheap figs. I’d also run out of my fabulous fig jam. And I’d only just ordered these lovely little jam jars, counting on being able to buy some cheap figs and make another batch. I’d also decided to learn to heat-process my preserves so I could keep that fig flavour with me a little longer. Right. A challenge. But with no figs, I was sunk.

So there I was with this photo and the address of the place. There went my plans for the evening. I made a beeline for the address I’d been given…

All right, but what’s that got to do with the cheesecake? Quite a bit. Because once I was in the shop – a rather large shop – I decided it was time to find a sensible use for the pumpkin I’d completely run out of ideas for.

So you see, this cheesecake had been on my mind for ages, and I had a pumpkin. And there I was in a huge shop all by myself on Friday, practically in the middle of the night. I bought a kilo of curd cheese and that was that.

I also did something unforgivable. Please don’t try this at home. While I was scouring the shelves for curd cheese and figs, I’d left the oven on back at the flat. By the time I got home my pumpkin purée had practically made itself. So I could get straight on with the cheesecake. A bit of a disaster, really, as I didn’t get to bed until well after 2. Ah well.

A couple of words about the cheesecake itself. It’s rather distinctive. I don’t think it’ll be everybody’s cup of tea. It’s nothing like the particularly sweet, vanilla-scented Czeladź cheesecake or the delicate bilberry cheesecake. Pumpkin cheesecake isn’t overly sweet, and it’s lightly spiced. Only seasoned cheesecake connoisseurs will appreciate its finer points 😉 They’re the ones I’d recommend it to.

I almost forgot: I had a bit of a problem, because I found the recipe for this cheesecake (which I’ve tweaked a little, of course) here. And I hit a brick wall when I read that you bake it in a water bath. How did I manage? Read on and take a look at the last photo. Give it a try!

At a glance: 

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Oven temperature: 150 degrees Celsius (but first preheat the oven to 180 degrees)

Baking time: 90 minutes (it bakes in water, by which I mean a water bath. Read the recipe to see how I managed without a big enough container for the water)

Serves: the Polish volleyball team, for that beautiful win over Russia

Calories: once the lads have won, they won’t have to count calories

Ingredients for an autumn cheesecake:

• pumpkin purée (from one medium-sized pumpkin. Here’s the recipe for pumpkin purée)
• 800 grams of semi-fat twaróg (Polish curd cheese) 
• 350 grams of mascarpone
• 6 small eggs (4 whole eggs and just the yolks of the other two)
• a glass of sugar
• half a glass of cane sugar
• 350 grams of spiced biscuits
• 100 grams of butter
• 1 tablespoon of wheat flour 
• 3 tablespoons of potato starch
• a tablespoon of lime juice
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 4 teaspoons of mixed sweet spices
• icing sugar (for dusting)

Recipe for cheesecake with pumpkin:

As with all my cheesecakes, it’s fairly straightforward.

A) I blended the biscuits and butter into a crumbly, sticky mixture. I pressed it into the bottom of a baking tin (about 35 by 30 cm). I covered it with foil and put it in the fridge.

B) I put all the remaining ingredients in a deep bowl and blended them very thoroughly. You’re after a smooth, fairly runny mixture (like crêpe batter).

C) I took the tin out of the fridge and poured the cheese mixture over the spiced biscuit base I’d prepared in it.

D) I preheated the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and boiled some water in the kettle. I wrapped the underside of the cake tin in foil and set it in a deep oven tray. Then I started pouring boiling water from the kettle into the tray (halfway up the sides of the cheesecake tin. Be careful, there’s a lot of steam).

E) I turned the oven down to 150 degrees Celsius and baked the cheesecake for an hour and a half (90 minutes).

F) Then I let the pumpkin cheesecake cool with the oven door ajar. Once it was completely cool, I put it in the fridge overnight (in my opinion it’s not ready to eat even when it’s cooled down; it needs to chill in the fridge).

G) After a night in the fridge the pumpkin cheesecake is ready. All you need to do is dust it with icing sugar and serve. It’s delicate, lightly spiced and fragrant. It isn’t overly sweet either. Enjoy!