Ma Vie, Aujourd’hui!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Cointreau
and Pecan Studded Crust

January 8, 2009

Posted in: The Recipes

This dessert might sound a bit odd, but it is utterly fantasmical. It is a marriage of New York style cheesecake and the unfortunately ubiquitous pumpkin pie. The ingredients temper each other perfectly: pumpkin makes the cake less purely cream-cheesy, while the tang of the dairy cuts the dominating flavor of the squash. Brightened with Cointreau; laced with orange zest; and pleasantly spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, this transcendent (mes oui!) cheesecake rests atop a satisfyingly thick graham cracker crust studded with pecans.

Like many of my culinary adventures, this dessert began as a way to reinvent (or combine, in this case) a classic and elevate it to a more refined, modern, and palatable level. A few years ago, during my first fall in the U.S. after returning from Rio, I began to experience uncontrollable cravings for pumpkin pie. This is not a dessert I had ever had, and I was much disappointed by the alternately cloying and bland specimens I sampled. And they all struck me as having far too distinct a taste of pumpkin, if that makes sense. Last November, while in San Antonio, I was overcome by inexplicable urges to eat cheesecake, another dessert I’d never had before. I ate and I ate, but to no avail. None that I tried were dense enough, sour enough, crusty enough. In an “aha!” moment of epic proportions, I decided to combine my two wayward urges into a single cake. The result was so triumphantly successful, it has become my signature desert. This is much to the chagrin of my French family, who find the concept of
cheesecake most unsavory. My sister, however, who has a persistent fear of large amounts of cheese, is a total convert and now begs me to make it every time she’s in Marfa. My position on the matter is torn: on the one hand, to elevate such a homely and seemingly odd thing as a cheesecake to cult status appears to me a true culinary triumph, a confirmation of the slight of hand that marks kitchen greatness. On the other hand, that I should be defined by a gigantic cream cheese custard is somewhat unsettling. C’est la vie!

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 3/4 + 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3/4 cup medium –> finely chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the Filling:

• 1 can solid pack pumpkin
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 T pure vanilla extract
• 2 T orange juice
• 2 t orange zest
• 1 T Cointreau of Grand Marnier
• 1/2 cup granulates sugar
• 1 T cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Four 8-ounce packages cream cheese, cut into bits and softened

Procedure:

*Remove the cream cheese and sour cream from the fridge an hour before beginning*

For the Crust:

1. Put the butter in a pot and melt over medium to high heat, taking care not to let it brown.
2. In the meantime, crush the graham cracker in between your fingertips, achieving a consistency that is part fine crumb and part medium crumb, with sizable shards of cracker still intact (about 1/3 inch.)
3. Add this to a large mixing bowl with the granulated and brown sugars, and the chopped pecans. Add the slightly cooled butter and stir. I find it’s best to add the butter slowly. The crust mixture should be moistened but no slick. You may find it necessary to withhold some of the fat, or to add more crumb to dry out an overly wet mixture.
4. Press the crust mixture into a well buttered spring form cake pan, in which the bottom has been inverted. This action points the lip of the bottom platform downwards so that the cake rests on a level bottom which won’t catch the crust and make service a disaster.
5. Cover with saran wrap and pop in the freezer to firm up while you make the filling.

For the Filling:

1. Preheat the oven to 355 degrees.
2. In a stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the first eight ingredients (from the pumpkin to the Cointreau.) Pour out and reserve in a medium bowl, making sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl.
3. Using the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese until fully softened, about one minute. Add the sugar, and with the mixer on, add the rest of the ingredients. The sugar will puncture holes in the cheese and aerate it, which is desirable only to a certain extent. Mix until everything is combines, but no more, or your cheesecake will be fluffy and decidedly un-New York style.
4. Re-affix the whisk attachment. Pour the pumpkin batter into the cream cheese mixture and blend on high, until combined. You will have to scrape down the sides and the whisk attachment frequently in order to achieve this, and may have to finish the process by hand whisking the batter a bit.
5. Put the chilled spring form pan on a baking sheet, and pour in the batter. There will be a slight excess. Don’t be tempted to add it all; if you do, your cheesecake shall overflow.
6. Shuttle the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then turn it around and bake for another thirty. If the custard is too wobbly, return to the oven for another five to ten minutes on each side. Use your judgement: differing altitudes and ovens make difinitive bake times impossible and unwise in this case.
7. Let cool completely and then cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight.

* A tip on slicing cheesecake: Make sure the cheesecake is just out of the fridge, and as cold as possible. Run a sharp chef’s knife under scalding hot water and slice the cake in half in two fluid motions, making sure to press down and sever the crust. Withdraw the knife out the side of the cake: if you lift the knife upwards you’ll disturb the custard and cause the surface of the cake to become littered with crumbs. Run the knife under hot water again before each incision, and your cheesecake will be cleanly sliced. Return to the fridge immediately after slicing to firm up again, as the heat of the knife will have caused it to soften and melt a little*

Random Posts:

• Sautéed Chanterelles with
  Shallots, Thyme, and Hazelnuts
• Beet Latkes Spiced with Cumin and Coriander,
  Served with Za’atar Sour Cream
• Butter Lettuce Salad with Stilton,
  Roasted Pears, and Walnuts
• Faux Thanksgiving!
• Chestnut and Armagnac Souffle
  with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce