Toffee Pumpkin Cheesecake

So this was another gem adapted from one of those little Betty Crocker recipe booklets that stare you down in the supermarket checkout line!

For those of you worried about the intricacies of cheesecake - DON'T!  It may look fancy (hopefully), but it was super easy.  Of course mine doesn't look exactly like the original, because I like to put my own stamp and style on it in terms of decorating it, etc., but that is up to the sole discretion of the cook.

Ingredients: 

2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (32 squares)

1/2 cup melted butter

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

5 eggs

1 (8 oz) bag toffee bits

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

3/4 cup whipping cream

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt
Toppings of choice

Method:

Heat oven to 300 degrees.  Spray 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.

Pulverize graham crackers to a fine powder.  I used my food processor, but you could also put them in a zip top bag and pound them. In a small bowl, mix crumbs and butter.  Mix until a course meal is achieved.  Press in bottom of pan.  Bake 15 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on high speed until smooth.  Beat in 2 of the eggs.  Mix until smooth to incorporate the eggs.  STIR in 1 cup of the toffee bits.  Spread over crust.  In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, whipping cream, 2/3 cup sugar, the cinnamon, salt and remaining 3 eggs just until blended.  Slowly and carefully spoon over cheesecake layer.  You don't want to disrupt the first layer.

Bake 2 hours or until edge of cheesecake is set at least 2 inches from edge of pan but center still jiggles slightly when moved.  During this process, I added a small pan of water to the bottom rack of the oven filled with water.  I wanted to have some more moisture in there to prevent splitting. Turn oven off, open oven door at least 4 inches.  Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Run spatula around edge of pan.  Cool 30 minutes or more on cooling rack. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.  Run spatula around edge of pan; remove side of pan.

Decorate at will!  This could mean piping whipped topping around the edges of the cheesecake and sprinkling with remaining toffee bits as suggested by the recipe.  I didn't want the topping to "melt" all over the top of mine, so I took a different route.  I crushed up an additional 2 squares of cinnamon grahams and mixed them with extra toffee bits.  I sprinkled this mixture around the outer 1 inch of the cheesecake, and around the bottom.  I took a couple of large bars of caramel and and sea salt dark chocolate and broke them into large angular chunks.  I placed these around the top for some added dimension.  Little pieces made a pile in the center.

 

I hope you enjoyed this simple and delicious recipe!

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Here are some bonus recipes for you:
Sesame Shrimp and Asparagus Stir-Fry

Coconut Lime Chicken

Roasted Vegetable Chicken Pot Pie

Butter Pecan Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Red Pepper and Basil Pesto Penne

Rosemary Black Pepper No-Knead Artisan Bread

Homemade Hot Pockets

Okay, so this was just for fun...  commercially available hot pockets are a great idea, but probably not the best thing for you.  This afternoon, we played around with making our own.

Ham and Cheddar Hot Pockets

So many filling combinations come to mind _ chicken, artichokes, alfredo and spinach; meatballs and mozzarella; mexican chicken/cheese, corn, black beans; I could go on and on.  But this one was about a 2 and 3 year old, so we kept is really easy.

I think you could make this out of a plethora of bread options, depending on how elaborate or time consuming you want to go with it:  Homemade bread, pizza crust, crescent rolls, etc.  For today's experiment, we used were doing Ham and Cheddar Hot Pockets using puff pastry. 

We started by cutting the ham into ribbons while the pastry thawed and the oven preheated.

 You definitely want to flour the surface.. and perhaps flour a toddler.

 Roll out the "creases"of the puff pastry.

Cut the pastry into strips with a pizza cutter, draw an imaginary line in the middle.  I used my fingernail to make a smaller "box" in the dough on one side, leaving a margin so he would know the boundaries of our filling.

 Fill the square.  My recommendation for next time is to add lots more filling. 

 Sprinkle whatever seasoning you want.  Canon is adding a bit of oregano to the filling.

 Prepare an egg wash:  1 egg yolk, some water.  Mix.

"Paint" the edges of the pastry with the egg wash so they will stick together.  I didn't get to paint that much.  That job was swiftly claimed by my son.

Fold the pastry over and seal.  I crimped them with a fork to ensure a seal.  This is pretty critical to avoid the pastry opening up and all the filling spilling out.

Optional - Paint the top with an egg wash.  This will give it a glossy shine, but will also cause it to brown faster.  So choose a side on this one.

We added some herbs, some grated Parmesan and a bit of black pepper to the top.
And this was the result....

As you can see, the pastry puffs and the filling cooks down, so although they were really yummy, next time... you should use LOTS of filling!

Next, we made some sweet Apple Pie Hot Pockets. We used apple pie filling (so much hard work went into this step).

Canon added apple pie spice (lots of it) to the apples.  We had to have a discussion about his seasoning....  but learning is part of this.

 Fill the pastry as before..

 Seal after the egg wash... I also crimped the edges to make it a little prettier.

 Again, the egg wash, then some cinnamon sugar on top.

   

 I made a 40 second quick icing glaze:  powdered sugar, heavy cream, a little vanilla.

Plus a little caramel sauce for dipping...

 Yummm!!!

Order the Menu Musings Cookbook!

 
Written Method

Ham and Cheddar Hot Pockets

So many filling combinations come to mind _ chicken, artichokes, alfredo and spinach; meatballs and mozzarella; mexican chicken/cheese, corn, black beans; I could go on and on.  But this one was about a 2 and 3 year old, so we kept is really easy.

I think you could make this out of a plethora of bread options, depending on how elaborate or time consuming you want to go with it:  Homemade bread, pizza crust, crescent rolls, etc.  For today's experiment, we used were doing Ham and Cheddar Hot Pockets using puff pastry. 

We started by cutting the ham into ribbons while the pastry thawed and the oven preheated.

 You definitely want to flour the surface.. and perhaps flour a toddler.

 Roll out the "creases"of the puff pastry.

Cut the pastry into strips with a pizza cutter, draw an imaginary line in the middle.  I used my fingernail to make a smaller "box" in the dough on one side, leaving a margin so he would know the boundaries of our filling.

 Fill the square.  My recommendation for next time is to add lots more filling. 

 Sprinkle whatever seasoning you want.  Canon is adding a bit of oregano to the filling.

 Prepare an egg wash:  1 egg yolk, some water.  Mix.

"Paint" the edges of the pastry with the egg wash so they will stick together.  I didn't get to paint that much.  That job was swiftly claimed by my son.

Fold the pastry over and seal.  I crimped them with a fork to ensure a seal.  This is pretty critical to avoid the pastry opening up and all the filling spilling out.

Optional - Paint the top with an egg wash.  This will give it a glossy shine, but will also cause it to brown faster.  So choose a side on this one.

We added some herbs, some grated Parmesan and a bit of black pepper to the top.

And this was the result....

As you can see, the pastry puffs and the filling cooks down, so although they were really yummy, next time... you should use LOTS of filling!

Next, we made some sweet Apple Pie Hot Pockets. We used apple pie filling (so much hard work went into this step).

Canon added apple pie spice (lots of it) to the apples.  We had to have a discussion about his seasoning....  but learning is part of this.

 Fill the pastry as before..

 Seal after the egg wash... I also crimped the edges to make it a little prettier.

 Again, the egg wash, then some cinnamon sugar on top.

   

 I made a 40 second quick icing glaze:  powdered sugar, heavy cream, a little vanilla.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

If you are from the Southern Part of the United States, you undoubtedly know that gumbo is the ultimate comfort food, and a sure sign that the crisp Autumn weather has graced us at long last with a breath of cool air.  Autumn means football, beautiful leaves, marshmallows and hot dogs roasting out on the back deck with the kids... and gumbo with friends!

Click for Printable Recipe
 
Ingredients:

• 2/3 c  vegetable oil 
• 1 c  flour 
• 2  medium yellow onions, chopped 
• 2  smoked sausage links (approx 12 -16 inches long), sliced on a bias 
• 3 cloves chopped garlic 
• 1 whole chicken (Fryer in a pinch, Hen if you’ve got lots of time) 
• Salt to taste 
• Pepper to taste 
• Garlic powder (if not using garlic cloves) to taste 
• Ground, dried thyme to taste 
• 2-3 celery stalks chopped 
• ¼ c to ½ c of bell peppers 
• fresh green onions 
• gumbo file’
• Sometimes I like to add the vinegar from a jar of pickled jalapeños (or apple cider vinegar)

Method:

I highly recommend having all of your ingredients chopped and ready to go before you begin.  Once you start the roux, you can NOT leave it or stop stirring it.  

All of my roux seasonings chopped and ready to go in!

The best smoked pork sausage you can find, cut into coins.

For the Chicken

Cover bone-on chicken pieces in a large stockpot with cold water. Bring to a boil, and reduce down until the chicken is fork tender.  When the chicken gets tender, debone the chicken.  You can either toss all the skin and bones (if you are in a hurry), or replace them in the stock pot to enrich the stock.  If you do this, let them boil another 15 minutes or so to get a richer stock.  Then you can strain them or fish them out with a spider/slotted spoon.

I don't really like to put my chicken meat back in just yet because it can both over cook the chicken and make it shred... and I prefer my meat to be in larger pieces.   

A whole cut up chicken, covered in water or chicken broth, plus salt, pepper, thyme.

The deboned chicken.

For the Roux

PreHeat cast iron skillet. 

Add 2/3 c of oil to skillet.  Heat the oil for a while.  Add approx 1c of flour.

Stir constantly.

When roux starts to really brown, lower heat to med.

When roux is a dark chocolate or close to color of skillet, add chopped vegetables and sausage.  (It should be the color of the Nutella chocolate, hazelnut spread.)   It might be necessary to increase the heat when the vegetables are added.  They will bring down the temperature of the roux immediately when you add them.  Cook down several minutes more until veggies are wilted and soft.   Be careful, the preservatives in the sausage might cause the roux to stick and burn.

Once the stock has come to the desired state of richness and the bones have been removed, add the roux to the stock pot.

Continue the roux in the stock at a hard boil.  Correct the seasonings.

Add the chicken to the gumbo and let it simmer for a while for all of the flavors to marry. This part really takes a while.  If you taste it and it just "doesn't taste like anything," just let it continue to simmer for a while. This part really can't be rushed.  Don't bring it to a hard boil because the chicken will start breaking up.

If you have time, let the gumbo cool, and remove the grease that will rise to the top.  Add fresh green onions, after you remove the grease.  Add  gumbo file’, if desired.  Do not add it to the whole pot, but to individual bowls to avoid making the gumbo stringy.  Serve hot over white rice.

Looking for more soups and such?  Please visit my Recipe Index for lots of ideas of things you can cook with/for your family.   Click here to subscribe to MenuMusings.  Click here to connect on the MenuMusings Facebook page.

Order the Menu Musings Cookbook!

 
Here are a few recipes to get you started:

• Cheater Cheater Chicken and Dumplings 
  

• Creamy Tomato Soup
  
  
  

• Skinny Mexican Pizza
   

• Vietnamese Style Lettuce Cups 

• Mahogany Glazed Chicken  

Written Method:

I highly recommend having all of your ingredients chopped and ready to go before you begin.  Once you start the roux, you can NOT leave it or stop stirring it. 

For the Chicken. Cover bone-on chicken pieces in a large stockpot with cold water. Bring to a boil, and reduce down until the chicken is fork tender.  When the chicken gets tender, debone the chicken.  You can either toss all the skin and bones (if you are in a hurry), or replace them in the stock pot to enrich the stock.  If you do this, let them boil another 15 minutes or so to get a richer stock.  Then you can strain them or fish them out with a spider/slotted spoon.  I don't really like to put my chicken meat back in just yet because it can both over cook the chicken and make it shred... and I prefer my meat to be in larger pieces.   
 

For the Roux. PreHeat cast iron skillet. Add 2/3 c of oil to skillet. Heat oil for a while. Add approx 1c of flour. Stir constantly. When roux starts to really brown, lower heat to med. When roux is a dark chocolate or close to color of skillet, add chopped vegetables and sausage.  (It should be the color of the Nutella chocolate, hazelnut spread.) It might be necessary to increase the heat when the vegetables are added.  They will bring down the temperature of the roux immediately when you add them.  Cook down several minutes more until veggies are wilted and soft.  Be careful, the preservatives in the sausage might cause the roux to stick and burn.

Once the stock has come to the desired state of richness and the bones have been removed, add the roux to the stock pot. Continue the roux in the stock at a hard boil.  Correct the seasonings.  Add the chicken to the gumbo and let it simmer for a while for all of the flavors to marry. This part really takes a while.  If you taste it and it just "doesn't taste like anything," just let it continue to simmer for a while. This part really can't be rushed.  Don't bring it to a hard boil because the chicken will start breaking up

If you have time, let the gumbo cool, and remove the grease that will rise to the top.  Add fresh green onions, after you remove the grease.   Add  gumbo file’, if desired.  Do not add it to the whole pot, but to individual bowls to avoid making the gumbo stringy.  Serve hot over white rice.

Food Nerd Notes (wikipedia): 

Gumbo is a stew or soup that originated in southern Louisiana during the 18th century. It consists primarily of a strongly-flavored stock, meat or shellfish, a thickener, and the vegetable holy trinity of celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the type of thickener used: the African vegetable okra, the Choctaw spice file' powder (dried and ground sassafras leaves), or roux, the French base made of flour and fat. The dish likely derived its name from either the Bantu word for okra (ki ngombo) or the Choctaw word for filé (kombo).

Several different varieties exist. Creole gumbo generally contains shellfish, tomatoes, and a thickener. Cajun gumbo is generally based on a dark roux and is spicier, with either shellfish or fowl. Sausage or ham are often added to gumbos of either variety. After the base is prepared, vegetables are cooked down, and then meat is added. The dish simmers for a minimum of three hours, with shellfish and some spices added near the end. If desired, filé powder is added after the pot is removed from heat. Gumbo is traditionally served over rice. 

The dish combines ingredients and culinary practices of several cultures, including French, Spanish, German, West African, and Choctaw. The dish is the official cuisine of the state of Louisiana.