Well, I decided that my first post has to be about something important. So, I've selected food. Lately I've been trying to use up the winter squashes that are left over from last year's farm share shipments (Lynn and I are members of Angelic Organics) and I decided to try squash cheesecake based on the thought that I'd had pumpkin cheesecake and all the winter squashes are pretty similar.
So, I roasted a butternut squash in the oven, mashed it, and used it in the following original recipe.
Squash Cheesecake
Ingredients for the Crust
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup raw whole walnuts
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 4-6 tablespoons of ice water
Ingredients for the Filling
- 1 pound cream cheese
- 1 and 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cup squash
- 1/4 cup dark molasses
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 3 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 large eggs, beaten
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Mix dry ingredient in food processor until walnut are in small bits.
- Add butter, pulse until incorporated
- Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of ice water at a time and pulse until dough just begins to come together.
- Pat into an even layer at the bottom of a spring-form cheesecake pan
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, remove and drop the temperature to 275.
- Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixer until smooth
- Mix squash, molasses, spices, and salt.
- Add squash mix to cream cheese mixture, be sure to scrape down sides of the bowl to ensure complete mixing.
- Add eggs, mix until just incorporated.
- Pour into pan, put in the oven.
- Bake for 1 and 1/2 hours, or just until set.
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- Let cool, chill overnight, and serve!
This cheesecake came out so tasty it was all I could do not to eat it all myself.
