Pamela's Gluten Free Recipes

Daily forays into the kitchen for 1 celiac, 1 vegetarian, and 2 carnivores

Pumpkin Pie Ricotta Cheesecake

Dessert, Gluten Free, Vegetarian8 Responses »

With the thought in mind that you really shouldn’t try new recipes on guests,

I made cheesecake today.

In anticipation of the big day next week.

Yep, I am hosting Thanksgiving this year, I can’t remember the last Thanksgiving we had here.

Our friends always pitch in and bring some of the meal, that way it’s really not too much work  for the host.

I can count on Scotty to bring regular stuffing (I make a GF version for me) and a soup to start, Bunny has her sights set for cream of asparagus.

Nikki usually brings an over the top, from the cover of Bon Appetit kind of dessert, but she will be celebrating elsewhere (boyfriend) this year, so that leaves it up to me to bake.

I have confessed before that I don’t do much baking, I’d rather cook. Now I feel I have to prove that it is due to choice, not lack of expertise.

I could have asked one of our other guests to bring dessert, could have, didn’t though.

I can do this.

After reading all my cookbooks, and scouring the Internet I couldn’t find what I had in mind.

So I did the unthinkable (in baking, for me that is) I made one up, from scratch, no recipe really.

Now I didn’t just make your plain old garden variety kind of cheesecake, no sir, what was needed was a wow cheesecake.

And let me tell you this cheesecake was fabulous!  Light, airy, exactly pumpkin pie meets cheesecake, pecfect for this time of year.

So good that we are going to quickly finish this one off, and look forward to making another for next weeks festivities.

Best to make 1 day ahead and chill overnight, good thing I have enough to do already on the 24th…….

Pumpkin Pie Ricotta Cheesecake
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
Ingredients
  • Prepared graham craker crust (I used Kinnikinnick GF)
  • 3 cups whole milk ricotta cheese
  • ⅔ cups of sugar
  • ⅓ cup flour (I used Pamela's GF Baking Flour)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup pureed pumpkin, canned or homemade
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp nutmeg
  • ⅛ tsp ground cloves
  • ⅛ tsp salt
  • 2 tsp orange zest
Instructions
  1. Place ricotta in a cheesecloth lined colander over large bowl and let excess liquid drain for 4 hours or overnight if you have the time.
  2. When ready to bake.
  3. Prepare your graham cracker crust in a springform pan lined with parchment paper then grease and flour pan, shaking off excess. Chill or bake depending manufacturers recommendation.
  4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  5. Add drained ricotta to mixer and beat at medium speed until slightly smooth about 2-3 minutes.
  6. With mixer set on low add sugar, flour, beat 1 min.
  7. Add pumpkin and vanilla then eggs, one at a time until just incorporated.
  8. Have spices and orange zest measured out in a separate bowl and now add to mixer, beat just until blended throughout.
  9. Bake in the center of oven for 1¼ -1½ hours.
  10. Add another cake pan filled with water to the oven as well.
  11. Bake until nicely browned edges and center is slightly soft, will firm up as it cools.
  12. Can be served plain, with cream cheese frosting or with berries.
  13. For Cream Cheese Frosting:
  14. Beat 8oz cream cheese with 6 oz butter, 2 tsp vanilla and 3 cups confectioners sugar until smooth and fluffy.

 

 

 

 

8 Responses

catherine
May 11th, 2012 at 4:31 pm

Why isnt cream cheese included in the ingredient and how different does it taste without it??

Pamela
May 17th, 2012 at 11:19 am

Catherine,
I use ricotta cheese instead of cream cheese, makes for a lighter cheesecake (I think).

Abbi
November 11th, 2013 at 11:09 pm

Next time I would omit the orange zest. I did not use the crust and baked them in ramekins, they turned out beautifully.

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