Dessert Decision & Recipe

I just want to say a resounding “Thank You” to all of you who “voted” in my dessert post on Tuesday. The “winner” was the Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake, with you all anyway. But me, I’m goin’ for the cheesecake for a couple of reasons.

1. I am making most of the rest of the dinner (except the turkey, thanks to my BIL) including my first attempt at homemade dinner rolls and so I need simple desserts. After I started really reading the recipe I realized, that chocolate cheesecake mumbo-jumbo is WAY too complicated. The cheesecake, pretty easy and it can be made the day before.

2. I could NOT STOP thinking about it drizzled with caramel sauce.

So there you have it. Y’all did help me decide. Julie even suggested that I do the cheesecake with chocolate cookie crust and I may explore that possibility cause boy it does sound like a good compromise!

Here’s the Recipe. Please let me know if you try it to. I would LOVE to know!

Pumpkin Cheesecake

For the Crust
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from 14 graham crackers)
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling
1 .25 oz envelope unflavored gelatin
1 8 oz. bar cream cheese, at room temperature
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

To make the crust:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter. Transfer to a 9-inch springform pan. Using a straight-sided dry measuring cup, press the mixture into the bottom and 2 inches up the sides of the pan. Bake until set, 8 t0 10 minutes. Let cool.

To make the filling:
Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/4 cup boiling water. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until dissolved, about 5 minutes.

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Mix in the pumpkin, sour cream, sugar, pumkin pie spice, and vanilla. Mix in the gelatin mixture until incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the crust and refrigerate, covered until firm at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.

By the way, I got this recipe out of the Nov. 2008 issue of Real Simple magazine.

And here’s a recipe from All Recipes for the caramel sauce that I will be drizzling over this bad boy. (gee, I sure hope it’s as good as I am making it out to be. If not I got pumpkin and pecan pie, right?)

Caramel Sauce
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 (14 ounce) can NESTLE® CARNATION® Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
COMBINE sugar and water in medium, heavy-duty saucepan; cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a boil. Continue to boil, without stirring, for 10 to 14 minutes, tilting pan occasionally to keep color even until mixture turns a deep caramel color. Remove from heat.

STIR in sweetened condensed milk (mixture will foam up); do not scrape sides of pan. One tablespoon at a time, add 1/4 cup butter, stirring well after each addition. Stir in remaining butter and vanilla extract until smooth.

Oh, now I can’t wait! YUM-O! Only a week to go!