There are variants of harvest festivals all around the world, and they all happen when the weather turns cold. In the US it’s called Thanksgiving. The last Thursday in November is arguably the most important holiday in the American calendar. On the busiest travel weekend of the year in the US, everyone rushes home to sit down with family and enjoy a huge, gut-busting meal, usually followed by sprawling on the sofa in a tryptophan-trance watching a football game. The feast, which is traditionally epic in proportions, usually includes the traditional turkey with all the trimmings, and is invariably finished off with pumpkin pie. I think I may the only American who does not like pumpkin pie.
After I grew up and moved away from home, I often hosted what I called my ‘Thanksgiving for Orphans’, meaning a dinner for people whose families, like mine, were too far away for them to join. If anyone wanted pumpkin pie at these dinners, they were told to bring it themselves, because I’ve never made one and have no intention of doing so.
However, I may have mellowed with age, and I now feel somewhat obligated to offer up something that at least resembles pumpkin pie. So I came up my own version: no-bake pumpkin cheesecake. I make it with fresh pumpkin, delicately-spiced and not overly-sweetened, and a sharp and citrusy ginger biscuit crust. And it’s no-bake, so it’s dead easy to put together. Why not give it a try this year – at Halloween, your harvest festival or Thanksgiving dinner, or even at Christmas?
Happy Holidays to all of you – whatever, whenever and however you celebrate!
No-Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
Ingredients
Apple Filling
- ¼ cup brown sugar (packed)
- 6 apples (peeled, cored, and chopped into roughly 3/4-inch cubes)
Crust
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus extra for dustin the pan
- ½ tbsp salt + pepper
- 6 tbsp ice cold water
Topping
- 1½ tbsp lemon juice (Freshly squeezed juice, please do not use boxed juice)
- ⅔ cup cinnamon (crushed graham crackers)
- 6 cups all purpose flour (I like King Arthur Baking Company All-Purpose Flour)
- ½ tbsp cinnamon (ground)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC/gas 4. Generously spray two 12-cup muffin pans with cooking spray. Sprinkle the bottom of each cavity with a couple pinches of sugar. Set aside.
- Add almonds and rosemary to your KitchenAid® K400 Blender. Close lid, select “Ice Crush” setting, and let blender run through the setting. Scrape down the sides of the blender with a rubber spatula, then replace lid and blend on speed 5 for 10 seconds. Scrape sides again and blend on speed 5 for a final 15-20 seconds, or until almonds and rosemary are finely ground.
- Pour the almond mixture from blender in a small mixing bowl. Add all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine, and set aside.
- Place ricotta cheese, olive oil, orange zest and sugar into the blender. Pulse 5 times to incorporate. Remove the lid cap and add eggs, one at a time, pulsing once after each addition. Replace lid cap.
- Remove lid, use spatula to scrape down the sides of the bender, then add half of flour mixture to blender and pulse 2 times. Scrape down sides of blender again, then add remaining flour mixture and blend on speed 3 for 15 seconds.
- Assemble the cakes. Use a sharp knife to cut off the ends of four of the citrus fruits. Slice the citrus into very thin rounds, no thicker than 1/8". Remove any seeds from the rounds and place one small citrus round in the bottom of each sugared muffin cavity. (See Chef’s Notes for choosing/placing citrus.)
- Slowly fill each muffin cavity to a little more than halfway full. (A pastry spatula is helpful in portioning the batter from the blender and into the cavities.) Bake cakes for 20-25 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through baking. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted into the cakes comes out clean.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and tag @lemon&limes on Instagram and hashtag it #lemon&limes.