Non-Award-Winning Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheezecake

The verdict is finally in, and my Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheezecake (posted about earlier) was not one of the three entries from 100 to win the local morning news' Anything But Pumpkin Pie Contest. The $100 grocery gift certificate sure would have been nice, but whatever. I'm really happy with the way my recipe turned out. My omni dad said it was the best cheesecake he's had, period. And everyone who sampled it (between the first cake I made when creating the recipe and the second, of only two pieces were needed by the contest, I've had a lot of cheezecake to share), really liked it. I'm still a winner, damn it!

In fact, as I type this, there is a cheezecake baking in my oven; a friend of my mother's said she was willing to pay me $20 for a Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheezecake to take with her to her family's Thanksgiving get together. I was happy to oblige, so I when I got home from work tonight, I set to work.

Anyway, enough preamble. Here's the recipe.

Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheezecake
Sara ©2007

Ingredients

for Chocolate Crumb Crust:
1/3 cup pecans, toasted
1 ½ cups chocolate wafer cookies, or 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (I use
Newman’s Own Tops & Bottoms Chocolate Wafers—about 2/3 of the 8 oz. pkg yields 1 cup crumbs)
¼ cup vegan margarine, melted

for Pumpkin Cheesecake:
12 oz. vegan cream cheeze (1 ½ 8-oz. containers Tofutti Better Than Cream
Cheese) at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup evaporated cane juice (like Florida Crystals), or granulated sugar
1 ½ cups canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
¾ tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg, or ground nutmeg
1 12-oz. package firm silken tofu (the aseptic packaged kind, like Mori-Nu brand)
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ tsp salt
½ tbsp freshly grated gingerroot

for Special Ganache Topping:
3.5 oz bar good quality bittersweet chocolate (I like Lindt), coarsely chopped
¼ cup soymilk
1 tbsp maple syrup or agave nectar
pinch cinnamon
½ cup reserved pumpkin mixture
1-3 tbsp coconut milk, soymilk, or soy creamer

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Position one rack on the lowest part of oven. Position second rack above it.

To make crust:
Place chocolate wafers and toasted pecans in the bowl of a food processor, pulse until ground. (Or alternatively, place in Ziploc bag and scrunch/pound with a heavy object like a rolling pin until left with fine crumbs.) Place cookie-pecan crumb mixture in small mixing bowl. Stir in melted margarine. Mixture will be the texture of wet sand. Press into an 8-inch springform pan. Place in refrigerator until ready to use.

To make cheesecake:
With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream together sugars and cream cheeze, until light and fluffy. Beat in pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and nutmeg, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice. Reserve ½ cup of this mixture and refrigerate for later use.

Place silken tofu, lemon juice, and salt in the jar of a blender. Blend on high until completely smooth. You may need to pause to stir of the mixture so that the large clumps on top can be completely incorporated, depending on the power of your blender. Mixture should be completely smooth.

Beat tofu mixture into cream cheeze-pumpkin mixture, half at a time, pausing to scrap down sides of bowl, when necessary. When mixture is completely smooth, stir in freshly grated ginger. Pour pumpkin mixture over crust in springform pan. Smooth top with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.

Place a pan of water on lowest rack of oven. Place cheesecake on middle rack of oven. Back at 350°F for 45-50 minutes, until lightly golden, and edges of cheesecake are slightly cracked.

When done baking, turn off oven and let cheezecake sit in oven for 30 minutes. Then remove and place on wire rack to cool completely. When completely cool, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

Once chilled, proceed to make ganache topping.

To make ganache:
Melt chocolate in a double-boiler, or in microwave. (In microwave, heat for 30 second increments, stirring in between with fork, until completely melted.) Once melted, remove from heat and stir in ¼ cup soymilk, maple syrup or agave nectar, and cinnamon. Set aside.

Get ready to assemble cheezecake!

To assemble:
Remove cheezecake from fridge. Remove plastic wrap. If a bit of moisture has accumulated on top of cake, take a paper towel or clean kitchen cloth and gently blot to absorb moisture (so that your topping will adhere). Then proceed to pour ganache over top of cake, spreading with a spatula until smooth and uniform.

To reserved pumpkin mixture add 1-3 tbsp coconut milk. The fat content in coconut milk allows it to act similarly to heavy cream: it lightens the mixture without making it too liquid, which means you can probably add 3 tbsp. If you need to use soymilk or soy creamer instead, start out with 1 tbsp—you do not want the mixture to be too runny! The mixture should be a similar consistency to whipped cream. Once you’ve got the right consistency, place mixture in a pastry bag fitted with a medium-large plain tip, and pipe stripes of reserved pumpkin mixture across the top of cake, over the ganache. You may or may not use up all pumpkin mixture. (Consider the remainder an extra-special no-bake cheezecake treat for the baker :-) ). After stripes are piped on—swirl topping into a pretty design by running the tip of a knife crosswise through stripes, alternating from right to left, then left to right and so on. You’ll get a kind of wavy checkerboard pattern. Place back in fridge for ganache to set up. After about an hour, remove from refrigerator, and gently release cake and pan bottom from springform prison!

As optional, further beautification of your cheezecake, you may coat the sides with any, or a mixture, of the following: finely chopped toasted pecans, extra ground up chocolate wafers, mini chocolate chips, or finely chopped crystallized ginger. This helps cover up any rough edges of ganache, and makes the whole thing more professional-looking. I like pecans, in terms of taste/texture the best for this, but crystallized ginger is nice for true ginger fans. Or simply leave plain; whatever makes you happy. Cut into wedges and serve chilled.