Toffee Pumpkin Cheesecake and Halloween

toffee pumpkin cheesecake

This past weekend Harper, my mom, and her friend Jenni and I took a trip to Houston. Mom and Jenni visited the Houston Quilt Show and pretty much shopped till they dropped!

While Mom and Jenni had a fun girls quilting trip, Harper and I decided to hang out with my Aunt Jolene and her daughter Robin, and Robin’s girls Sarah and Madeline. Even though we were in Houston for just one full day, we had a blast and ate LOTS OF FOOD!

A lot of the recipes on this blog are actually from Aunt Jolene. She is one of the best cooks, if not THE BEST cook I know. In addition to looking forward to catching up with Jolene, I look forward to the homemade food she has prepared. This trip we had:

Breakfast: Cream of wheat, chili cheese egg casserole, bacon, toast, and fruit
Lunch: Tuna salad sandwich, chips, fruit, and Guess Again Cookies (I’ll blog soon! They have Rice Krispies cereal, coconut and oats in them. Yum!)
Dinner: Chicken spaghetti, salad, french bread, and this toffee-pumpkin cheesecake
Snacks: Sarah’s pumpkin muffins (I’ll blog soon!)

Wednesday night was the Republican debate, Jolene had a neighbor named Jim over to watch the it since his television was broken.

It’s kind of a funny sight, looking back…. all four of us (Jim, Jolene, James – an uncle who was in Houston for work, and I) curled on the couch watching the Republican debate with big slices of cheesecake perched on our laps.

toffee pumpkin cheesecake

The cheesecake was amazing! I thought I would be good and not eat the whole slice, but my stomach trumped my brain and said I should finish it. I regretted that afterwards and had trouble falling asleep I was so stuffed, but it was definitely worth it!!

With cinnamon graham cracker crumbs, toffee bits, canned pumpkin and cream cheese, you can’t go wrong with this decadently delicious fall dessert. Don’t forget to garnish the cheesecake with whipped cream, toffee bits, and caramel topping for “icing on the cake”. It was almost too good to eat. ALMOST…. 🙂

The Houston trip was short-lived and we were back in Dallas by Friday evening and ready to trick-or-treat and watch A&M football that next day.

Halloween was a treat as the Aggies pulled out a win against the South Carolina Gamecocks, and Harper went trick-or-treating for the first time.

She was a bumble bee! Buzzzzzzzz!!!!!!

bumble bee Halloween costume — Where’s the candy?

At one year old, Harper is fearless. Not once did she cry, get scared or fuss. I actually nearly jumped out of my skin when we knocked on a neighbor’s house that had motion-sensored scary music and a fake black snake. Harper – nothing phased her!

She had a blast looking at all the other kids in their costumes, and enjoyed knocking on doors and picking out candy. When given the option of which candy she wanted, Harper choose a Reese’s Pieces and a Kit-Kat. I think she liked the bright redish/orange colors from the wrappers.

Even though we all love M&Ms, Snickers, and Hershey’s, why does the packaging have to be dark brown? Such an ugly color, and if you are trying to appeal to a one-year-old, they have their sights on the brightly packaged candies. FYI – to all the candy makers. 🙂

Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween. Enjoy!

Toffee Pumpkin Cheesecake

Cook time: 2 hours 45 mins

Total time: 2 hours 45 mins

Serves: 16

Ingredients

2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (32 squares)
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
5 eggs, divided
8 oz. bag toffee baking bits, divided
15 oz. can pumpkin
3/4 cup whipping cream
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
8 oz. container frozen whipped topping, thawed
caramel topping, heated

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Combine crumbs and butter in a small bowl. Press mixture in the bottom of a greased 9″ springform pan. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until smooth. Beat in 2 eggs. Stir in 1 cup toffee bits. Spread over crust.
Combine pumpkin, whipping cream, 2/3 cup sugar, cinnamon, salt and remaining 3 eggs in a large bowl until blended. Slowly and carefully spoon over cheesecake layer.
Bake 2 hours, or until edge of cheesecake is set at least 2 inches from edge of pan but center still jiggles slightly when moved. Turn off oven; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Run spatula around edge of pan; remove side of pan.
Dollop servings with whipped topping. Drizzle with caramel topping; garnish with remaining toffee bits.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble

There’s just something wrong with the idea of it being 97 degrees outside in the middle of October! How the temperature can go from the 60s to the 90s in one day blows my mind, but then again we live in Texas!!

You’d never know it, but Halloween is almost here, which means Thanksgiving is just around the corner. October is a big month for our family as Harper is about to turn one year old!! It’s crazy how fast the time goes.

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago from Pinch of Yum for a super easy sweet potato casserole and thought I’d give it a try before the big turkey day. Turns out, it was super easy just as described, and Matt and I both enjoyed it. The pecan crumble topping is buttery, sweet and crumbly, and is a perfect addition to the sweet potatoes baked underneath.

This casserole kind of tastes like a sweet potato pie without the crust. Perfect for Matt since he doesn’t eat the crust of a pie. He is weird. 🙂

sweet potato casserole with pecan crumble — Combine mashed sweet potatoes, milk, butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs and salt, and pour into a cast iron skillet.

Easy recipes are everyones favorite. Whether you’re working, taking care of kids, or just don’t want to be in the kitchen all day, this recipe is for you. I prepped this casserole during Harper’s nap time, then took her to the park where she played until 5 pm, and then had dinner (including this sweet potato casserole) served promptly at 6 pm.

Now that’s what I call efficient!

baby — Harper’s first trip to the playground. The wood chips were the best part!

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Crumble

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 8

Source: Pinch of Yum

Ingredients

FOR THE SWEET POTATOES
3 cups (1 29-oz can) sweet potatoes, drained
1/2 cup melted butter
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 beaten eggs
salt to taste
FOR THE TOPPING
5 Tbsp. melted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup flour
1 cup pecan pieces

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mash the sweet potatoes and add the melted butter, milk, sugar, vanilla, beaten eggs, and pinch of salt. Stir until incorporated. Pour into a shallow baking dish or cast iron skillet.
Combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, and pecan pieces in a small bowl, using your fingers to create moist crumbs. Sprinkle generously over the casserole.
Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the edges pull away from the sides of the pan and the top is golden brown. Let stand and allow the mixture to cool and solidify a bit before serving.

Sweet Potato Pie

The countdown has begun! Less than 3 weeks until the big day…. Thanksgiving!!!

If you’re looking for a good pie recipe and are sick of pumpkin pie, a sweet potato pie may be just what you need!

Not only is this a wonderful recipe, it has a humorous story behind it. It was in the late 1960s, and my mom was still in high school when she made two of these sweet potato pies for Thanksgiving.

That Wednesday night, mom and her father Fred (I called him Poppy), decided to go to church while Nila, her mother, stayed at home to finish prepping for the big meal the next day. While I only knew Nila for the first two years of my life before she passed away, I hear she was a hoot, and could be a little ditsy (like myself at times). 🙂

As the story goes, Nila had just made homemade cornbread, and accidentally set it down to cool on a hot burner. Unfortunately the stovetop burner was the electric kind, and was still extremely hot from what she had been cooking earlier.

You can guess what happened next…. the cornbread, which was in a glass pyrex pan EXPLODED due to the heat, and there were shards of glass all over the kitchen and on top of mom’s two sweet potato pies!!!

Mom and Poppy had already given Nila grief for not coming to church with them, and said it was payback for skipping. Haha! Mom can’t remember if she ate a piece of pie or not, and while Poppy definitely didn’t eat a piece, Nila said “I’m not going to throw away two perfectly good sweet potato pies.” She scraped the top of the pie off with the pyrex glass shards, and thoroughly enjoyed her piece of pie that Thanksgiving!!!

Enjoy!!!

Sweet Potato Pie

Ingredients

1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1 1/2 cups milk, scalded
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 pie shell, unbaked

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a large bowl, add butter, salt and sugar to the cooked sweet potatoes. Add milk, eggs and vanilla.
Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell.
Bake for 45 minutes. Let cool completely before serving. Garnish with a dollop of cool whip, if desired.

Notes

Source: Garden Club Cookbook – Desserts

Pumpkin Roll

I promised John, a coworker of mine, I would make him a pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving.

Well, 6 months and 21 days later I’m finally fulfilling my promise of a pumpkin roll! Better late than never!!!

To be honest, I was quite intimidated when John requested I make this cake back in November. I had heard that pumpkin rolls were hard to make, and I was nervous that the cake would crack as I was rolling it, or that it would not stay together.

DO NOT BE AFRAID… Pumpkin rolls are easier than you think, so don’t be intimidated!!! Mixing the cake batter takes only minutes, and baking the cake takes less than 15 minutes. Plus, unlike a layer cake, there is no slicing cake layers, filling, frosting or decorating. Simply lather the cake with cream cheese filling, roll it up, dust with powdered sugar and you’re done!

A big thanks goes out to to the Brown-Eyed Baker, who posted a great pumpkin roll recipe with excellent instructions and ingredients for this no-fail, traditional Thanksgiving dessert.

John – If you’re reading this, I hope you enjoyed your three slices of pumpkin roll today!! I do indeed keep my promises. 🙂

While cake is baking, sprinkle powdered sugar on a piece of parchment paper.

pumpkin roll — Flip cake out onto powdered sugar-lined parchment paper.

Roll the cake into a cylinder using the parchment paper to help you.

Let cake cool to room temperature on a wire rack.

Carefully unroll the cake. Spread the cream cheese filling evenly over the surface of the cake, then re-roll the cake.

Tidy/pretty-up the end of the cake by trimming off the ends.

A neat story about John’s request for pumpkin rolls:

A lady his mom used to work with would take requests every holiday season for pumpkin rolls. The lady would charge her coworkers $12 for each roll, which seems like a pretty good deal to me. One year the lady had over 500 orders from her friends and coworkers. John’s mom would buy one every year and thus you can see how his love for pumpkin rolls developed!

Pumpkin Roll

Serves: 8

Ingredients

¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
⅔ cup canned pure pumpkin
8 ounces 1/3-less fat cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Instructions

MAKE THE CAKE: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 15×10-inch jelly roll pan. Line the pan with parchment paper, then grease and flour the parchment. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt; set aside.
With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the sugar and eggs together until combined and thick, about 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold and mix until no flour is remaining. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer.
Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. While the cake is in the oven, place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar.
When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake. Turn the cake out onto the prepared piece of parchment paper. Carefully peel off the parchment paper from the top of the cake and discard. Starting with a short end, carefully roll up the cake with the parchment paper. Place the rolled cake on a wire rack seam-side down and allow to cool to room temperature.
MAKE THE FILLING: Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy. Add the powdered sugar and beat until completely smooth and light. Add the vanilla extract and mix briefly to combine.
Carefully unroll the cake. Spread the cream cheese filling evenly over the surface of the cake. Re-roll the cake, then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve, place the pumpkin roll on a serving platter and dust with powdered sugar. Leftovers should be wrapped in plastic wrap or placed in an airtight container and refrigerated.

Notes

Adapted from: Brown-Eyed Baker