Last year at this time, I had a crazy idea to start a frozen dough and pastry line. A few of my friends hosted an open house to introduce my new edibles. The parties were fun. Chatting with other food lovers was a treat. Then it was time to get to work. Making 3,000 pastries, doughs, pies, and tarts was tiring, but my arm muscles never looked better.
After the last order was delivered, I realized that this could not be a one woman show. If I was going to pursue this, I need a commercial kitchen, a helper – or two, and to be 25 years younger. I shelved the idea of maketing my goodies, but during the process, some pretty good treats were born.
One of my favorite recipes are these Mini Pumpkin-Praline Cheesecakes. Always a sucker for anything mini, this cake is just as good made in a 10″ springform pan. An added bonus, they freeze well. Sometimes, I will catch my kids and their friends rifling through the additional freezer housed in the garage. They don’t mind them frozen. However, I prefer mine with my late afternoon cup of tea.
Mini Pumpkin-Praline Cheesecake
Ingredients
for the praline:
1 cup golden brown sugar
6 Tbsp(3 oz.) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup pecans, chopped + toasted
for the crust:
1 1/2 cups(7 oz.) gingersnap cookies
1 1/2(6 oz.) cups hazelnuts, toasted
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup(2 oz.) unsalted butter, melted
for the filling:
32 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups organic, cane sugar
3 Tbsp. whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
4 large, organic eggs
15 oz. organic pumpkin puree
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Instructions
• preheat oven to 325*
• place mini silicone muffin pan on rimmed baking sheets, lined with parchment.
for the praline:
• line a small, rimmed baking sheet with heavy duty foil.
• in small saucepan, melt the butter.
• add the brown sugar and combine. bring to a boil. once boiling, stir to combine.
• mix in pecans and coat well.
• spread mixture on the prepared baking sheet.
• bake for 10 minutes or until bubbly all over.
• once cooled, break into pieces. can be stored in a air tight container for 1 day.
for the crust:
• in the work bowl of a food processor, pulse the cookies, brown sugar, and the hazelnuts(I use hazelnut flour instead). prosess until it all resembles coarse sand.
• with the machine running, add the melted butter through the tube of the food processor.
• pulse until it all comes together and is more moist than dry.
• using 1 – 1 1/2 teaspoons of crust, place in the muffin cups. using the bottom of an 1/8″ measuring cup, press the crust into the muffin tin. repeat unitl you have used up all the crust.
• bake for 10 minutes. cool on a wire rack.
for the filling:
• in the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the cream cheese until creamy. add the sugar and mix well.
• beat in the all the dry ingredients (flour and spices).
• in a small bowl, crack the eggs and add the vanilla.
• add the eggs, one at a time.
• beat in the pumpkin until well combined.
• remove bowl from mixer and using a rubber spatula, mix thoroughly.
• using a 1 tablespoon scooper, fill muffin cups to the top with cheesecake batter.
• bake for 12-14 minutes, alternating pans front to back and top to bottom.
• immediately upon removing from the oven, sprinkle each cheesecake with crumbled praline.
• once completely cooled, freeze cheesecakes. once frozen, pop cheesecakes out of the silicone trays.
• line an air tight container with parchment. place cheesecakes in the container. freeze until ready to eat.
• 1 hour before eating, remove from freezer and defrost on a platter (or do what my kids do, eat them frozen, right out of the freezer).
The Urban Baker / SusanSalzman.com
More Pumpkin Links:
Pumpkin Fritters – Delishhhh
Pumpkin Vanilla Smoothie – Keep it Simple Foods
Pumpkin Tiramisu – Sprinkle Bakes
Curried Pumpkin Loaf – Piecurious
Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice – Season with Spice
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Leave a Comment
Th only problem with these mini cheesecakes is I would have to eat 10 of them. A great T-Giving treat!
10+!!! Happy Thanksgiving, Marla! x
these look adorable, susan! and i like the idea of mini bites so you can try a variety of desserts instead of committing to a whole piece of one.
I seriously love these – I am a sucker for anything tiny!! So glad you decided not to do the bakery gig – I’m selfish I know but I would miss your blog way too much!!!
Because I tried some pumkin and liked it, I think I’m gonna try these mini creamcheese cakes! Plus, these freeze well, it’s really perfect withnthe Holidays coming!
So beautiful Susan!!!
Portion control?? Not likely with these little guys!
I love the mini size! I’m a big fan of mini desserts in general 🙂
So cute! The mini size helps from overindulging!
I could probably eat 4 of these in one sitting. Yum!
These look wonderful…I adore mini just about anything edible…especially one or two bite sweet things.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Why is it that everything is more appealing in miniature form? These are adorable (and look delicious too 🙂
These are absolutely adorable. Is it wrong that because of their cute, small size I actually want to eat like… twenty of them?
Also, thank you for the link love! 🙂