Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups with a microwaveable caramel sauce

I am so very late to the pumpkin party! I just hope I'm not too late and you've all overdosed on it  already. I have a good excuse for being late... I really do. I am 3 1/2 months pregnant with twins and morning sickness has been in full swing. You have to feel bad for me. Just think of all the awesome Fall recipes I missed out on.

My first pumpkin recipe of the Fall involves pumpkin (duh!), cheesecake and caramel. Introducing Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups...

These single serving size cups are made in a muffin tin. I used a large cupped tin but you can use whatever size you'd like. You can also check out the original recipe if you want to make a traditional cheesecake.

Because I love experimenting, I made these with a Cinnamon Toast Crunch crust. The result was quite tasty. The options of cookies, crackers, cereal you can use for a crust are endless!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups (original recipe: Once Upon A Chef)

Makes 6 in a large muffin pan

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Crust 

4 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal

4 tbsp butter, melted

Pumpkin Cheesecake

5oz canned pumpkin

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/8 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cloves

Dash of salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

8oz cream cheese, room temp

2 eggs, room temp

Caramel Sauce (microwave!)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

2 tbsp water

1/8 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp butter

To make the crust:

Ground the cereal into fine crumbs. Pour in the melted butter and stir together.

Preheat oven to 325. Prepare a large muffin pan by rubbing olive oil into each muffin cup.

Divide the cereal mixture into each muffin cup. You may have a little left over.

Bake crust for about 8 minutes. Let cool while you prepare the cheesecake.

To make the cheesecake:

Combine pumpkin, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a saucepan. Cook on med-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to sputter. Reduce to med-low heat and stir constantly for another 5 minutes or until the mixture has become a rich brown color and thickened.

Pour into bowl and mix for one minute. Pour in heavy cream while mixer is on. Mix evenly. Add chunks of cream cheese and blend until smooth. This took quite a while for me and honestly it was still a little chunky when I decided enough was enough. The original recipe suggests using a food processor. I think it would be the preferred method in order to get the mixture smooth and to avoid chunky bits of cream cheese.  Add eggs and stir just until combined. Overmixing will cause the cheesecake to rise and crack.

Spoon the cheesecake mix into the muffin cups (on top of the crust).

We are going to bake this cheesecake in a water bath. The bath allows the cheesecake to cook evenly and helps to avoid it from cracking. Wrap the bottom of the muffin pan in foil.

Fill a cake pan with water. Just enough so it doesn't overflow once you add the prepared muffin tin.

Bake cheesecake for about 1 hour or until the cheesecake is no longer jiggling. Remove from oven and let cool for about 1/2 hour. Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours. 

To make the caramel sauce:

Seriously, this recipe so easy and the sauce it absolutely wonderful!

Stir together sugar, syrup, water and lemon juice. Microwave until the caramel is pale yellow, or just barely starting to take on some color, 4-8 minutes (depending on the strength of your microwave). It's fine to stop and open the microwave to check often; just don't let it get too dark or it will burn.

Let the caramel sit for about 5 minutes -- it will gradually turn a rich amber color. (If after five minutes, it's not dark enough, place it back in the microwave for thirty seconds or so, then let it darken again. If it gets too dark, start over.)

In the meantime, heat the cream in the microwave until hot. Once the caramel reaches the right color, add the hot cream a few tablespoons at a time. It will bubble up intensely, but won't overflow.

After you've added all the cream, stir to incorporate then add the butter. Add more cream if the mixture seems too thick. Once the caramel cools, you can store it in your fridge.

When you are ready to serve, carefully slide a butter knife around the edges of the cheesecake and gently loosen it from the pan. Top with whip cream, caramel and a dash of cinnamon.

Enjoy!

 

Salted Caramels

Let the streamers and balloons fall! I did it, I did it. Excuse me while I take a bow.

Okay... hold your applause.

It took me three times, but I finally showed those caramels who is boss. As I stated in a previous post, the first batch was a waste, the second batch was used to make Cookie Caramel Brownies.

This recipe comes from Play With Your Food. Thank you PWYF! I encourage everyone to go "like" the page!

I changed nothing in the recipe:

1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon fleur de sel (sea salt)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

Line bottom of 8 x 8 baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly oil the parchment.

Bring cream, butter and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat and set aside.

Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil without stirring (gently swirl) until mixture is light golden caramel color. Remove from heat.

Carefully stir in cream mixture -- IT WILL BUBBLE UP. Simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel reaches 248 F on a thermometer (10 minutes). Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into 1 inch pieces and wrap in wax paper.

These caramels are being are shipped out. We held a small contest awhile back and the lucky winners will be receiving them soon. We do hope you enjoy the caramels. A lot of love was put into making them ;)

Cookie Caramel Brownies

Here’s what I know… making caramel squares is not my calling. Yikes! These puppies are hard to make. Last weekend, I attempted them twice. Twice I failed. The first was a complete waste. The second batch I was able to save. They were too soft to wrap but I knew I could find a use for it.

I should be able to make caramel if we’re going to unintentionally promote it. As we’ve said before, we didn’t name our blog “Caramel Living” because we have an obsession with caramel.

Last week I contemplated how I would use this too-soft caramel. I had several thoughts… pancakes, ice cream, caramel apple pizza (a recipe provided at our caramel party) and so on and so forth. I was suddenly excited to bake something with this caramel. 

I decided on making a combination of bars. One half would be brownie. The other half would be chocolate chip cookie. A layer of caramel would divide them. The rest is history.

Brownies (Adapted from: Allrecipes):

*you can also use Cara's recipe

2 sticks melted butter

1 ½ C white sugar

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1 C flour

2/3 C unsweetened cocoa

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

Mix together butter, sugar and vanilla. Next add eggs, one at a time, mixing in between. Set aside.

Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Gradually mix flour mixture into butter mixture.

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 9x13 baking pan. Spread the brownie mix evenly into the pan. Set aside.

Spread brownie dough

Let’s get the cookies dough ready.

Cookies:

I cut my normal recipe in half.

1 1/3 C flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

Just under ½ C white sugar

Just under ½ C brown sugar

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla

1 egg

½ - ¾ C chocolate chips

Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside

Mix together white sugar, brown sugar and butter. Next add vanilla and mix. Add egg and mix. Add chocolate chips and mix. Gradually mix flour mixture into the sugar mixture.

For the caramel sauce, try Cara’s homemade recipe.

Now it’s time to bring it all together. If your caramel is thick, warm it just enough to make it easy to pour over the brownie mix. I warmed mine for about 35 seconds.

Pour caramel over brownie dough

Now let’s add the cookie dough. I took a handful of the dough and used my hands to gently pull and press it out (before adding it to the pan). Next I laid the dough throughout the pan, leaving caramel rivers here and there.

Lay cookie dough over caramel

Bake the bars for 30-40 minutes.

Let cool completely (or you will burn your mouth off like I did) then devour.

Better Than Sex Cake with CARAMEL

You know we had to do it! We just couldn't stop ourselves, we had to add caramel to this already very good cake. It just wouldn’t be right if we didn’t.

Better Than Sex Cake with Caramel and Rolos

I’ve never made this cake. I’ve eaten it plenty, but never whipped one up myself. Two words. Pretty easy. Adding the caramel was an amazing choice. I’ve had the idea of a Lemon Better Than Sex Cake, but since our caramel party was approaching I thought why not do this one first. The lemon one will be coming in the next few months. I love me some lemon!

Back to THIS cake. Here's what you'll need:

(Adapted from: Barefoot and Baking)

• 1 box of Devil’s Food Cake
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 jar of hot fudge
• 1 jar of caramel (try Cara's homemade caramel sauce)
• Whip cream
• Frozen Rolos

Bake the cake as instructed on the box. Once cake is done, remove from oven and immediately poke holes into the cake. I used the handle of a wooden spoon. After making the holes, pour the sweetened condensed milk over the entire cake.

Let the cake cool completely. Let me tell you, this is a hard step! Having the scent of warm chocolate cake drifting into my nostrils and I can’t eat it… that's just down right painful. Patience and deep breaths… NO WAIT, don't take deep breaths! Deep breaths only makes it worse.

To resist the urge of eating the warm delicious cake, remove the Rolos from the freezer and crush them into small pieces. We’ll add this to the very top. If you use Heath pieces (what the original recipe calls for) you can buy them already crushed. Someone send a memo to the Rolos company about this genius idea, okay?

After the cake has cooled, add the caramel then the hot fudge. I warmed the fudge in the microwave for 50 seconds to make it easier to spread. It spreads very easily if it’s warm enough but don’t freak out if it lumps in some areas. I promise… this cake is hard to mess up.

Add Caramel

Spread hot fudge

Place the cake in the refrigerator until the fudge sets. It should be about 10 minutes.

Add the cool whip and the crushed Rolos.

So good! I can't even put it into words. It's really that good! It's rich so get a cup of coffee or milk.

And in other news: I told my husband I was making Better Than Sex Cake and added “but I’m gonna change it up a bit”. And… let’s just say he had a typical man comment and leave it at that. Men!?! Am I right?

Reminder: Tomorrow is the CARAMEL party on our Facebook page. Please stop by!

Caramel Party

Come one, come all! We're hosting a CARAMEL themed party on our Facebook page this Sunday. We look forward to sharing lots of new recipe ideas. If you love caramel, you don't want to miss this.

We don't care who you are, what stage of baker/chef you are... we just want you there. 

Homemade Caramel Sauce & Brownies

Why is our page called Caramel Living, you ask?  When Mel and I started to brainstorm a creative joint venture, the issue of a name came up.  We took some time to think of names and guess what?  We both independently came up with the same name, Caramel.  You see, it combines parts of our real names.  We're geniuses and it was clearly meant to be if we both thought of the same name!  So we set up the blog and then created the Facebook page.  As we have grown, we have been asked "where's your caramel recipe?!?!"  Based on our recipes that have been posted so far, you probably think we should really be Cheesy Living.  We do love cheese.  :)  In any case, we now have a caramel recipe on the blog.  I made caramel sauce last night and it was SOOOO good.  It was really easy, which I was surprised by since I reviewed several recipes on the internet and started to get nervous that my first batch may very well be a disaster.  I settled on a recipe that contained several cautions and comments to the effect of, "don't worry if you are a beginner and mess it up, you'll get it eventually."  I bought a new candy thermometer and was all set.  Then at the last minute I realized I was going to use up too much of the white sugar making the brownies (below).  I had to find a pinch hitter recipe.  Boy am I glad with the switch because this recipe was easy and the resulting sauce is delicious.  I'm honestly surprised at how well it turned out.  I do have to admit, I was disappointed I didn't get to use the new candy thermometer but I'll use it for my next project - wrapped caramels for our 500th Facebook fan along with the person who referred her.  They'll be arriving soon, Jami & Jill!  :)

Saucy Salted Caramel

Adapted from the Pioneer Woman

1 packed cup brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream or half & half
4 T butter
1/4 t kosher salt
1 t vanilla 

Place brown sugar, cream, butter and salt in medium saucepan and cook over medium heat while whisking slowly for 5-7 minutes.  Add the vanilla and heat another minute to thicken further.  Remove from heat and pour into container.  As it cools, it will thicken even more.  Serve right away or store in refrigerator.  Warm to serve.

Now the question is, what can I serve this incredible caramel sauce with???  This morning, I added a spoonful to my latte.  Ermagawd it was good. Last night I made the following brownies to drizzle the caramel over.  The brownies are also very easy to make and so, so good.  They really aren't that much more work to make than brownies out of a box so try it!  Just remember, no matter how yummy unsweetened chocolate looks, its NOT until you add sugar.  :)  

 

Homemade Brownies

From Baker's

4 squares unsweetened baking chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar (I tend to use a little less, like 1 3/4)
3 eggs
1 t vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup pecans or walnuts (I don't add nuts because we have a nut sensitivity in the family)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line 13x9 or 9x9 (for thicker brownies) with aluminum foil and grease foil.  Microwave chocolate and butter on high for 2 minutes.  Stir until chocolate is melted.  Stir in sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla and stir well.  Next add the flour and nuts.  Spread into pan and bake for 27-32 minutes (as long as a toothpick comes out clean when inserted).  You can remove the foil and just wrap over top for easy storage. 

For the above pictured double-decker brownie, I put walnuts on a single layer brownie, drizzled with the caramel sauce, topped it with another brownie and added another layer of walnuts and sauce.  Delish!