Pumpkin Chocolate Swirled Mini Cheesecakes with a Spiced Graham Crust

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirled Mini Cheesecakes with a Spiced Graham Crust

Another belated post...my apologizes we've been rather absent on the blog. The days are flying by faster than I can bake everything on my autumn bake-list. Since squash is the flavour of autumn, I wanted to incorporate pumpkin into the Halloween treats shared with Fat Rats. And everyone likes cheesecake right? I beat The Clumsy One at making these, mwahahaha~

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirled Mini Cheesecakes with a Spiced Graham Crust

-Insert ranting here- 

I actually put that in my draft... but there isn't much on my mind today, so you're in luck! Reduced amount of nonsense in this post.

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirled Mini Cheesecakes with a Spiced Graham Crust

The spiced graham crust can be substituted with gingersnap cookies, as that is what I was aiming to copy. The hint of extra spices amps up the volume of the spices already in the cheesecake batter. I admit, the chocolate swirl doesn't do much for the cake, other than make it look prettier. Feel free to leave the extra step out if it is going to be topped with whipped cream (coconut whipped cream, anyone?) or decorated with other methods. Either way, it'll be sure to impress and satisfy~

The gradual cooling of cheesecake is a vital part of the procedure, especially when making larger sizes. I still experienced a little bit of cracking on these mini cheesecakes and felt that they were just a tinge on the over-cooked side. If that is a concern for you, stop the oven about two minutes earlier and begin the process of cooling.

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirled Mini Cheesecakes with a Spiced Graham Crust

Yield: 12 muffin-sized cheesecakes

Ingredients

For the crust

• 5 graham crackers (the long rectangular shaped ones)
• A pinch each of ground ginger and nutmeg
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

For the filling

• 8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature (low fat is okay) 
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ⅛ tsp each of ground ginger and nutmeg
• 1 egg
• ½ vanilla
• 2 tsp coconut milk
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a standard muffin pan with twelve paper liners.
2. Blitz your graham crackers in a food processor to make crumbs. Add the spices and pulse a few times to combine. Add the melted coconut oil to the crumbs and mix until a wet sand texture is achieved. 
3. Press 2 to 3 tsp of the crumb mixture firmly into the bottom of each paper liner, I recommend using the back of a small spoon.
4. Bake crust in the preheated oven for 4 minutes.
5. In a mixing bowl, cream the cream cheese and brown sugar together until homogenous and fluffy.
6. Add the pumpkin puree and spices, mix until smooth. 
7. Add egg, vanilla, and coconut milk and mix again until smooth.
8. Reserve about 3 tbsp of the cheesecake batter in a separate bowl. Add cocoa powder to the reserved batter. Set aside.
9. Divide pumpkin cheesecake batter evenly between liners. Place dollops of the chocolate cheesecake batter on top and swirl with a toothpick.
10. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. When done, prop the oven door open slightly and allow cheesecakes to cool in the oven for about 10 minutes. The cool completely on the counter in the pan before chilling in the fridge. Bringing the cheesecakes gradually to room temperature will prevent cracking. 
11. Once completely cooled, store in refrigerator. They last for quite a while, around a week or two?

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Kitchening & Co.

Kitchening & Co. Macarons and Chocolate Ginger Cookie

During my visit to the Eat! Vancouver festival this year, I picked up a few goodies from Kitchening & Co. to bring home. I had a few extra tickets to spend and the flavours were appealing so it seemed like perfect chance to try something new. 

I first ate the Chocolate Ginger Cookie. I prefer the soft, chewy cookies over crisp, thin ones, so this one was right up my alley! It was surprising to find chunks, large chunks, of chocolate within the cookie. I appreciate that they didn't skimp on the chocolate (the cookie itself should already have cocoa powder), but I think the cookie would be better without the massive slabs of chocolate. The ginger flavour and texture was just right; it's a delicious cookie, just as I had read from Foodology while eating breakfast the morning of my visit.

Black Sesame Macaron & Toasted Coconut Macaron

The amount of coconut-flavoured products I consumed at the Eat! Vancouver festival was innumerable. Peanut Crumpet and our fellow 'Clumsy One' can confirm that. So, seeing that Kitchening & Co. carried a Toasted Coconut macaron, I couldn't pass it up. Obviously, toasted coconut tastes so much better than just coconut. Just like how toasted nuts are more fragrant that raw ones. Anywho, the smell of the coconut was present before I even bit into it. The taste of the coconut wasn't as strong as the smell, but it wasn't too lacking. I'm not quite sure what the filling flavour was, but I remember it to be a bit tangy. The Toasted Coconut macaron was the better tasting one out of the two I tried.

The Black Sesame macaron let me down. There was no black sesame flavour, or aroma. In fact, it had a bit of a strange taste to it... The filling was too sweet and overpowered the already nonexistent black sesame flavour. If you're looking for a good black sesame treat, this one isn't it.

Despite that one disappointing flavour, I am still interested in trying more of their macarons. Macarons are finicky so the same recipe can yield completely different results depending on the flavour. The macarons themselves were well made and looked cute, small and tall. If you're a macaron fan, Kitchening & Co. is worth a try. They don't have a store front but check their website for events they'll attend or go to any Urban Fare market and they'll carry the macarons.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡