Pumpkin vanilla cheesecake

As I was saying in a previous post, we are not big fans of simple baked pumpkin, but ever since I started to use it for different recipes, I started liking it more and more.
The idea of baking a pumpkin cheesecake came to me after visiting an amazing cake shop in Belgrade (it's called Mandarina and you can find it online here). I tasted more of their cakes, including a delicious pumpkin cheesecake, so I decided to make my own (babyfriendly a.k.a. sugar free) version of it.

For the crust I decided to use the pumpkin gingerbread dough (recipe here): half of it was enough for the cheesecake crust and half of it I made into gingerbread.
For the cheesecake you can use a cake tin with removable base or any round tin (deeper that the tart one). Roll the dough so that it covers the bottom of the tin and a little bit of the walls. Pierce it with a fork and bake it in the preheated oven, for 10-15 minutes at 180 degrees. Remove from the oven and set aside until the filling is read.

Ingredients for the filling:

- 200g cream cheese;

- 200g cream;

- 250g baked pumpkin puree;

- 1 tsp Bourbon vanilla / seeds from a vanilla bean;

- 1/2 tsp grated orange peel;

- 3 large eggs.

Mix all the ingredients in a food processor (or with a hand mixer) and pour the mixture in the cake tin, over the pre-baked crust. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius, in the preheated oven, for 45-50 min, until set (depending on the depth of the tin). Let the cake cool in the tin, then remove and place on a platter.
Enjoy!

    

Pumpkin muffins

I had half of a baked Hokkaido pumpkin left in the fridge (from the day I made the pumpkin gingerbread - recipe here) so I decided to bake some quick muffins. "Quick" is the key word here, as I baked them in the late evening, after the girls went to sleep. That is the only time of day when I can peacefully cook or take care of other chores but, if I also want to get some sleep, I need to make do with simple and quick recipes. And, as I wanted the kids to enjoy more the muffins, I used some spring themed molds that they like, with ladybugs, butterflies and flowers.

Ingredients:
- 250g baked Hokkaido pumpkin, mashed;
- 4 eggs;
- 300g flour;
- 2 tsp baking powder;
- 100g ground walnuts;
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon;
- 125 ml oil (I used 50 ml coconut oil and 75 ml olive oil).

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. You can also use a food processor to blend everything, but I prefered to have a rougher texture, so I can feel the pumpkin pieces in the muffins.
Pour the mixture into silicon molds or in classical molds lined with special paper. Bake in the preheated oven, at 190 degrees Celsius until they pass the toothpick test. Let them cool a bit in the molds, remove and place on a plate.
Enjoy!