Pumpkin Cheesecake

recipe

Pumpkin Cheesecake

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This is a lightly baked cheesecake, cooked on a thin disc of sponge. It's a very pretty colour and is probably best served simply with a light dusting of icing sugar or, as it's autumn food, a spoonful or two of roasted pears or plums

Ingredients

For the sponge base:
3 medium free-range eggs, separated
70g caster sugar
40g cornflour
40g strong plain flour
For the filling:
about 700g fresh unpeeled pumpkin
50g butter
100g caster or light soft brown sugar
200g mascarpone
125ml crème fraîche
70ml soured cream
seeds from 2 vanilla pods, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large free-range eggs, separated
To serve:
icing sugar, sifted, to dust

Serves: 6 Preparation: 85 Total Time: 85min

Directions

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First, prepare the pumpkin pur&#e for the filling. Remove the seeds and stringy centre from the pumpkin, then peel away the skin as thinly as possible. Cut the flesh into small cubes. Heat the butter in a frying pan, add the pumpkin with g of the sugar and cook for about minutes until softened. Transfer to a food processor and work until smooth. Allow to cool. You can make this pur&#e a day or so ahead and freeze it to concentrate the flavour.
For the sponge base, preheat the oven to //gas mark Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until softly stiff. Gradually fold in the caster sugar, then the egg yolks. Sift the cornflour and flour together over the mixture and then fold in carefully.
Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Spread the sponge mixture out to an area approximately cm square &# it needs to be an even thickness, but not necessarily a neat square. Bake for # minutes until golden brown and springy when pressed. Invert on to a wire rack to cool and then peel off the paper. Lower the oven setting to //gas mark
For the cheesecake you will need a &#cm springform cake tin about m deep. Cut out a round from the sponge base to fit exactly inside the tin, using the base of the tin as a guide. It is preferable to cut the sponge a little larger and trim it to fit, rather than cut it smaller and leave gaps that the pumpkin filling might leak through.
For the filling, beat the mascarpone, cr&#me fra&#che, soured cream, g of the remaining sugar, the vanilla seeds (or extract) and egg yolks together in a bowl until evenly blended. Stir in the pumpkin pur&#e.
Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until softly stiff. Gradually whisk in the remaining g sugar and gently fold into the pumpkin mixture. Pour the filling over the sponge base in the tin and bake for &# minutes until lightly firm on top.
Leave the cheesecake to cool and then chill in the tin. Run a table knife around the inside of the tin and carefully unmould on to a flat plate. Serve in wedges, dusted lightly with icing sugar.