I finally got a full day off with my best friend, so we decided to make the desserts (I got this recipe from the Rachel Ray site) for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and spend the rest of the day with Hubby and Nephew (my son didn’t want to go). We went to see the new Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn Part 2 and hit our favorite burrito restaurant.
When we started the dessert we had plenty of time to finish before leaving for the movie. But, we hit a couple speed bumps.
My son had used the last of the milk, after Nephew made a smoothie as well, and I was unaware that we had no backup (I am non-dairy, I don’t always pay attention to milk). So we had to stop and go to the store. Then we got confused and were baking the wrong part (we put the pumpkin part in instead of the cheesecake part, which ended up ruining the crusts). So we had to abandon ship before we missed the movie.
We stopped to buy new pie crusts on the way home to save time and when we got home went straight to work. We decided to rewhip both the mousse and the cheesecake part. We made a non-dairy version too. We had both desserts in the oven at the same time so it took longer (I made a note on the recipe). We also didn’t feel good about leaving the pumpkin mousse uncooked with raw egg whites, so we cooked that as well.
Pumpkin Mousse Cake (off the Rachel Ray Website)
Ingredients
For the Crust
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted unsalted butter, plus more, unmelted, for pan
1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
For the Cheesecake
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
For the Pumpkin Mousse
1 (1/4-ounce) envelope gelatin
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 large egg whites
Directions
Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking dish; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine melted butter, graham cracker crumbs, and sugar; stir until well combined. Press graham cracker mixture into bottom of prepared baking dish in an even layer; set aside.
Make the cheesecake: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk together cream cheese, eggs, and sugar until fluffy. Spread cheesecake mixture over crust in baking dish. Transfer to oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
Make the mousse: Fill a small bowl or liquid measuring cup with 1/4 cup water; sprinkle gelatin over top and let soften. In a large heatproof bowl, mix together pumpkin, egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, milk, salt, and cinnamon. Set bowl over (but not touching) simmering water; whisk pumpkin mixture until thickened, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove bowl from heat and whisk in gelatin
mixture. Let cool to room temperature.
In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and continue whisking until medium peaks form. Fold into cooled pumpkin mixture. Spread pumpkin mixture over cheesecake; Cover and transfer to refrigerator until set, at least 8 hours and up to overnight.
I added this: If two pies are made they will not cook in 20 it was about 15 minutes extra. Then we added the pumpkin mix and put in the oven for 16 minutes on 350 still
Metamorphic Grace 