How to Kill a Long Islander- Pumpkin that is...Challenge: Pumpkin Cheese Cake

OK, so by Long Islander- I mean a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin. When I first saw this this name I thought WTF is that?!?!?! Then I saw it and it was pretty obvious. :) So for my mystery box challenge last week I had another squash and made a soup, which was truly delicious! But I felt that another soup this week (with the 2 quash I got) would be a cop out.... so I ended up making a couple recipes with this ingredient. First- here is how I prepped it!

Homemade Pumpkin Puree!

Here is my Long Island Cheese Pumpkin out of the box, kinda washed off-

Your first step is to cut his head off... in this case, his stem is his head. It was unfortunate but I think he knew what was coming. And lets be honest.... it is October so he should really be glad he got put to good use instead of having a face carved into him and left on someones front step to either rot or get smashed in the street by some unruly teenagers!

Next, cut him in half (and yes, this pumpkin will be a he throughout this process! HAHA!) Then scrape out all of the pumpkins seeds and guts. Kind of a nasty job, but someone has to do it! And in this case... YOU are someone! (If you are the type to like roasted pumpkin seeds, save these and roast them up later on. If you aren't, ditch them like I did.) Once each half is well seeded, cut each half into 4 pieces and put skin side down on a baking sheet.

Now, I know you are tempted to salt and pepper and coat in olive oil... but don't do it!!!! We are going to make a puree and we want a true pumpkin taste with this. Roast in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Once you get it out, flip so that it is skin side up and use a knife to peel off the skin. It will come off easily, and then put the tender meat into a food processor and puree until all chunks are gone. You will likely not need to add any liquid because squash is a very juicy. But if you find it is too dry, add a tablespoon of water at the time until you get the consistency you are looking for. You will likely need to do this in several batches. Here is the final BEAUTIFUL product!!!

For this challenge I used the following Dominion Harvest mystery box ingredients:

• Long Island Cheese Pumpkin (measure out 15oz)

Other Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter 

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages low or non fat cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup non fat sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups Splenda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

First- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:

In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan and up the sides about 1/4 to 1/2 of the way. Set aside.

For filling:

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add long island cheese pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, Splenda and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined. Do not skimp on this step! If you do, the consistency will be all wrong!

Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

As you can see- We dug in before I remembered to take a picture! It was great, but not the healthiest thing ever. The crust was to die for, what's not to like!