Pumpkin Cheesecake Cheeseball: Your Easiest Thanksgiving Dessert Ever

Cheeseball recipe (1 of 1)

Pumpkin Cheesecake… Cheseball. Your simplest Holiday Dessert Recipe, Ever.

Some find cheeseballs too kitsch, like beehive hairdos or cone shaped bras. Others, picturing the tinted bright orange and preservative-packed cheeseball their aunt served during the holidays, think of a cheeseball as a unsavory concoction best only served next to smoke-flavored salami from Cracker Barrel. I, however, think kitsch has a holy place in heaven's decor, sixties relics are pretty awesome, and cheeseballs are one of the true delights of the holidays.

So are pumpkin cheesecakes.

Introducing the pumpkin cheesecake cheeseball.

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Through rigorous testing and sampling I discovered a couple of things about dessert cheeseballs, and pumpkin cheeseballs in particular. One, though unconventional, they are delicious. Two, too much pumpkin makes an unappetizing cheesecake blob, and it’s the spices that makes the ball tastes like a pumpkin cheeseball not always the pumpkin (think of a PSL). Three, ground pecans make just as much a fabulous cheeseball thickener as they do a traditional cheesecake base. Four, cheesecake balls love to be served with gingersnaps.

Serve this cheeseball for dessert, with gingersnaps or almond crisps, and a strong old fashioned in an etched high ball glass. Note * - you will need to grind pecans and chill the ball overnight. *

Cheeseball recipe ingredients

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cheeseball

makes 2 cheeseballs.

4 ounces salted cultured butter, room temperature

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cups white sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup and 2/3 cup toasted pecans (divided)

In a large mixing bowl or in a mixer with a paddle, cream the butter. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Add half the cream cheese, mix until blended, and scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Then add the remaining cream cheese and sugar and blend again. Add the pumpkin and spices to the bowl, mix for five seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then continue mixing until smooth.

Grind one cup of pecans in a food processor until they become the consistency of polenta. If you don't have a food processor, divide the pecans into batches and finely chop. Don't use a blender or over-process them, or you'll create pecan butter.

Add the ground pecans to the pumpkin cream cheese mixture and mix with a wooden spoon. Divide into two roughly spherical shapes, wrap in parchment, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning the balls will be firm enough so that you can shape them into spheres. Create balls, and before serving, press the outside with the remaining pecans.

Note: If you wait to roll the ball in toasted nuts, this ball also freezes well. If you leave the pumpkin out, and add a splash of run or brandy, kabam!, you've got yourself an eggnog cheeseball for December!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was first posted in 2015 but stands as one of my favorite holiday recipes, ever. 

Melt, Stretch & Sizzle is the most stylish, sexy, hot cheese book ever

If cheese was photographed for an art or fashion magazine, this is what it would look like. A fashion magazine's articles might be titled something like, "Fondue: On the Art of Seduction," or, "This Season, Cheese Conquers its Fears and Melts our Hearts," or "Cheese Heats up and SIZZLES." (worth reading over celebrity advice any day!)

In Melted, Stretch, & Sizzle, Tia Keenan and photographer Noah Feck team up again for a stylish, ode to hot cheese that is as gorgeous to look at as it is packed with delicious recipes. Classic fondue. Not-so-classic burrata mac & cheese. Poutine with Lazy Gravy. And Goat Cheese Queso Fundido. I wouldn't expect anything less contemporary or beautiful from the chef-fromager who opened both Caselulla and Murray's Cheese Bar, wrote The Art of the Cheese Plate, authors cheese columns for WSJ and Bon Appetit.

Tia is always on the forefront of things. In honor of the latest book by one of the most creative and funny people I know, below is an interview about what it took to make a book devoted to hot cheese, with one of my favorite cheese ladies ever, Tia Keenan.

I hope you enjoy it, and check out her book!

1. Your book is awesome. How did you pick what hot cheese dishes do put in?

I wanted to include some of the hot cheese "greatest hits", things like Mornay sauce, Mac & Cheese, a grilled cheese, so that I could talk to the reader about some fundamentals of cooking with cheese, but at the same time I wanted to introduce readers to an international mix of hot cheese dishes that are perhaps less familiar to do them. To me a good cookbook deepens our understanding of foods and recipes that may already be familiar, while also exploring new flavors, techniques, and contexts.

2. Was there one that you really wanted to fit in but couldn't?

I had plenty of dishes I was interested in and developed a few that didn't make it into the book. I would've loved to have gotten a fried cheese donut in there, but couldn't find the right place for it.

[blog author's note, here: mmmmmmm.....]

3. What does hot cheese mean to you?

It's the excitement and deliciousness that happens when cheese and heat energy meet.

4. So much food photography out there features what look like the same people- mainly young, and white- holding platters, or feasting at the same parties. Your book includes hands with age spots holding popovers, gorgeous black hands holding gougère or lips admiring melting fondue. They're beautiful, and it's wonderful to see not just one community reflected in a contemporary book. What inspired you to mix up your photo scene, and how do you think your photos do (or don't) reflect the greater food and cheese movement?

The problem always with shooting cheese is that most of it looks the same, is the same color. Aesthetically, I knew that using a darker-skinned black model would be a nice contrast to the white/yellow tones of melted cheese. I also am just tired of seeing white people all over food photography, so when I could push back against that in photos, I did. Black is beautiful! And for the older hands, well, I asked my 80-something neighbor Renee to model, because I knew she'd be fun on set and as her friend I've admired her hands. Having fun on set, bringing people you adore into the sacred space of making images - this is one of the ingredients to making photos that people want to look at. I love, respect, rely on, and admire older women, and in their hands lies the history of cooking and delicious food. My question is: why aren't black and brown women, and older women, the central figures of food imagery? All the best food comes from them.

5. You've long been in the forefront of the cheese scene and pretty much were the first one in the restaurant world matching crazy flavors, textures, and unconventional foods with cheese. One might say you have a forward-thinking cheese-vision. Can you please look in your crystal ball and tell us what you see in our cheese future, and how it relates to your recent books, The Art of the Cheese Plate, and Melt, Stretch, & Sizzle?

To be honest, this was a hard book to make, for a myriad of reasons. And I essentially wrote three cheese books in three years (ACP, Short Stack Chevre, and MSS). I need a bit of a break. I think I'd like to write a memoir actually, or at least a book about some parts of my life. I need some time to get back to another cheese book. Percolation is really important to my creative process - I need time to think and dream and ask questions.

6. What is Sterio's favorite hot cheese dish? [her son]

Mac & Cheese, by a mile.

7. What is the one thing that you wish people kept in mind or knew about cooking with cheese when left in the wild?

Never cook with cold cheese.

Chèvre, Coconut & Guava Sandwich Cookies from Shortstack Chevre

If you've ever searched for a killer goat cheese recipe online- say you've already made that chèvre and arugula salad and are aching to put the extra six ounces of the log to tasty use, you'll likely have noticed most chèvre recipes are savory. That is to say, not sweet. Beet and goat cheese salad. Chèvre and quinoa bowls, you get the picutre. Which might lead one to believe that that's all chèvre is good for.

Not true.

While I would never turn down a goat cheese tart, my hands-down favorite way to enjoy chèvre (fresh goat's cheese/goat's milk fromage blanc) is sugared up.

When sweetened with sugar, dark chocolate, fruit, or honey, chèvre transforms whatever dish into which its incorporated into a bright, luscious, sunny dish. Its lemony notes help lift sweet and rich creamy desserts to lighter places, bring out layered notes in chocolate, and add a subtle creme fraiche or buttermilk flavor to baked goods.

So I'm very happy to share with you Tia Keenan's Chèvre, Coconut & Guava Paste Sandwich Cookies from her latest cheese book- Chevre- a slim yet dense Shortstack book.

Now my friend Tia is skilled (she opened Caselulla and Murray's Cheese Bar in NYC), so it's not the only recipe I'm batting my eyelashes at, but it was the first one to scream "make me now," or to put it more accurately, "eat me first." When Tia describes the recipe in the intro and says the chèvre gives the cookies a buttermilk biscuit flavor rather than a chèvre flavor, she's spot on. I might even try them with an extra thin layer of chevre spread over the guava if I was serving them to a fierce goat cheese crowd, but they're charmers as is. I served them at a Memorial Day party, and they off the cookie plate fast. And I brought my friend and her husband two for a treat and my friend ate them both. I did not tell her husband.

Thanks for sharing these Tia! The recipe follows. Buy the book here for more chèvre love.

Chèvre, Coconut & Guava Paste Sandwich Cookie Recipe

These hearty, biscuity sandwich cookies are best with a big ol’ mug of milky tea or coffee. The chèvre lends a buttermilk biscuit twang to the cookie, which is a nice contrast to the sweet filling made from guava paste. Guava paste is the working-class cousin of cheese-plate-stalwart quince paste—and a more affordable and readily available fruit paste for pairing with cheese.

3 1⁄2 cups cake flour, plus more for rolling out the dough 1⁄2 cup granulated sugar 1⁄2 cup packed light brown sugar 2 tablespoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 11⁄2 teaspoons kosher salt 4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes 6 ounces chèvre, crumbled 1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes 1 egg
1⁄2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons demerara sugar 16 ounces guava paste (such as Goya brand; available at super- markets), cut into 2-inch cubes

Preheat the oven to 425° and place racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a food processor, combine the flour, granulated and brown sugars, baking powder, baking soda and salt and pulse to combine. Add the butter, chèvre and coconut and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and cream; set 3 table- spoons aside in another bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture to the flour mixture and pulse until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently to bring it together. Roll the dough flat to a 1⁄4 inch thickness and cut out rounds with a 21⁄2-inch cookie cutter or rim of a drinking glass. Place the cookies 1⁄2 an inch apart on the baking sheets, 16 cookies per sheet (you’ll have less than that for the last sheet and will need to bake in 2 rounds for 4 sheets total).

Brush the cookies with the reserved egg mixture and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the sheets between the upper and lower racks halfway through baking, until the cookies show just a bit of color. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes, then, using a spatula, transfer them to a cooling rack.

Place the guava paste and 1⁄4 cup of water in a small saucepan. Melt the paste over medium heat, stirring occasionally at first, then more frequently as the paste melts, 15 minutes. You will need to stir vigor- ously, forcing out any lumps in the last minutes of cooking.

Drop a 1⁄2 teaspoon of the hot filling onto the bottom half of a cookie, then place another cookie on top of the filling to make a sandwich (if the filling cools and gets stiff before you finish assembling the cookies, reheat the filling to make it easier to work with). The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Reprinted with permission from Short Stack Editions Vol. 33: Chevre, by Tia Keenan (shortstackeditions.com).

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cheeseball Recipe: Ballin for Thanksgiving

Some find cheeseballs too kitsch, like beehive hairdos or cone shaped bras. Others, picturing the tinted bright orange and preservative-packed cheeseball their aunt served during the holidays, think of a cheeseball as a unsavory concoction best only served next to smoke-flavored salami from Cracker Barrel. As for me, I think kitsch has a holy place in heaven's decor, sixties relics are pretty awesome, and preservatives, well... they're only there if you let them be.

Let the cheeseball in. This pumpkin cheeseball is the only dessert you'll need for Thanksgiving.

I created this cheeseball in honor of my friend Stephanie, who when I was telling her I was striving to create the perfect ball for Thanksgiving, said "pumpkin." I said "cheesecake" and the rest was history.

Introducing the pumpkin cheesecake cheeseball.

I'm not sure if you know, but one really has to test a cheeseball recipe. Tasting, tasting, mixing, tasting, adjusting the pumpkin ratio so the ball is perfectly soft yet doesn't fall apart, going back and forth from white to brown sugar to form the perfect texture, slicing off pieces of cultured butter to make sure it tastes fresh enough, and sampling the pecans after roasting. Then you have to test it again while serving and photographing.

Things I discovered during crafting this recipe is that too much pumpkin makes an unappetizing cheesecake blob, that ground pecans make a fabulous cheeseball thickener and also act as an impromptu cheesecake base, and that gingersnaps love pumpkin cheesecake balls. Note that you will need to grind pecans and chill the ball overnight. 

Serve this cheeseball for dessert, with gingersnaps or almond crisps, and a strong old fashioned in an etched high ball glass.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cheeseball

makes 2 cheeseballs.

4 ounces cultured butter, room temperature

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cups white sugar

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 2/3 cup toasted pecans

In a large mixing bowl or in a mixer with a paddle, cream the butter. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  Add half the cream cheese, mix until blended, and scrape down the sides of the bowl again. Then add the remaining cream cheese and sugar and blend again. Add the pumpkin and spices to the bowl, mix for five seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then continue mixing until smooth.

Grind one cup of pecans in a food processor until they become the consistency of polenta. If you don't have a food processor, divide the pecans into batches and finely chop. Don't use a blender or over-process them, or you'll create pecan butter.

Add the ground pecans to the pumpkin cream cheese mixture and mix with a wooden spoon. Divide into two roughly spherical shapes, wrap in parchment, and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning the balls will be firm enough so that you can shape them into spheres. Create balls, and before serving, press the outside with the remaining pecans.

Note: If you wait to roll the ball in toasted nuts, this ball also freezes well. If you leave the pumpkin out, and add a splash of run or brandy, kabam!, you've got yourself an eggnog cheeseball for December!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was first posted in 2015 but stands as one of my favorite holiday recipes, ever. 

Strawberry Rhubarb Balsamic Compote (Looooves Goat Cheese)

In the theme of spring, baby goats jumping about fields, goat cheese, and the most amazing sweet strawberries I've tasted in years (are they candy, are they strawberries, are they candy-strawberries?), I wanted to share again with you one of my favorite recipes for cheese. I developed this recipe after talking to my relatives in Minnesota last year about our local farmer's markets. Mine seemed almost completely red they were so flooded with strawberries, I told them. Walking through their's, they said, felt like they were wading in rhubarb.

Now, I love the combo of strawberries and rhubarb. And I love pie. And I see where someone else might have gone with this. But since I also love goat cheese, and strawberries and rhubarb taste awesome with goat cheese, and and I am worse at making pie dough then I am at holding to new year's resolutions of being able to do a pull-up by the end of May, I decided to focus on a strawberry-rhubarb balsamic compote instead that pairs excellently with cheese. Win-win?

It's sweet, but it's also tart. It's dessert-like, but it's also has enough freshness to it that you could spoon it over your oatmeal in the morning and feel like you were getting a serving of fruit (in a completely gratuitous way).

The cheese I created the recipe for is Pug’s Leap Pavé, above. Pug’s Leap is a much-loved Petaluma creamery that went out of commission for a while while transitioning to different ownership. Well, as of about two years ago, it’s back, and producing lovely bloomy-rinded, French styles that are lively, thick and flaky, and slice-ready for being put on a crostini with strawberry-rhubarb balsamic compote. And not only do they make their own cheese, they supply milk for the lovely Gypsy Rose family too. And did I mention that they have a flying pug on the label?

Try this compote next time you have brunch, serve a heavy meal and want to keep your dessert light, or, over ice cream or yogurt. Then keep your leftovers for toast or oatmeal the next morning.

Strawberry Rhubarb Balsamic Compote

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

1/2 pound rhubarb- sliced half an inch thick

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1/8 tablespoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 cups sliced strawberries- sliced a quarter inch thick.

In a medium saucepan, combine the rhubarb, sugar, pepper, honey, and balsamic and stir with a wooden spoon. On high heat, warm until the balsamic starts bubbling. Once bubbly, reduce heat to medium-low. Cover the pot with a lid, leaving it slightly ajar so steam can escape. Cook for seven minutes, lifting lid to stir occasionally. Take off the lid and cook for two more minutes, or until half of the rhubarb in the pan is soft and dissolving, like in the fifth photo above. Add the strawberries to the pot and stir. Continue cooking on medium-high heat for ten to fifteen more minutes, until the strawberries start to soften, but still keep their shape. Cool, then serve with your favorite goat cheese!

Buttered Pecans (with Pepper): A Holiday Goat Cheese Charmer

If you're reading, "It's Not You, It's Brie, " I'm betting that many of you are thinking about your holiday cheese plates right about now. Perhaps because you got a little snacky last night while wrapping gifts (ahem…. like someone ) and ate all the Fiscalini Cheddar and now have to pick up more. Sometimes that just happens. Or maybe you're like my housemate who caters fabulous events and is thinking of the best accouterments to serve with the cheese the hosts already have. Or, maybe you just want a little more inspiration to match the glowy feeling that's been powered by your egg nog.

My holiday cheese plate inspiration came in the form of buttered pepper pecans and goat cheese this year.

I'm pretty much helpless when it comes to pecans. Roast them, butter them, candy them, grind them, toast them, whatever them, I'll eat them. In fact, I'll eat all of them. Hiding them is probably the best idea if you hear I might be stopping by.

So when I had a little extra Caña de Cabra hanging about my house, I decided to consider how my favorite nut would pair with it. Dashingly, it turns out. Caña de Cabra is a lemony, peppery Spanish bloomy-rinded goat cheese. It looks like Bucheron and has a texture that morphs between flaky chèvre and pure silk.

The buttery flavor of the pecans (not to mention the butter flavor of the butter) brought out the cheese's creamy texture. It also offered a little cushion for the Cabra's lemony notes. The ground pepper topping the pecans matched the punchier spicier notes of the goat's milk and the nut's crunchy texture cozied right up to the cheese's alternating velvety and flaky layers.

They're… tasty, and completely worthy of holiday attention!

Other cheeses that would work well with the buttered pepper pecans would be anything lively and goaty. Some of my picks would be: Zingerman's Lincoln Log, Bonne Bouche, Prodigal Hunkadora, Stawley or Timsbury from Somerset, or Bucheron.

The recipe follows- I'm off to go back some shortbread! Please say a little prayer to help me not eat all the dough before baking it. Happy Holidays!

Buttered Pepper Pecans

Serves 3-4

1/2 cup pecans, untoasted 1 tablespoon salted butter 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Bring a sautee pan to medium heat. Add the pecans and cook for about two minutes, shaking the pan periodically to evenly cook. Add the pat of butter to the pan and melt. Cook for two to four more minutes (I cook them at least four minutes for an extra crisp), shaking the pan every thirty seconds or so to flip the pecans. Add the salt and pepper and  stir.

Place a paper towel over a plate. Pour the pecans over the plate and let sit until just warm. Serve with cheese.

I hope you enjoy your holidays and

Baked Ricotta: For the Vegetarian Lunch Date

Coming back from traveling and straight into the holiday craze at the wine shop where I work at has been good- distracting, lively- and then just plain busy. Falling asleep within minutes of eating a 10pm dinner after working the wine bar and writing kind of busy. Since the holidays have hit, I've been focusing on cooking meals that require low output- aiming for several meals that last for days, or cooking tasty dishes that inspire, quickly. So when my good friend Jesse came over for lunch/ business meeting this Sunday (yay, projects!), I wanted to keep it simple. And vegetarian, per her meatless preferences. So what did I do? Mmm hmmm… I bet you can guess. I went cheesy.

Baked ricotta is one of my go-to, low fuss, dishes. And cooking it just makes me happy, especially when I'm working with such lovely product as Bellwether's sheep's milk ricotta. Bellwether was the first certified sheep's milk dairy in California (I focused on their San Andreas in my book) and they make some of the most gorgeous ricotta I've had. But if you can't find them near you, just go with whatever other delicious local sheep's milk one you have. Fruition Farms makes a lovely one, too.

Sheep's milk ricotta provides more of a savory, earthy flavor than cow's milk that emerges once the cheese is baked, but if all you can is a find good cow's milk version near you, that's fine. The ricotta doesn't need to be true ricotta made from whey for this recipe, either. In fact, it's probably best if you can't find a rich sheep's milk version, to go with whole cow's milk cream-added ricotta instead. It would provide a richness that shines once baked. Salvatore Brklyn, here's looking at you.

Serve with whatever tasty sides you have around. I served with a pomegranate citrus salad, olive bread and sliced watermelon radishes. If I weren't going veg, I'd slice a local salami or two and serve with warmed olives.

Baked Ricotta

For two

Preheat oven to 425 degrees

3 cups ricotta (really, it shrinks once cooked!)

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

freshly ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoons chopped parsley

Place ricotta in a shallow baking dish that's table-friendly. Flatten slightly. Drizzle with 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. Top with freshly ground pepper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the top is lightly golden. Drizzle with remaining olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and parsley and serve.