Carrot Cheesecake
350*F approx 1 hour bake time 8-9inch springform (or rectangle baking dish - for potlucks, etc to be able to serve more folks)
This is a slightly fussy recipe in that you need to cook the carrots ahead of time, then cool to room temp before assembling the cheesecake. I think the effort is worth it though. :)
prep info for the carrot puree:
grate a bunch of carrots (i did 6 cups worth- i think maybe 3 cups would be more than enough).
then cook in sauce pan with butter and brown sugar (i used 2T butter and 1/4c brown sugar - that was in 6 cups grated carrots). when soft and puree-able, remove from stove (stir constantly or risk burning - the carrots released quite a bit of juice that reabsorbed when cooled)
you'll need 1/2 cup of this blendered up (a soft puree) for the actual recipe (cooled to room temp)
ingredients:
3 (8 oz) cream cheese (24 oz total)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar - soft packed
2 eggs
6 oz evaporated milk (I would have done heavy cream but I was out)
1/2 cup carrot puree (see above for prep instructions)
2 t rum vanilla extract*
2 T orange juice
1 1/2 t cinnamon
directions:
cook 1 hour or til solid in center. then, prop door slightly open and cool in oven (temp offf)
traditional cheesecake baking rules apply - make sure there's a lot of moisture in oven (I use 2 sheet cake baking pans side by side filled with water on rack right below cheesecake - works great for lots of moisture). (keeps cake from cracking and drying out).
all ingredients are room temp. (otherwise they don't blend well together and you have weird cream cheese lumps in the batter.)
*rum vanilla extract: (this is homemade - a bunch (10? 20? (not sure
how many i sliced and stuck in there, lol) of bourbon vanilla beans
infused into rum - shake every once in a while til it smells like
vanilla and is a very dark color and not liquor - takes a couple of months to prep)
