Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians out there! It’s not very often that Allan and I are in town for long weekends, but since we’re saving for the wedding, we’ve stayed home more lately and were able to join in on my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving is also a great time to give thanks for the many blessings in our lives… I’m very grateful for Allan, my family, my friends, my job, and my blog readers (counting to more than 2.6 Million unique visitors!)… thanks for reading

I also got some time to put together dessert for Thanksgiving dinner this year, and decided on a Vancouver-style pumpkin cheesecake recipe and a chocolate cheesecake recipe. Yes, Vancouver does have it’s own style of cheesecake… it’s characterized by very creamy/fluffy cheesecake and no crust. I added crust anyway, but this recipe can be made without crust.

VANCOUVER-STYLE ROASTED PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE AND CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE RECIPE

Makes two small cheesecakes, one pumpkin and one chocolate, enough for about 16 servings in total using 6″ springform pans

Ingredients for the Vancouver-Style Cheesecake:
725 ml cream cheese, at room temperature (very soft)… about 3 packages
185 ml ricotta cheese, at room temperature… about 1/2 a cup plus 1/4 cup
375 ml whipping cream
8 large eggs
1 cup of sugar
A small squeeze of lemon juice
1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped for seeds
5 ml pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for the Pumpkin Filling and Crust:
1 sugar pumpkin (the small ones)
1/2 teaspoon of good quality cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup of ginger snaps crumps
1/8 cup of toffee, broken into very small pieces
1/4 cup of butter

Ingredients for the Chocolate Filling and Crust:
1 cup of melted good quality dark chocolate (about 1.5 cups of dark chocolate broken into pieces)
1 cup of Oreo or Chocolate Wafer crumbs
1/8 cup of toffee, broken into very small pieces
1/8 cup of chocolate hazelnut, broken into very small pieces
1/4 cup of butter
Optional: Frozen or fresh strawberries plus sugar, cooked over low heat for a yummy strawberry topping!

1. Wash the pumpkin, then halve it, scrape out the seeds, cut into small pieces and place flesh side down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour or until soft.
2. Scrape the soft flesh off the pumpkin and puree in a food processor or blender until very very smooth.
3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Mix the crumbs for each cheesecake respectively with the butter and press down into a parchment paper-lined 6″ springform pan. Graham crackers/toffee/ginger snaps for the pumpkin, and Oreo or Chocolate Wafers/Toffee/Hazelnut for the chocolate cheesecake.

5. Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and stir until completed melted and you have about 1 cup of melted chocolate. Let cool and stir occasionally.

6. Beat the cream cheese and ricotta together until very smooth.
7. Beat in the sugar and vanilla bean and extract.
8. Split the creamy mixture into two different bowls.
9. Mix in all the pumpkin puree into one of the bowls and beat until very smooth. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves and mix well.
10. Beat in the 4 eggs until fluffy, and then half the whipping cream until light and smooth. Add a squeeze of lemon.
11. Pour pumpkin cheesecake mixture into graham cracker crust pan. Do not fill to top of pan, leave at least an inch of space.
12. Now start on the chocolate cheesecake. Pour the melted chocolate into the other creamy mixture bowl and mix well.
13. Beat in the 4 eggs until fluffy, and then the other half of the whipping cream until light and smooth. Add a squeeze of lemon.
14. Pour the chocolate cheesecake mixture into the chocolate crust pan. Do not fill to top of pan, leave at least an inch of space.
15. Bake both cheesecakes in the oven for about 30 minutes until the outsides are lightly browned but the middle of the cheesecake is still very jiggly. Do not overcook.

You can make the strawberry sauce or chocolate decorations while the cheesecake is baking.

16. Let cool and then refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours!

17. Serve with whipping cream for the pumpkin cheesecake and strawberry sauce for the chocolate! Yum!

All in all a fantastic Thanksgiving and we really enjoyed the turkey that my cousin made (my parents got a nice break from cooking). A great weekend!

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? What are you grateful for?

If you’d like to see the flaky raspberry rhubarb pie recipe, please scroll down.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend! I would say we had a good and bad one. Bad because Allan got into a car accident, but good because it was a delicious weekend full of food, baking, and cooking. Friday night I went for drinks with one of my girlfriends and had a good, introspective talk. I knew the weekend was going to start out good when we bit into local BC organic peaches that were ridiculously juicy. Head down to Granville Island this week if you get a chance and snag some!

Saturday we played pitch and putt with some friends, then headed down to the New India Curry Buffet to eat all-you-can-eat curry and watch the fireworks with friends.

On Sunday we headed over to my parents’ house and spent the entire morning picking raspberries, boysenberries, blueberries, rhubarb, and herbs.

We were lucky enough to have some of my mom’s amazing creations… homemade waffles with blueberry sauce (berries from the garden!) and a recipe she was testing out for our engagement party in two weeks… homemade waffles cones and gelato from scratch! She’s crazy!

That night we decided to make some amazing beef lasagna with BC heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, bechamel sauce, spanish chorizo, and pancetta. Check out my “best ever” recipe here for this amazing lasagna. You can substitute for all beef (like we did for this one) or vegetarian if you want.

On Monday we walked over to Williams-Sonoma to pick up a gift for a friend and start our wedding registry. Fun!

Oh, and of course we had to stop for Purdy’s ice cream… a must in the summer

Yesterday (on Monday), I also got the chance to bake my first ever pie. It is based on a combination of my grandma’s recipe and a recipe I found in one of my cookbooks. Even though they might not have looked as nice as I would have liked, the crust is perfectly flaky and the filling is tart, fruity, and flavourful. Allan and I both thought it was the best pie we’ve ever had (sorry Grandma! … ), but of course… we’re biased.

PERFECT FLAKY RASPBERRY RHUBARB PIE RECIPE
Makes enough for 2 pies, in approximately 9″ pie plates

Pie Crust Ingredients:
4 cups flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks of very cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup of Crisco
4-8 tablespoons of ice cold water
For egg wash: 1 yolk with 1 tablespoon of water, whisked

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie Filling Ingredients:
4 cups of raspberries (and boysenberries if you like)
3 cups of rhubarb cut into half-inch pieces
2.5 cups of sugar (this is for a tart pie, if you like it more sweet, use 3 cups)
6 tablespoons of tapioca flakes
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (I love cinnamon so I put 1 teaspoon, but you can omit this or decrease it)
1/2 teaspoon of squeezed lemon juice

1. Combine 2 cups of flour with the sugar and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut the cold butter into the flour until marble-sized and do the same with the shortening after. Stir in the rest of the flour. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons or so of water.

2. Firmly squeeze the flour against the sides of the bowl until somewhat combined. Pastry should feel quite dry and crumbly. Do not add too much water. Only add drops at a time until there’s enough to just hold it together. Dry crumbs are good — means it will be flaky. Separate dough into four balls and refrigerate. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

3. Now make the filling. In a large bowl mix sugar, flour, tapioca, salt and butter. Now combine with the raspberries and mix them gently into the sugar mixture. Let sit for 10 minutes and then add in the rhubarb and gently combine. Set aside.

4. The key here is to roll out the pastry on top of something you can flip over. A cutting board, pastry mat, or anything similar works. We used a pizza tray lined with floured parchment paper on top. Now roll out one ball of dough gently (rolling in one direction at a time) using plenty of flour until dough is larger than the pie plate edges. Gently flip dough over onto pie plate and then put into fridge. Repeat once more with the other pie plate. Now place both pie plates in oven for about 8-10 minutes until just lightly browned. This keeps the bottom crust still crispy during the later cooking.

5. Now let’s roll out the top crusts. Do the same as step 4 and make sure the crust is big enough to fit over the pie plate. By now you should be able to take the pie plates out of the oven. Fill the bottom crust pie plates with your filling. Now gently flip over the top pie crusts and seal the edges by pressing them. Trim any excess and cut out some cute vents in the top. Brush VERY lightly with egg wash, do not brush the edges, just the middle.

6. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is just golden brown. Do not burn the edges.

7. Let cool for at least 30 minutes. ENJOY!

Serve with something sweet like ice cream or whipped cream and fresh berries. Soooooooooo flaky and GOOD!