'Pumpkin' and persimmon cheesecake

Halloween in the UK is a very toned down affair compared to the hysteria and mayhem that happens in North America. We do have some traditions like dressing up and trick or treat, but they're done a little differently. Of course things may have changed now, but when I was a kid, your costume had to be scary, (it's Halloween after all) and we didn't go door to door collecting candy or sweets, no thank you...we collected money. In my neck of the woods we would say "please help Marie Curie", having no idea who she was. This is particularly bad as it sounded like we were collecting money for charity... we weren't. 

Adults only really wore a costume to the pub or a party, never to work and kids and adults alike would usually indulge in a little bobbing for apples, which involved several of the fruits placed inside a large bowl of water. The idea was to try and grab one with your mouth while getting very wet and laughing raucously and some adult versions involved booze, custard, black pepper and a whole host of other sloppy things to really get you dirty. 

The whole concept of Halloween was largely ignored by most in the UK though, as it was eclipsed by a far bigger and more popular holiday for us: Bonfire night or Guy Fawkes night: the 5th of November. We would have started collecting money for 'penny for the Guy' weeks beforehand in gleeful anticipation of burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes on the bonfire and watching your dad light some fireworks in the back garden, so asking for more on Halloween just seemed greedy.

One thing I do remember doing fairly regularly for Halloween was carving a suede. Pumpkins were pretty hard to come by as farmers generally didn't bother growing them, so a suede, (rutabaga) would be the next best option. The flesh inside was really tough and it took a skilled carver, (your dad) to create something even faintly resembling a scary face, plus mum would cook the flesh, pureeing it, which everyone hated. But, here in Vancouver, pumpkins of all shapes and sizes are easy to come by and the carved Jack o'Lanterns are everywhere, scaring away spirits and enticing bears. We buy a small pumpkin every year to practice our art and get in on the spirit, but this year that pumpkin turned out to actually be an orange or ambercup squash. Therefore, the cheesecake that transpired was actually 'squash and persimmon', but there's no way I'd be able to tell the difference.

Persimmons are attractive, vivid orange fruits with sweet, slightly tangy flesh. They come in two commonly available types ; the fuyu and the hachiya. The hachiya is considered to be astringent and must ripen before eating, whereas the fuyu can be eaten while unripe. The variety above and below is the fuyu, picked up at a market more out of curiosity than culinary appeal.

 

Recipe : Squash and persimmon cheesecake. 

A nice combination of slightly tart squash and sweet as honey ripe persimmon helped this cheesecake attain a balance with the creamy cheese and digestive biscuit crust.

Crust

10 digestive biscuits

1/4 cup melted butter

Filling

the flesh from one small - medium pumpkin or orange squash

1 persimmon, peeled, cored and flesh cut into chunks

2 250g cartons of Philadelphia or other cream cheese

2 large eggs

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp each of ground cinnamon and nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla essence

pinch of salt

To make the crust first place the biscuits in a zip loc or other bag, seal and bash with a wooden spoon or other heavy object until the mixture resembles cake crumbs. 

Place in a bowl and pour the melted butter over the crumbs. Mix well to thoroughly combine and then press the crumbs into the bottom of a baking dish which has been lined with parchment paper and lightly greased. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to harden while you make the filling.

For the filling, first pre heat the oven to 350oF. Puree the squash or pumpkin and persimmon together in a blender or processor, (or push through a sieve) and add to a bowl with the cream cheese, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and sugar.

Beat together well by hand or with an electric mixer and then add the eggs, one at a time, continuing to mix between each addition. Pour the mixture into the baking dish with the crust and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool and then transfer to a rack to cool a little longer. Cheesecake is best eaten after being chilled in the fridge for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

We usually pour a little cream over our cheesecake and if it is particularly moist and dense, it's interesting to watch the cream become completely absorbed by the cake. Other people favour a topping of sour cream, sometimes even spread over the top of the cake before chilling to create an extra layer.

Another idea would be to puree another persimmon or a little of the squash, mix with sugar to taste and spread this over the top before chilling. A dusting of icing sugar would finish the look and make the cheesecake look more professional. The top can become quite dark as you can see in the images, which I like as it adds a little chewiness.