Sweet Potato Cheesecake

Ten minutes ago, if you would have stumbled upon me in my kitchen, you would have caught me in the middle of a victory dance.

It's official, I'll probably never make pumpkin anything ever again--unless I end up marrying someone or having children who are allergic to sweet potatoes. Hopefully that doesn't happen. But, since I'm nowhere near marriage--and even farther away from having children--I'm allowed to jump head first into this love affair I've got going with sweet potatoes!

As I type, my sweet potato cheesecake is baking. Why the victory dance before I've even had the chance to try the finished product? Because! It took a great deal of will power to stop myself from licking my blender clean of the cheesecake goodness that now bakes. Plus, I can imagine how delicious the finished product will be--with cinnamon and sugar coated walnuts sprinkled on top! I can hardly wait.

But, I will...until tomorrow night, when I ring in the new year with my fellow scratch kitchen chef--Megan.

However, just because I have to wait to eat the cheesecake does not mean I can't gush about it here, now.

Of course, I made the whole thing from scratch--right down to the graham crackers that were crumbled into the graham cracker crust. I'm not too sure I'm in love with the graham crackers on their own, so I'm going to keep searching for various recipes until I find one I'm satisfied with. Nevertheless, I thought they turned out well enough for the purpose intended.

Making the actual cheesecake was a breeze! Using the pureed sweet potatoes I had left over from last night's sweet potato cookies helped, as far as time goes; then, of course, things go pretty quickly when you just throw everything in the blender. I'm hoping it tastes as good as the raw version led me to believe.

Anyway--enough talk. Here's the recipe!

Sweet Potato Cheesecake (With a secret ingredient!)


Ingredients:
1 12-14 oz package of silken tofu (don't tell them it's there and they'll never know!)
1 8 oz package of reduced fat cream cheese
1 cup pureed sweet potatoes (if you have extra, feel free to use it!)
1 cup organic sugar
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Dash of salt
Graham cracker pie crust 


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
(If you are making your graham cracker crust from scratch, put it together here and pre-bake it according to the directions.)
Combine all the ingredients for the cheesecake in a blender and blend until it is smooth and creamy.
Pour the mixture over the graham cracker crust and bake for 45-50 minutes.
Allow the cheesecake to cool, slightly, before putting it into the refrigerator. 
When it's completely set and cold, it's ready to serve!


I'm going to add nuts to mine; so, if you'd like, you could sprinkle some sweetened (or maybe not sweetened, depending on your taste) nuts over the top. I'm using walnuts, because they were cheaper than pecans--but I'm sure you could use whatever nut you wanted!


I'll be back to let you know how it tastes.


Update: It was a winner!

Happy New Years!
Rosalyn