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Pumpkin cheesecake

Richard Phillips from Great Food Live
Your guests will give thanks for Richard Phillip's scrumptiously rich alternative to traditional pumpkin pie, perfect served with pecan ice cream

Pumpkin cheesecake

Method

1. First prepare the pumpkin purée for the filling. Remove seeds and stringy centre from the pumpkin, then peel away the skin. Cut the flesh into small cubes. Heat the butter in a frying pan, add the pumpkin and 25g of the sugar and cook for around 10 minutes or until soft. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and blitz until smooth. Set aside to cool.

2. To start the sponge base, preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form when the whisk is lifted from the whites. Gradually fold in the caster sugar, then the egg yolks. Sift the cornflour and strong plain flour together over the mixture, then fold it in.

3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Spread the sponge mixture out to an area approximately 30cm square. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool before peeling off the paper. Lower the oven temperature to 170C/gas 3.

4. For the filling, beat the mascarpone, crème fraîche, soured cream, 50g of the remaining sugar, the vanilla seeds and 2 egg yolks together in a bowl. Stir in the pumpkin purée.

5. Whisk the 2 egg whites in another bowl until softly stiff. Gradually whisk in the remaining 25g sugar and gently fold the meringue into the pumpkin mixture.

6. Cut out a round from the cooled sponge base to fit exactly inside the cake tin. Pour the filling over the sponge in the tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until the cheesecake is lightly firm on top. Remove from the oven, leave to cool and then chill in the tin.

7. When ready to serve, run a knife around the edge of the tin and remove the cheesecake. Cut into wedges and serve with a light dusting of icing sugar and a scoop of pecan ice cream.