My First Attempts at Frugal Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake 

Disclaimer: This is not my official recipe! This recipe is still a work in progress.

My first attempt at Pumpkin Cheesecake was created in an effort to salvage a failed ravioli filling. When researching winter squash ravioli recipes, most of the recipes included ricotta cheese. I assumed cream cheese would make a suitable substitution: it's creamy, soft, a similar color, and it's cheaper. I have said this before and I'm sure that I'll say this again: I'm a home-cook, not a foodie. I don't know that I have ever had ricotta cheese.

This is what I started with and...

Well, I blended the ingredients together and you can see what happened. I had something resembling the consistency of a creamy soup. I wasn't about to throw it away!

I imagined myself in a home-cook version of Chopped (if you haven't already figured it out, I was home alone, cooking for one). How would I redeem myself? While I had never made cheesecake that wasn't the Jello boxed stuff, I have read enough recipes to know that I what I had was probably the beginnings of a cheesecake. I added an extra egg, some sugar, a splash of vanilla, and some spices. I don't have a spring-form pan so I thought of using my muffin tin. To have some semblance of a crust and to be able to remove the cakes easily, I used the won ton wrappers I had planned on using for the ravioli.

What was the result? Pretty darn good. I felt so proud of myself at making cheesecake I bragged about it incessantly to my friends and made my neighborly friends (and official taste-testers) try it. They approved!

Z. hates squash so he had absolutely zero interest in trying my creation. In order to have my delightful life companion taste-test and to see if my last try was just a happy accident, I attempted a plain version. The results weren't quite as spectacular or creamy as the pumpkin cheesecake. I wonder if the pumpkin provided extra moisture the plain version was lacking.

Ingredients for plain cheesecake

Both times, the won ton wrappers were a problem. The edges that were exposed did not burn but were tough and sharp. The portion of the wrappers under the filling could not be cut. These little cakes became a finger food.

Plain cheesecake

I am going to work on improving this recipe. All the other recipes I have found require a large amount of cream cheese and are way larger than I need. I think my cheesecake's potential lies in its simplicity and small output. Any suggestions???