Sweet Potato Everything

I love sweet potatoes and this sweet potato cheesecake is a testament to why I love them so much! It’s smooth and creamy with the luscious taste of sweet potatoes, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. The crust is simply mind-blowing because it’s so simple to make yet it simply makes this cheesecake! This one is destined to be a new favorite!

Ingredients: 

Pecan Shortbread Cookie Crust:

• 2 cups pecan shortbread cookie crumbs (3/4 to 1 whole package of cookies)
• 6 Tbsp. (3/4 stick) melted, unsalted butter
• 2 Tbsp. sugar – 1 granulated & 1 light brown
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Sweet Potato Cheesecake Filling:

• 3 – 8 oz. packages room temperature cream cheese
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 16 oz. sweet potato puree
• 4 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg 
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Pecan Shortbread Cookie Crust:

Preheat Oven to 350˚F.
1. Pulse cookies in a food processor until fine crumbs form. In other words, you are looking for crumbs the size of graham cracker crumbs.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together cookie crumbs, 2 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp salt, and 6 Tbsp. melted butter. Transfer into a 9-inch springform pan. Use your hands to press crumbs into the bottom of your springform pan. Bake at 350˚F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temp.

Sweet Potato Cheesecake Filling:

Preheat Oven to 350˚F.
1. In the bowl of your mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the 3 packages of softened cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups sugar on med speed until light and fluffy and without lumps (5 min), scraping down the bowl as needed to make sure you don’t have chunks of cream cheese. In other words, you want a smooth, creamy consistency.

2. In a separate bowl, using a whisk, stir together 16 oz. sweet potato puree, 4 large eggs, 1/4 cup sour cream, 2 Tbsp flour, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp salt, and 2 tsp vanilla extract. Mix well. Add this mixture to the cream cheese & sugar and continue mixing on low, scraping down the bowl as needed.

3. Transfer filling into pre-baked crust and bake in a water bath* on the middle rack at 350˚F for 1 hour. Turn off heat and let cheesecake sit in the oven another 45 min. After that, remove from the oven and let cool to room temp. One cheesecake is completely cooled, cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Chill 4 hours or longer.

*For the water bath, wrap your springform pan in aluminum foil and place it in a pan with approx. 1 – 2” water. Be sure your springform pan is well wrapped and aluminum foil is watertight! A water bath is important as it keeps the air in the oven moist to stop cheesecake cracking. An alternate method that I use is to sit a pan of hot water on the rack directly under my cheesecake pan. With this method, I don’t have to worry about water seeping into my cheesecake.

How To Make Sweet Potato Puree

Boil sweet potatoes in their skins about 45 minutes or until tender when pricked with a fork.

When potatoes are done, pour the water off and set aside to cool.

Cool sweet potatoes 15 – 20 minutes until you can handle potatoes comfortably with your bare hands. In other words, they will still be warm but not hot enough to burn you!

Remove skins from potatoes and put potatoes into a food processor – breaking up as necessary so they fit into the bowl. Above all, do not overfill the food processor, even if you have to process 2 or 3 batches

Add ¼ to ½ cup of water to bowl to enable processing if needed. Process until mixture is smooth and creamy but still thick. Be careful not to add too much water. Your puree should not be runny.   

Remove the puree from the food processor to a mixing bowl and continue making your pie filling from step 2 above.

Optional Toppings: Whipped cream and/or caramel sauce.

For a quick caramel sauce, put 1 cup of granulated sugar in a 3-quart saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir sugar as it melts and caramelizes, being careful not to let it burn. When sugar is completely melted, add 6 tablespoons of butter. Once butter melts, remove from heat. Wait 2-3 seconds and add 1/2 cup of HWC. Be careful when adding butter and cream to hot sugar because the sauce will foam up. Swirl & whisk sauce until smooth. Pour sauce into a glass mason jar and allow to cool to room temperature. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.