Culinary Curious

Brown Sugar and Bourbon Cream Photo: Keller + Keller

Brown Sugar and Bourbon Cream

Presented by America's Test Kitchen

Makes about 3 cups

Why this recipe works:

The test kitchen discovered a few keys to the perfect pumpkin cheesecake recipe: For a smooth and creamy texture, they blotted the canned pumpkin puree with paper towels to remove excess moisture before mixing it with the rest of the ingredients. They also passed over brown sugar, which overpowered the pumpkin, in favor of milder granulated sugar. Baking the cake in a water bath in a moderate oven also helped give our pumpkin cheesecake a velvety texture.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon table salt
  • 2 teaspoons bourbon

Method

  1. In bowl of standing mixer, whisk heavy cream, sour cream, brown sugar, and salt until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve cheesecake, at least 4 hours or up to 24, stirring once or twice during chilling to ensure that sugar dissolves.
  2. When ready to serve cheesecake, add bourbon and beat mixture with whisk attachment at medium speed until small bubbles form around edges, about 40 seconds; increase speed to high and continue to beat until fluffy and doubled in volume, about 1 minute longer. Spoon cream on individual slices.