Treats : How Calabasas Got Its Name

According to one story about Calabasas, this rustic suburb at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley got its name delivered in a wagon. Long ago, they say, when there wasn’t much to the place but the historic Leonis Adobe and a dirt road linking Los Angeles and Ventura, a wagon laden with pumpkins overturned here. Pumpkins grew wild all over Calabasas for years after that, and people took to calling it by the Spanish word for pumpkins: calabazas.

A more sober story is that the name comes from the Chumash Indian word meaning “where the wild geese fly,” because birds used to hang out at Calabasas lake. When Calabasas incorporated as a city last year, though, residents decided to go with the pumpkin story. Last weekend they held a Pumpkin Festival at Paramount Ranch in Agoura, with pie-eating and seed-spitting contests and a lot of Old West entertainment, including Chumash Indian story-telling.

The festival was kicked off Friday by a pumpkin weighing, a pumpkin race (carrying pumpkins in wheelbarrows) and the first Calabasas Pumpkin Cook-Off, all held at the Leonis Adobe. The cook-off featured pumpkin dishes by cooks younger than 14, pumpkin breads, “yummy desserts,” low-calorie pumpkin dishes (not excessively many of those) and even a pumpkin jam, almost like pumpkin butter.

Here’s the winner. It’s rich, all right--you may have to deliver your guests home in a wagon.

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE IN TWO-LAYER CRUST

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/2 cup ground pecans or walnuts

8 sheets frozen filo dough, about 17x12 inches, thawed

2 tablespoons sugar

Graham Cracker Crust

Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Filling

Sour Cream Topping

Generously grease bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan with butter. Sprinkle 1/4 cup ground nuts evenly over bottom of pan and reserve remaining 1/4 cup nuts. Set pan aside.

Unfold filo. Brush 1 sheet with butter. Top with 2nd sheet of filo, overlapping to create 17x14-inch rectangle. Brush with more butter. Repeat with remaining filo sheets, overlapping alternate layers to create 17x14-inch rectangle.

Ease stack of filo into prepared springform pan, creasing where necessary and being careful not to tear dough. Trim even with top of pan, reserving trimmings. Cut trimmings into 1/2- to 1-inch pieces. Place on greased baking sheet. Bake crust and trimmings at 425 degrees until golden, 4 to 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Reserve baked trimmings.

Sprinkle Graham Cracker Crust onto baked filo crust in pan. Pour Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Filling onto Graham Cracker Crust. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees until center is just set, about 50 to 55 minutes. Remove and let cool on rack 5 minutes. Spread Sour Cream Topping on cheesecake and bake 5 more minutes. Remove, let cool, cover and chill in refrigerator overnight.

Mix 2 tablespoons sugar and reserved 1/4 cup ground nuts. To serve, remove sides of pan and sprinkle cheesecake with nut mixture and reserved filo trimmings. Makes about 12 servings.

Graham Cracker Crust

1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup ground pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted and cooled

In mixing bowl, combine crumbs, nuts, brown sugar and granulated sugar. Stir in butter.

Pumpkin-Cream Cheese Filling

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon cornstarch

4 teaspoons vanilla

1 (16-ounce) can solid pack pumpkin

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar

Combine cream cheese and granulated sugar. Add milk, cornstarch, vanilla, pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt and brown sugar. Mix and beat until smooth.

Sour Cream Topping

2 cups sour cream

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla

Whisk sour cream, sugar and vanilla in bowl.