Pumpkin cheesecake?

[Kajikit]

Our church is having our 'Thanksgiving' potluck on the weekend and I've decided against making my usual pumpkin pie because I'm roasting the turkey and making dressing, and I'm sure that there will be three or four different iterations of bought pumpkin pie on the table already! I want to make a pumpkin cheesecake instead, but I've never done one before. Anybody have a knockout recipe for one? I've bought gingersnaps for the crust, and canned pumpkin and cream cheese for the filling...

[Cherylptw]

here's my recipe:

Pumpkin Cheesecake
Crust:
2 1/2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (you can use gingersnaps)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter, cooled
Filling
3-8 oz. packages cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 tablespoons all purpose flour, sifted
5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 325F. degrees. Mix together the cookie crumbs, brown sugar and melted butter; pat mixture into the bottom and 1/3 up sides of a 10 inch spring form pan, cover the bottom of the pan with a double thickness of foil and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese, pumpkin puree, brown sugar and sifted flour on low speed of an electric mixer for one minute. Add the eggs, one at a time then add the remaining ingredients and mix for two minutes or until thoroughly blended. Spoon filling into prepared spring form pan, and set the pan into a slightly larger pan. Add warm water to the bottom of the second pan to reach 1/2 way up the sides for a water bath. Place the cake in oven for 1 hour 20 minutes, laying a piece of foil across the top of spring form pan after one hour.

Turn oven off after time elapsed and allow cake to sit in oven for one hour; remove cake from oven & remove from the water bath. Allow to come to room temperature then refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Carefully run a knife around the sides of the cake pan to loosen then remove sides and bottom and place in a cake plate. Makes 10-12 servings.

[morwen]

The filling for my pumpkin cheesecake is very close to Cherylptw's except instead of the ubiquitous gingersnap or graham cracker crust I do a traditional NY cheesecake short crust laced with slivered crystallized ginger:

To make the crust: Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/4 cup slivered crystallized ginger. Add 1 egg and 1/2 cup butter. Mix until it just comes together. Spread to the edges of the pan and about 1/2" up the sides. Prick all over with a fork, then bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees F. Allow to cool.

[Kajikit]

I made my pumpkin cheesecake tonight. I based it on a recipe from Allrecipes but fiddled with it enough that it's unrecognisable! The ratings on it said it was 'good for people who didn't like pumpkin', which didn't sound like a recommendation to me! I wanted it a lot more pumpkiny-tasting, so it's like a pumpkin pie with cream cheese in it, not a heavy cheesecake with a hint of pumpkin. I used cream cheese and sour cream and eggs and lots of pumpkin with a gingersnap crust. There was some filling left over and I had it for dessert and it was pretty good, so I hope that the pie will be nice too!

I made one 10-inch (or is it 12-inch?) flan pan to take to church, and
one garden-variety pie for us, and still had a cup of filling to
spare.

CRUST
- 1lb gingersnaps, crushed
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds, crushed
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Melt the butter and mix all the ingredients together and press it into
the tin/s. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes to set it while you mix the
filling.

FILLING
- 2 blocks cream cheese
- 1 big tub sour cream (reserve half for topping!)
- 1-1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1 big tin pumpkin
- vanilla
- pumpkin pie spice with extra cinnamon and ginger
- 7 eggs

Soften the cream cheese in the microwave and blend in the sugar. Scoop
half the sour cream into the mix and beat with the whisk. Add the
pumpkin and spices. When they're all mixed together, add the eggs a
couple at a time and mix everything well.

Pour the mix into the pans and bake for 30 minutes at 375F. Turn the
oven down to 325 and bake for 15 more minutes (they weren't quite set
in the middle at first.) Turn the oven off and mix up the topping.

TOPPING

-REMAINING SOUR CREAM
-2 tbsp sugar
-slivered almonds
-cinnamon (to decorate)

Mix the remaining sour cream with 2 tbsp of sugar and a sprinkle of
vanilla. Take the cheesecake/s out of the oven and spread the sour
cream over the top of them. Sprinkle with cinnamon, more almonds and
chopped or grated candied ginger. Put the pies back in the oven for
fifteen minutes to set the topping.

Take the pies out and allow them to cool. Then refrigerate.

[bushwickgirl]

Kajikit:
When you wrote "2 blocks cream cheese" are you using 8 oz or 16?
Also for the sour cream, is that a pint tub?
And for the pumpkin, what size can, 29 oz?
AND, when you said flan pan, are you talking about a springform or a torte pan?
I'm assuming it must be 2# cream cheese and a 29 oz can pumpkin, for the 7 eggs.
Please let me know, I want to put this into my pie file.

[Kajikit]

Sure! Umm... afaik cream cheese only comes in one size block. I used your standard Philedelphia (actually the storebrand equivelant) I'm afraid the wrappers have gone into the trash so I don't know the actual size.

The sour cream was a 1.5 pint container - 24oz. And the pumpkin was a29oz container.

But it made a huge amount of pie... if you just wanted to make one pie you could cut everything in half and use the small size pumpkin etc.

I baked it in a large torte pan and a cheap aluminum pie plate. It would have made three pies if I just used the smaller pan, or two medium-sized ones.

I just cut a sliver of the smaller pie to test it, and now it's properly chilled it's very smooth and creamy... definitely a cheesecake, but you can't really taste the 'cheese'. It would have been nicer with an extra block of cream cheese in it. So if you cut the recipe down, keep the cheese at two blocks.

[roxlet]

There is a fabulous pumkin cheesecake recipe on the Gourmet web site:
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/1990s/...
I used to make it for my Christmas dessert board, and it was always a huge success.

[foodie_guru]

I second this Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake. Have made it numerous times to rave reviews. Delicious.

[Chocolatechipkt]

This is too late for this weekend, but the pumpkin-pecan praline cheesecake on Epicurious is fabulous: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Pecan-Cheesecake-4662

http://areyouhungryyet.blogspot.com/2...

[maria lorraine]

Pumpkin Frangelico Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust is my favorite.
I've made it many years now.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1813,1...