I love baking and I think that if I had a choice I would open a bakery. All day I would make delicious pies, cakes, cookies, and all sorts of other delicious treats! But for now I will settle for making all of those things in moderation for my friends and family.
Fall and winter are the perfect times to bake because those warms smells of fresh baked good fill your house and fill you with joy…. Maybe that’s just me. As soon as the cold weather hits I start baking again in full force.
This year I was tasked with bringing dessert for Thanksgiving and one thing that I knew for sure was that it had to include pumpkin. There are a couple reasons for that too. First because it is one of my favorite fall foods and second because it simply is not Thanksgiving without it.
I wanted to change things up though and instead of the traditional pumpkin pie I decided on a pumpkin cheesecake. The mere thought of the creamy cheesecake mixed with the spicy pumpkin pie had my mouth watering.
Ingredients
- • 1 package of Biscoff (http://www.biscoff.com/) Cookies (You can use gingersnaps or a regular graham crust if you want)
- • 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
- • Nonstick cooking spray, for the sides of the pan
- • 4 8-ounce bars cream cheese, at room temperature
- • 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
- • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- • 3 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
- • 1/2 teaspoon salt
- • 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350° F.
- In a food processor, pulse the cookies until fine crumbs form. Add the butter and pulse to combine. Press the mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan (preferably nonstick), using a straight-sided dry measuring cup to help. Spray the sides of the pan lightly with the cooking spray.
- Now, you can use a water bath for this cheesecake if you want but it isn’t absolutely necessary. If you choose to then you will need to wrap the springform pan in a double layer of heavy-duty foil. This will prevent water from getting into your cheesecake and ruining it.
- Place the springform pan on a cookie sheet if you are not using a water bath.
- If you are using a water bath place the springform pan in a large baking dish.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and brown sugar on medium until smooth, about 1 to 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the flour, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and then beat to combine. Add the pumpkin and beat to combine again.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Pour hot water into the baking dish (if you use a water bath) so it comes up about 1 inch on the sides.
- Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. You want the cheesecake to be set but still a bit wiggly in the middle. If the top starts to get to dark while baking cover it loosely with foil.
- Let the cheesecake cool completely in the pan, and then refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
- When you’re ready to serve run a knife around the outside edge to loosen it from the pan.
Serve with whipped topping!
I will tell you that this is very rich and creamy, but so delicious. You should be able to get at least 12 slices out of this cheesecake and the calories on this one simply don’t count!
When I started out pondering this recipe I knew that I didn’t want the traditional graham cracker crust. It would not do a pumpkin cheesecake justice so the next thought that I had after that was to make the crust with gingersnaps.
Gingersnaps are a bit spicy to me and I knew that all of my kids would not like it and that led me to one of our favorite cookies, Biscoff. The best way that I can describe them is that they are like a cross between graham crackers and gingersnaps. Regardless, they are very good and I knew they would make the perfect crust.
Now, I am one of those people who really like pumpkin so I see no reason why you couldn’t service this anytime of the year.
What about you? Pumpkin anytime of the year or not?
