I found this recipe online and made it for the day after Thanksgiving for our dinner with Sam and Bryan. It was so good! I will defiantly make this recipe part of my holiday traditions! Following the recipe below I was actually able to make 2 cheesecakes, although I did have to make some extra sour creme frosting. I used low fat ingredients for everything, although it was still very rich. The homemade crust was the best. It makes me not want to ever buy the store bought crusts again, because theirs homemade crust was so much better and it was so easy. I must say step 3 is confusing, but very important. I did not do it with the second cake, and I could not get the cake out of the pan. It was still good, but just not as pretty. I took the second cake to our friends house for a BBQ yesterday evening.
Pumpkin Cheesecake
From Good Housekeeping
triple-tested at the Good Housekeeping Research Institute
We kick up our Pumpkin Cheesecake with a small amount of bourbon -- your guests won't be able to guess the secret ingredient!
| Crumb Crust | |
| 1 cup(s) | graham-cracker crumbs I used 1/2 cup graham-cracker crumbs and 1/2 cup smashed Ginger Snap cookies with 1 small bag of crushed pecans (I just threw all of it into my food processor) |
| 3tablespoon | margarine or butter, melted |
| 2tablespoon | sugar |
| Pumpkin Filling | |
| 2 package(s) | (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened |
| 1 1/4 cup(s) | sugar |
| 1 can(s) | (15 ounces) pure pumpkin, (not pumpkin-pie mix) |
| 3/4 cup(s) | sour cream |
| 2 tablespoon(s) | bourbon, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract |
| 1 teaspoon(s) | ground cinnamon |
| 1/2 teaspoon(s) | ground allspice |
| 1/4 teaspoon(s) | salt |
| 4 large | eggs |
| Sour-Cream Topping | |
| 1 cup(s) | sour cream |
| 3 tablespoon(s) | sugar |
| 1 teaspoon(s) | vanilla extract |
| Crystallized ginger strips, for garnish | |
I used vanilla and bourbon plus some ground ginger powder. It was so good!
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In 9" by 3" springform pan, with fork, stir graham-cracker crumbs, melted margarine or butter, and sugar until moistened. With hand, press mixture onto bottom of pan. Tightly wrap outside of pan with heavy-duty foil to prevent leakage when baking in water bath later. Bake crust 10 minutes. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.
- In large bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese until smooth; slowly beat in sugar until blended, about 1 minute, scraping bowl often with rubber spatula. With mixer at low speed, beat in pumpkin, sour cream, bourbon or vanilla, cinnamon, allspice, and salt. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
- Pour pumpkin mixture into crust and place in large roasting pan. Place pan on oven rack. Carefully pour enough boiling water into pan to come 1 inch up side of springform pan. Bake cheesecake 1 hour 10 minutes or until center barely jiggles.
- Meanwhile, prepare Sour-Cream Topping: In small bowl, with wire whisk, beat sour cream, sugar, and vanilla until blended. Remove cheesecake from water bath, leaving water bath in oven, and spread sour-cream mixture evenly over top. Return cake to water bath and bake 5 minutes longer.
- Remove cheesecake from water bath to wire rack; discard foil. With small knife, loosen cheesecake from side of pan to help prevent cracking during cooling. Cool cheesecake completely. Cover and refrigerate cheesecake at least 6 hours or overnight, until well chilled. Remove side of pan to serve. Garnish with crystallized ginger.
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