Pumpkin Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake for Thanksgiving. In fact, I made it a week or two prior to Thanksgiving day and froze it. I let it thaw for 24 hours before serving and it was perfect. It was so good that we all agreed it would be making appearances at Thanksgiving every year.

I do not own a springform pan, but I was ready to buy one until I started reading up on cheesecakes. Apparently the problem with a springform is that if you bake the cheesecake in a water bath, it can leak in to your cake. I certainly didn't want that happening! Instead, I baked the cake in a 9 inch round cake pan with a pan of water on the rack below. The first few pieces coming out of the pan weren't pretty, but the rest were just fine.

I also found that it was pretty important to have all the ingredients at room temperature in order to get a nicely combined filling. 


Pumpkin Cheesecake
1 1/2  cups  gingersnap cookie crumbs (about 30 cookies processed in the food processor)
1/2  cup  finely chopped pecans
6  tablespoons  unsalted butter, melted
1/4  cup  sucanat (or white sugar)

3  8-oz. packages cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup sucanat (or 1/2  cup packed light brown sugar and 1/4  cup  white sugar)
2  large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1  cup  pumpkin puree (homemade or canned)
1/2  cup  sour cream, at room temperature
2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
1 1/2  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
2  teaspoons  pumpkin-pie spice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9 inch cake pan. Stir together all crust ingredients. Press into bottom and up sides of pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and sucanat until light. Beat in eggs and yolks, 1 at a time. Beat in pumpkin, sour cream and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour and spice. Pour into crust.

Place cheesecake on center rack of oven. Fill a separate pan with 2 inches of hot water and place on the oven rack below the cheesecake. Bake until cake is set around edges but still slightly jiggly when lightly shaken (cheesecake will firm as it cools), 55 to 65 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool to room temperature. Cover and chill for at least 10 hours or up to 2 days. Can be frozen and thawed.

Original recipe from All You.