Food! Feats! Friday! Pumpkin Cheesecake. That’s Right. I Said it. CHEESECAKE.

I have been scared of this cheesecake for 25 years. My ex-step-sister-in-law (who was an outstanding cook) made it, lo those many years ago, for a family function of the turkey-persuasion. And it was luscious without being too rich. Creamy without being too dense. And Of-the-Season without being too squash-ish. But it was filled with so much cream cheese, sour cream, and plain cream that my arteries have quaked in their platelets at the mere thought ever since.


But no more! This year I faced the cheese! And so shall you! Let us commence.

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE


Gingersnap Crust:
1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnaps (You want these good and gingery, so don’t buy cheap-o.)
1/4 cup butter, melted (We’ve talked about butter. Don’t make me come over there.)

Cheesecake:
3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened (You want the real stuff, not the wussy low fat stuff with the goofy French name designed to make you believe you are eating something gourmet when all they’ve done is taken out all the ingredients that MAKE cream cheese cream cheese, and added a lot of stabilizers. But go ahead if you want. It might not work.)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 small can (1 lb) pumpkin (lb? what the heck is a “lb,” and what does it have to do with the word “pound”? Not to mention, there’s no such thing as a one pound can of anything anymore. But the 14.7368 oz-can still works.)
6 eggs
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup heavy cream (I used light whipping cream and the Cheesecake Police did not arrest me.)


Topping:
1 pint sour cream (Which pretty much cancels out the light whipping cream.)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla


Method:
(I love that. “Method”. Sounds so well organized and educated, like I went to École Cuisine Alain Ducasse or something.) (That impressed you, didn’t it? The way I just threw that French in there like that? Yeah. I’ve got cut and paste skills.)
1. For the crust: mix gingersnap crumbs with melted butter. Spread on bottom of buttered springform pan (photo below, in case you’re wondering what the heck a springform pan is, and secretly wonder if it is anything like a maidenform bra. No. It isn’t.) (Also, I didn’t butter the springymaidenform pan, and no one was the wiser.)
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
3. Lower oven temp. to 325 degrees. In a mixer, beat cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugars.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. 
5. At lower speed, beat in the pumpkin, spices, and cream.
6. Pour over crust in pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 35 minutes. Turn oven off and let cheese cake sit in oven for 1/2 hour. (This is important. You know it is because I have bolded it. I don’t know why.)


Meanwhile:
7. Mix 1 pint sour cream, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla. Remove cheesecake from oven after 1/2 hour and raise oven temp. to 400 degrees. (Note the bolding)
8. Carefully spread topping on cheesecake. Bake for 8 or 9 minutes–whichever your compulsions feel better about. Cool on rack. Chill. Remove sides from pan. Garnish with slivered almonds. Unless you’re like me and think garnishes are not only silly, but the word is silly too. Which, by the way, calls into question the expression: “Garnish your wages.” I am pretty sure this doesn’t mean sprinkle your paycheck with parsley and sliced green olives with little umbrellas in them.


Eat. Enjoy. Eat more. Enjoy more.


Now for the pictures in this already overlong post. And I shall also reveal that I made a big boo-boo and misread the recipe (because it was written out weirdly. I have corrected that for you), and did not beat, then cream, then add things one at a time like it says to do. Nope. I beat the cream cheese, then just dumped all the rest of the ingredients in and tore it up in my Kitchenaid. Then I had a heart attack. But it still worked. Whichever way you want to do it is fine with me. Except the heart attack. I don’t recommend that.


Voilá Les Pictures:
(Impressively speaking French again)

Gingersnap crust in locked springform pan. There are no maidens involved.

Lovely calorie-free cream cheese. No, really.

Commencement of the adding of ingredients with reckless abandon. You, on the other hand, will carefully read the directions above and follow them to a T.

Everything slammed into the mixer with a unity that the WORLD ITSELF should strive for.

Stellar ingredients poured onto crust and lovingly slid into oven. Slided into oven. Slidened into oven. Slod. Whatever.

Meanwhile the sour cream topping is mixed into sweet/sour deliciosity.

Final product, after baking lengthily, sitting in the oven for a half hour, cracking during oven-cooling, receiving its sour cream topping, then baking at 400 for 9.3 minutes (amount my compulsion dictates.) Ohhhh yeahhhhhh. (The pumpkin pie at the top has an inferiority complex and is trying to sneak into the picture. Sad.)

And this is how we played it at my lovely sister-in-law’s house. Heaven.

(Confession: I really used fat-free sour cream, even after my tirade about low fat cream cheese. It worked fine, but I suspect full fat sour cream would be less wet.)

Delish, my little cooking-padawans. Delish. And very easy. 




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About Janiel 432 Articles
My greatest pleasure in life has been raising my four excellent children--some of whom liked me so much that they keep coming back. My second greatest pleasure has been doing whatever I can to make people laugh and create bright moments. I hope to do a bit more good in the world before I go the way of it. And if not, I'd better at least get to spend some serious time writing and singing in a castle somewhere in the UK.

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