Pumpkin Cheesecake

Here’s the recipe…

Adapted from Beautiful Flight

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

3 tbsp margarine or butter

2 tbsp sugar

Mix the ingredients together and put in the bottom of a spring-foam pan.  Tightly wrap the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil to prevent water from leaking into the spring-foam pan and bake in a water bath for 10 minutes.  Cool completely on wire rack. 

Filling

2 – 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

1 ¼ cups sugar

16 oz. solid pack, canned pumpkin

¾ cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

¼ tsp salt

4 large eggs

Beat the cream cheese.  Add the remainder of the ingredients except the eggs.  After the ingredients are mixed together, add one egg at a time.  Do not over beat.  Pour mixture into cooled crust.  Place the spring-foam pan inside another pan.  Add boiling water to the pan until it comes up one inch of the sides of the spring-foam pan.  Baker for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the center barely jiggles.

Topping

1 cup sour cream

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

After the cheesecake is removed from the water bath, spread the topping on the top of the cheesecake.  Bake for another 5 minutes.  Place completed cheesecake on wire rack.  Loosen the sides of the cheesecake.  Refrigerate at least six hours or overnight.

So now that you have the recipe – let’s talk about what happened to me.  Hah.  I always have to have a story.  So I crush up my graham crackers, add the sugar, and butter and put the crush in the bottom of my spring-foam pan.  Awesome, right?!  I even cover the pan with aluminum foil like I’m supposed to.  Apparently, my foil had a leak, because not more than 30 seconds after I sat the crust in the water bath, the pan was full of water.  So I called Carie, who gave me some quick instructions on how NOT to do it the second time. 

Here’s what I did differently…

I added 1 more tbsp of butter to the crust.  I don’t know why. I just did.  I probably shouldn’t have, but it turned out okay either way. 

Instead of using allspice and cinnamon – I just put 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice into the mixture.  It was one less spice I had to buy.  I’m cheap.

I did the topping on this cheesecake, but I don’t think it really adds anything to it.  Next time, I’ll leave it off. 

All in all – my first cheesecake experience was a good one, and holy crap, this cheesecake is good!  A and I have already eaten ½ of it.  In one day.  Because we’re just that AWESOME.  J