Snappy Pumpkin Cheesecake

I have found that this blog has turned into a "pretty soon I will be diabetic" blog. I have barely anything but sweet, sugary treats. Oh well, that is what I love. Good thing I married a doctor, he can help me in my decline.

I have a huge list of fall treats that I want to try. There is no way I am going to fit them all in this year if I don't want to enter the holiday season already needing to lose like 100 pounds. But I wanted to try this one this year for sure because I love pumpkin and I have never made a cheesecake.

So, this was my first plunge into making a cheesecake. This one was fairly easy. When I first looked at the recipe, I was a little intimidated because I usually do pretty straight forward things. But even though this seemed like a lot of work at first glance, it really came together quickly. My cheesecake did end up with a few cracks, just on one half, but that is the beauty of whipped cream.

Really, this was good. I cut huge slices for my husband and I. About half way through, he looked at me and told me it was really good but he couldn't finish it. I said I couldn't either. But we just sat there. And took one more bite. And then another. And another. And before you know it, we had eaten the whole huge piece, even though we were totally full.

Snappy Pumpkin Cheesecake

slightly adapted from Taste of Homes

Crust

1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnap cookies (about 30 cookies, I used a few more)

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 c butter, melted (I used 1/3 c because my crust was still way too crumbly)

Filling

2 packages cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened

3/4 cup sugar, divided

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs, lightly beaten (oops, just realized I forgot to lightly beat my eggs before adding them!)

1 cup canned pumpkin

1tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Garnish:

Whipped cream (store bought or home made)

Additional cookies, optional

Preheat oven to 325.

Place a greased 9 inch springform pan on a double thickness of heavy duty foil. Securely wrap foil around pan; set aside.

Crush cookies in whatever manner you want. I used a food processor but putting them in a bag and beating them to bits works too!

In a bowl, combine cookie crumbs and pecans; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of the pan. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined.

Place 1 cup filling in a small bowl; stir in pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and remaining 1/4 c sugar. Remove 3/4 cup pumpkin filling and set aside. Pour remaining pumpkin filling into the crust; top with the plain filling. Drop reserved pumpkin filling by spoonfuls over top; cut through filling with a knife to swirl.

Place pan in a large baking pan; add 1 inch of hot water to larger pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan. Garnish with whipped cream and cookies if desired.