Pumpkin Cheesecake
This mouth-watering Pumpkin Cheesecake is rich, creamy, and smooth, and will have you "floating" to the kitchen for a second helping. It's the perfect Fall dessert!
Equipment
- 1 Electric Hand Mixer
- 10" Round cake pan
- 1 Roasting pan
- 9" Springform pan
- Food processor (opt.)
Ingredients
Cheesecake:
- 4 8oz blocks Philadelphia cream cheese (room temperature)
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 4 eggs (room temperature)
- 1 15oz can pumpkin puree
- 1 cup heavy cream (room temperature)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
Crust:
- 25 oreos
- 5 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease/butter 9" springform pan and set aside.
Crust:
- In a food processor, pulse the Oreos until finely ground.
- Mix in 5tbsp melted butter, and pulse a few more times.
- Pour Oreo mixture into 9" springform pan, and using a rubber spatula or the palms of your hands, gently press the Oreo mixture in until packed firmly into the pan.
Cheesecake:
- In a mixing bowl, add cream cheese and granulated sugar. With an electric hand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar together until smooth(around 30 seconds).
- Add in the pumpkin, heavy cream, vanilla, and spices. Beat in for about 10 seconds, then while still beating, add eggs one at a time, until just incorporated. You do not want to over-mix the batter.
- Pour batter in springform pan, over the Oreo crust.
- Place the springform pan in the 10" cake pan, and gently tap the pans on the countertop, to release air bubbles that may be trapped in the batter.
- Place pans inside a roasting pan, and carefully add warm water to the roasting pan until the water covers the bottom half of the cake pan.
- Very carefully, place the roasting pan on the center rack in the oven, and bake for 1.5 hours(90 minutes).
- When the timer beeps, turn the oven off and leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool with the oven for 1 hour. Do not open the oven at this time. We don't want the cheesecake to cool too fast, because that could cause the cheesecake to crack.
- After cooling in the oven for 1 hour, remove cheesecake from the oven, and remove the cheesecake(with the cake pan) from the roasting pan. Allow to cool at room temperature for another hour or so, and then transfer to refrigerator to cool at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
- Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
If you don't have a food processor, you can crush the Oreos in a zip-lock bag, using a rolling pin or heavy spoon.
Water-bathing the cheesecake helps to prevent the cheesecake from cracking. If you don't have a 10" cake pan, you can wrap the bottom of the springform with heavy duty tin foil, but I've had this leak water into my cheesecake and ruin it. If you wrap it REALLY well, it will probably be okay.
I love to make miniature versions of this cheesecake, as well. To do so, instead of crushing the Oreos, you'll use whole Oreos. Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners, place an Oreo in each liner, then drop 2 heaping tablespoons of cheesecake mixture in each cup, smoothing batter out to cover the Oreo. Bake on 325 for 18-20 minutes. These do not need to cool in the oven for an hour. Remove them immediately, cool in cupcake tins for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack for another 15 minutes before moving to refrigerator.
Eat them plain or top them with whipped topping. These are also great topped with a Butter Pecan Caramel!