Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe

Learn how to make Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with me for your Halloween Theme Parties. Remember the left over pumpkin puree from my Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino?? This is what has been made of it! Till date, i have not come across anyone who does not like a good cheesecake. They are my husband's favorite, primarily because of the no use of flour. I have made in the past no-bake cheesecakes also, but nothing like a baked one!! There is a huge difference in the texture and taste and we just love them. 

While in Boston, i used to visit Cheesecake factory way too often. Cheesecakes don't quite need a celebration to be baked you see!! They just happen!!  



I moved to the US couple of years ago and till that time had no idea what cream cheese was!! The concept of baking was very alien to me. We never baked back at home. Apartments do not come with pre-installed ovens. Either you buy them on your own or buy cakes from bakeries!! As simple as that. I still remember during Christmas, my neighbors used to bake Fruit Cake, Carrot Cake etc and i used to wait for them to share some with us. Home made cakes are something on their own. Nothing can beat them.

The first cake i ever baked was a Butter Cake while in Arizona and it was, brace your selves--"A box mix!!" Every baker's horror!! Yes, i did that and no regrets. Now the funny part, i read the instructions just once and assumed am a pro and started off. The first thing i did(over-did) was the whisk the batter FOREVER!! Because apparently, in my mind it was a pre conceived notion, a good batter must be whisked at-least a 100 times. I kind of don't really know how the cake tasted while being warm, once it cooled, i poured ganache on top, decorated with strawberries and put them in refrigerator. By the time i took it out post dinner to surprise my husband, it was hard. Rock hard!!

Nevertheless, i still took a picture and put it in Facebook, whats app and every other social media to make my friends and families jealous!! 

Coming on to this recipe, as always it's fairly simple. Make sure that Cream Cheese must be at room temperature for at-least 3-5 hours to avoid any lumps. Take out eggs an hour before you plan to bake this cake. Fair enough?? Let's get on to the recipe!

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Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake

by Remya Ravindran October-10-2015

Ingredients

• 8 oz Cream Cheese
• 1 Egg
• 1 tbsp All purpose flour
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Pumpkin Puree
• 3 tbsp Unsalted Butter
• 1 tsp Pumpkin Spice mix
• 1/4th cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4th cup White Sugar
• 1/4th cup Heavy Cream
• 10-12 Graham Crackers
• 1 tbsp Caramel
• 1 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Instructions

For the Crust: Pre-heat oven at 425 F. Add the graham crackers in a zip lock bag or food processor,crush till fine. Melt the butter, add cinnamon powder and butter into the crushed crackers and mix til they resemble wet sand. In a spring foam pan, press the mixture with your hands. Cover the cake pan with foil. Place the pan in oven for 6-7 minutes, just so as to set the base.For cream cheese batter: Whisk the cream cheese, egg , vanilla extract and flour till well combined. Add both sugars, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice and in-corporate well. Remove the cake tin from oven after 7 minutes and pour the batter onto the now set graham cracker base. Tap to remove any air bubbles. Add few drops of caramel and swirl with a knife(Optional). Bake for 10 minutes at 425 F and then at 350 F for 45-50 minutes or till the cake is set. Upon shaking the center will be little jiggly, which is fine. Do not remove the cake out of oven yet, open the door ajar and leave the cake inside for another 45 minutes. Once cooled, cover with cling wrap and refrigerate over night or atleast 3-4 hours. Serve chilled with whipping cream and caramel sauce.

Details

Prep time: 30 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 30 mins Yield: 6'' cake

Notes:

a. Have the cream cheese at room temperature. Keep them out at least for 3-5 hours.

b. Keep egg out before an hour of baking.

c. You can use digestive, ginger snap cookies if graham crackers aren't easily available or if you do not like them.

d. Caramel sauce for swirling is optional. (I wanted to make mine pretty)

e. In case you do not have pumpkin spice mix, Home-made 1 tsp pumpkin spice mix is 1/4th tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4th tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4th tsp ground ginger, 1/4th tsp ground cloves. 

f. Half a cup sugar is fine for both of us, if u like it more sweet, taste and add sugar accordingly.

g. Bake cheesecakes in water bath always, helps to have a crack free cake.

I have couple of other cheese cake recipes in my blog. Have you tried them yet? Here is New York style cheesecake, Oreo cheesecake, Chocolate cheesecake. Enjoy!! 

If you try any of my recipes, please give me a holler at Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. I will be more than thrilled.

Also, can i ask you all to follow us by email subscription so that you could have all recipes delivered freely to your inbox? Just enter your email address in that tiny pop-up at bottom left corner if in Laptop or scroll down till the end if in Mobile. Thanks a lot for the encouragement.

Till we meet again,

Remya.

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