As a native Western New Yorker who has found myself living in Florida for the past year, I do what I can to beat to the heat and celebrate fall. Enter pumpkin pie cheesecake. It’s pumpkin pie’s slightly less conventional cousin, and the recipe I found on All Recipes is actually pretty easy to make. It should hold you over until the real thing at Thanksgiving.
Ingredients
2 – 8 oz. packages creamed cheese, softened
½ cup white sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 – 9-inch prepared graham cracker pie crust
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
½ cup whipped topping
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat it until the mixture is smooth (I made the mistake of not using an electric beater the first time I made this—the mix was way too chunky). Blend in the eggs one at a time. Take 1 cup of the batter and spread it onto the bottom of the crust. Set the crust aside.
3. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the original mixture, mixing gently until it’s well blended. Spread this over the batter in the crust.
4. Bake in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center is almost set. Let it cool, and then refrigerate it for at least three hours, or overnight. Add the whipped cream on top before serving.
Source: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/double-layer-pumpkin-cheesecake-2/detail.aspx
Photo by Keeley Sheehan