Thanksgiving

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

by:
October 17, 2014
3.5 Stars
Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
Photo by Mark Weinberg
  • Makes one 9-inch cheesecake
Ingredients
  • For the crust:
  • 1 1/3 cups gingersnap crumbs
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 8 tablespoons melted butter (1 stick)
  • For the cheesecake:
  • 2 pounds cream cheese (4 packages) room temperature
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1 3/4 cups canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
  • Pinch salt
In This Recipe
Directions
  1. Heat the oven to 375° F. Wrap the outside of a springform pan with aluminum foil.
  2. In a bowl, combine the cookie crumbs, sugar, and melted butter to combine. Press the crust into a 9-inch springform pan, letting it come about 1/4-1/2 inch up the sides.
  3. Bake the crust until lightly golden, 5 to 6 minutes. Cool completely.
  4. In a food processor, process the cream cheese, sour cream, pumpkin, and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, processing briefly between each addition.
  5. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and salt and process to combine.
  6. Strain the custard into the cooled crust. Transfer the pan to a large casserole and fill a quarter of the way up the cake pan with warm water.
  7. Bake until the custard is set around the edge, but still slightly loose in the center when jiggled, about 45 min to 1 hour.
  8. Cool the cake at room temperature for 1 hour, then chill until set.
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See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • AF Avery
    AF Avery
  • Jessica B
    Jessica B
  • Brandy Cameron
    Brandy Cameron
  • lydia abbott
    lydia abbott

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12 Reviews

Jessica B.
Jessica B. November 24, 2015
This recipe is a disaster, as many people have described previously. The crust has about twice as much butter as needed, the filling produced is about twice what would reasonably fill a 9" pan, and obviously you can't strain something this thick or make this much volume in anything other than an industrial-sized food processor. While other people kindly offer potential fixes for the recipe, I'll offer this: find another recipe, preferably one that has been tested.
 
Brandy C.
Brandy C. October 22, 2015
I always try community picks and they always turn out amazing. This one was a sad waste of time and of a beautiful pumpkin from my crop share. Not to add, I broke my food processor trying to follow the recipes instructions:(
 
Brandy C.
Brandy C. October 22, 2015
Oh and unless you have jumbo tinfoil it will not cover the bottom of a 9in springform pan well enough to prevent leakage:(
 
lydia A.
lydia A. September 19, 2015
Me and m friend attempted to make this recipe today. WAAAAY too much butter in the crust! also, the recommended amounts of the spiceswere just simply not enough. definitly needed to use a lot more. lastly, way to much excess batter for a 9" pan. would not make again
 
Jennifer
Jennifer December 3, 2014
I've made this twice now, and here are my recommended changes to the recipe as printed:
1. Use a 10" pan.
2. Increase the gingerbread cookie crumbs, and decrease the butter. I went with 1 1/2 cups crumbs and 6T butter, and that worked well.
3. Strain the pumpkin before adding to the batter. 2 C pumpkin had over 1/2 cup liquid after straining for about an hour. Also reduced the pumpkin to 1 1/2 cup.
4. Use a mixer - no idea why the recipe calls for a food processor. Mine certainly isn't large enough.
5. Forget about the "strain" instruction in step #6 - the batter is way too thick to strain.
Doing it this way the second time, it was a firmer cheesecake and came out very well.
 
AF A.
AF A. December 30, 2014
Excellent comments. I found the original instructions for the butter in the gingerbread crumbs too much as well. I cut back the sugar in crust and filling. Stand mixer was much more efficient. I did have folks asking for the recipe; it's a great holiday dessert.
 
Con
Con December 1, 2014
I hear you on the aluminum foil. Did that very carefully and still leakage. I think I'm just going to swear off spring form pans in water. :-)
 
Scott
Scott December 1, 2014
There must be a typo in the crust portion of this recipe because with 8 tbs of butter it was a complete fail, I had to throw it away and start again. For 1 1/3
cups gingersnap crumbs, you should use 4 tbs of butter. I used about 5 tbs, but I also added about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of graham cracker crumbs, because I ran out of ginger snap cookies. Anyway, the filling was fantastic and with this crust modification, I would make this recipe again for the holidays - everybody loved it. To keep the crust dry in the water bath, you need to carefully wrap the spring form pan with a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil so that there is no risk is water touching (and getting into) the spring form pan.
 
Con
Con November 29, 2014
OK so problem number 1...my food processor doesn't have the capacity to handle this volume of stuff. No big deal, just used my mixer. The crust was pretty butter heavy. Too late to fix. However, anybody want to tell me how they managed to keep the water out of the pan? Used tinfoil but I had leakage which I believe led to the bottom of the cheesecake looking kind of uncooked. Considering all this and a taste that just didn't send me and I'm giving this recipe the heave ho.
 
Virginia M.
Virginia M. November 26, 2014
I am working on this recipe now, and having problems with the crust--I just doubled the gingersnap crumbs called for because the crust was a greasy mess. Even after doubling it, it seems way to wet to me:( I'm also worried about the crust baking--I've always chilled my crusts first--thought it was a law of cheesecake. Glad to see Jennifer's comment, because I was wondering about the food processor too...note to self: T-Day eve is not the day to try a new cheesecake recipe:(
 
Jennifer
Jennifer November 26, 2014
Virginia,
I am also making this on T-Day eve. Trying a few new things... I just baked the crust, and I increased the crumbs to 1 1/2 cups, and decreased the butter to 6 T. It is not a buttery pool like it was last time. (But last time it did eventually set up, so don't worry about it - just let it cool completely before adding the cheesecake filling.) I am also straining the pumpkin before adding, and may reduce that a little. My "day after" slices were more firm than those we had the day of, but still this was a very soft, creamy cheesecake.
Let me know if the "strain" instruction makes sense to you - my batter was way to thick to strain through anything, so I didn't do that the first time.
 
Jennifer
Jennifer November 16, 2014
I made this according to the recipe, including baking time, cooled for 3-4 hours, but it still had a mousse-like consistency in the middle. This almost overflowed a 9" pan - I'd suggest a 10" instead. I also wonder if it didn't set up because of all the liquid in the pumpkin. I don't think this will ever be New York style firm. The gingerbread cookie crust is wonderful, though - I may use that for other plain cheesecakes instead of graham crackers from this point on.
I also have to wonder about some of the instructions - why does it say to use a food processor instead of a mixer, and what do they mean by "strain" the custard into the pan?