Pumpkin Cheesecake

As I've mentioned before, I love pumpkin flavored anything! I had the most amazing pumpkin cheesecake at Plaza III, and i had to try to recreate it! I was unsuccessful in getting their recipe from them (they don't make it there). I looked around online and found this recipe from feasting.in that looked fairly simple, as this was my first cheesecake attempt. It was pretty easy, and was beyond delicious!

Ingredients

Springform Pan

FOR THE CRUST:

12 graham crackers-about 2 cups crushed (i used the cinnamon sugar graham crackers)

1/2 c butter, melted

1/4 c powdered sugar

FOR THE FILLING:

(3) 8 oz pkgs of cream cheese

14 oz. sweetened condensed milk

1/2 c sugar

1 tbs vanilla extract

3 tbs lemon or lime juice (i used lemon)

3 eggs

5 oz pumpkin puree

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 300° F. Use a food processor, or your hands, to break up the graham crackers into fine crumbs. Add the powdered sugar into the food processor if you used one, and mix up.

Transfer graham cracker and sugar mixture to a medium sized bowl, and add the melted butter. If you used your hands, just combine all 3 ingredients in the same bowl.

Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of a spring form pan. It will go up the sides of the pan a little, but that's good.

Using an electric mixer, combine the cream cheese and the condensed milk, until smooth. It helps if the cream cheese is left out of the fridge for a bit, so that it is soft. Add the sugar, citrus juice, eggs and vanilla and beat until thoroughly combined. Add the pumpkin and the spices until the color is consistent.

Pour the filling into the spring form pan, on top of the crust. Set the spring form pan on a regular baking sheet to catch any leaks. Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

When he cheesecake is done baking. Turn the oven off and open the door just a small crack (I put an oven mit in the door to hold it open). DO NOT remove the cheesecake from the oven until it has cooled to room temperature. This took about an hour for me. If you remove it and it cools too quickly, it will develop cracks.

When you remove the cheesecake after it has cooled to room temperature, take a sharp knife and run it around the outside of the cake, along the inside of the pan. You can then remove the spring form pan and chill in the refrigerator before serving. Mine chilled overnight so i left the spring form pan on until right before I served it (but I still ran the knife around it after i removed it from the oven.)

Slice that bad boy up and serve! You can top with whatever you would like, or serve just how it is like I did. It makes for a perfect Thanksgiving dessert. Enjoy!