Pumpkin Cheesecake With Caramel Sauce

Category: Desserts & Sweets | Blog URL: http://cookingwithmichele.com/2009/11/pumpkin-cheesecake-with-caramel-sauce/

This recipe was entered in The Foodista Best of Food Blogs Cookbook contest, a compilation of the world’s best food blogs which was published in Fall 2010.

Photo: Michele Morris

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs

2 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 egg white

1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground mace

8 ounces mascarpone cheese, softened

2 large eggs, at room temperature

caramel sauce, to top

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Butter the inside of an 8-10 inch springform pan and line the bottom with buttered parchment paper.

Combine cookie crumbs with sugar, butter and egg white, then press into the bottom of the pan. Bake until just set, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly.

Mix together cream cheese and brown sugar until just barely smooth, then add pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon, and mace and mix on a low speed for about 2 minutes.

Add mascarpone cheese and mix 2 more minutes to combine, then add eggs and mix until incorporated, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides after each ingredient is added to ensure even mixing.

Pour pumpkin filling over the crust then wrap the outside of the springform pan with foil to ensure no water gets into the cheesecake while baking.

Set in a large pan and place in the oven, then fill the baking pan with hot water until it reaches 2/3 of the way up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the center of the cheesecake is lightly set, about 60-75 minutes.

Remove and let cool in the refrigerator for 8 hours before unmolding the springform pan.

To serve, drizzle slices with caramel sauce.

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About

I’m not much of a dessert person. That’s not to say that I don’t like sweet things – ask my friends about how sweet I make my coffee, and I don’t go to bed many nights without a cookie as a snack. But when it comes to ordering dessert after a meal, I’m usually too full to enjoy it. Well, it’s now two days after Thanksgiving, and I present to you my Thanksgiving dessert…pumpkin cheesecake with a gingerbread cookie crust drizzled with decadent caramel sauce. I would attribute this to someone if I could piece together all of the recipes I perused on the Internet, but the reality is that I ended up with something all my own. And it started with this collection of winter squash from my CSA farm. Now I know I called this a pumpkin cheesecake, but that’s only because pumpkin-delicata-sugarloaf was just too long. The reality is that most sweet winter squash such as these (along with butternut and acorn) can be used interchangeably in many recipes.