I've looked at Paula's recipe and it does sound good, but I have never made it. If you are willing to entertain the idea of chocolate, I have made the following several times and they are always well received.

Alexa

Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
To create swirls, drag the blade of a paring knife through the chocolate and pumpkin mixtures several times to make a marbled pattern.
⢠For the Crust
o 20 chocolate wafer cookies (half a 9-ounce package)
o 2 tablespoons sugar
o 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
⢠For the Filling
o 2 packages bar cream cheese (8 ounces each)
o 1 cup sugar
o 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin puree
o 3 large eggs
o 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
o 1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
o 1/2 teaspoon salt
o 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. Set aside.
2. In a food processor, blend cookies with sugar until finely ground (you should have about 1 cup crumbs); add butter, and pulse until moistened.
3. Transfer crumb mixture to prepared pan, and press gently into bottom. Bake until fragrant and slightly firm, 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
4. Place cream cheese in food processor; blend until smooth. Add sugar, pumpkin puree, eggs, flour, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; process until combined. Set aside.
5. Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl; microwave in 30-second increments, stirring between each, until melted. Add 1 cup pumpkin mixture; stir to combine. Set aside.
6. Pour remaining pumpkin mixture into prepared pan. Drop dollops of chocolate mixture onto pumpkin mixture; swirl. Bake until cheesecake is set but jiggles slightly when gently shaken, 40 to 50 minutes.
7. Cool in pan. Cover; chill until firm, at least 2 hours (and up to 2 days). Using overhang, transfer cake to work surface. With a knife dipped in water, cut into 16 squares. Serve.

I'm totally on board with chocolate and pumpkin. Thank you for your comments and suggestion Alexa!

Pumpkins may be a harbinger of fall, and delicious on their own, but when combined with cheesecake, it makes my knees buckle. So why haven't I made a pumpkin cheesecake in almost 10 years? Your guess is as good as mine.

Not surprisingly, all I remember about my cheesecake is the Maple Bourbon Glaze. Oh, magic words.

But if alcohol is out of the question, a spicy streusel topping would be a nice option.

I like the sound of Paula's recipe. The only thing(s) I would do is up the cinnamon to 1 teaspoon, and definitely add a bit of ginger. Ok, I would also substitute 1/2 cup brown sugar for the white.

Sol

And top it with pralined pecans. Maple Bourbon glaze. Oh my. That is knee-buckling. Do you have a recipe for such an animal?

Praline Pecans? . . . oh, give me a moment . . .(she said, as she tried to light up a cigarette [a clumsy task for a non-smoker])

Ok, Rob, I do have such an animal. But give me a little time to find it.

Sol

Paula's recipe doesn't sound terrible but there's too much butter in the crust and it's baked at too high of a temperature. It wouldn't have that silky texture you're looking for. I've made this recipe and it's really good. I'd start with her crust but add butter at bit at a time until it holds together. I find I don't need more than 1/2 a stick. Bake it for 15 minutes at 350 and let it cool.

Filling:

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. Preheat oven to 350.

24 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup brown sugar
5 teaspoons flour
4 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
8 ounces pumpkin
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

With mixer at low speed, beat cream cheese, brown sugar and flour until smooth. Add eggs and egg yolk one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in pumpkin, whipping cream, vanilla extract and spices. Pour over the cooled, prebaked crust.

Back at 350 for 15 minutes. Lower the temp to 225 and bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until the center no longer looks wet or shiny. Remove the cake from the oven and run a knife around the inside of the pan (to separate the cake from the pan). Turn oven off and return cake to oven for an additional hour. Chill uncovered overnight.

Garnish with whatever you like (cranberries, praline pecans, orange slices.....go nuts!)

Now that sounds perfect. Now, we'll have to think about toppings.

I forgot to add it should be cooled completely to room temperature before putting in the fridge. I generally make mine two days ahead.

The texture of this one is satiny and smooth. It's rich! Now I have to make it again.....

No worries about early cook time; I often cook Thanksgiving food before day of. I live on the other side of town and have to transport. I'm glad I don't have to prepare the turkey and host the event!

:)

As usual I am late to the party, but here is a T&T recipe that I have made and enjoyed. I really like the gingersnap crust on this one.

Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake
source: Betty Crocker

For the crust:
2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

For the filling:
4 pkgs. 8 oz. each cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumkin not pumpkin pie mix
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Heat your oven to 300 degrees. Grease a 9 inch springform pan with shortening or cooking spray. Wrap foil around the pan to catch drips. In a small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and butter. Press crumb mixture in bottom and 1 inch up sides of pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or till set. Cool 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with mixer on medium speed just till smooth and creamy, do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in sugar. On low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, just till blended. Spoon 3 cups of cream cheese mixture into pan over crust. Spread evenly.

Stir pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg into remaining cream cheese mixture; mix with wire whisk until smooth.Spoon over top of mixture in pan.

Bake 1 hour and 25 minutes to 1 and a half hours or till edges are set but the center jiggles slightly when moved.
Turn off oven; open door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven for 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven; place on wire rack to cool. Without releasing side of pan, run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen the cheesecake. Cool in pan on wire rack 30 minutes. Cover loosely, refrigerate at least 6 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake again, carefully remove side of pan. Place cheesecake on a serving platter. Store cheesecake covered in fridge.

Linda

Rob, I made this one, with a gingersnap crust, and I decorated it with sugared cranberries. I just beat up an egg white with some water, tossed the cranberries in that until wet, then rolled them in sugar. The sugar dried and got crunchy and we liked those as much as we did the cheesecake. Bite one and get a hit of sugar, followed by a pop of sour cranberry, it was very nice and it did look very pretty. Yes, the egg white was raw, though.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

3/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted
32 gingersnap cookies, coarsely crushed
3 tablespoons brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted
FILLING:
3 packages (8 ounces each) PHILADELPHIAî Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Sweetened whipped cream, optional

Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil; securely wrap foil around pan. Place pecans in a food processor; cover and process until ground. Add the gingersnaps, brown sugar and butter; cover and pulse until blended. Press onto the bottom and 2 in. up the sides of prepared pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, cream, syrup, vanilla and spices. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into crust. Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.
Bake at 325ð for 60-70 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull. Remove pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Chill overnight. Remove sides of pan.
Garnish with whipped cream if desired
Yield: 12 servings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Annie

Thank you Linda. Better late than never. Your post got me to thinking, the crust needs something more. I was thinking about crushed nuts instead of topping it with nuts. Now, I'm really thinking about it since there are two of you saying it! Gingerbread crust, that sounds really good.

Happy Thanksgiving to you! That looks wonderful. Makes me want to start eating right now. We don't have compromised immune systems, so raw eggs aren't a concern. The funny part is, we have sugared fruit every year. This year was to be the exception. I should so slip these in. My mom would just "bust a gut" (Tennessee expression?) laughing!

I have had both good and bad pumpkin cheesecake. It is BF's favorite, so he makes it every year. I have made it too. I use the Cooking Light recipe. But anyhoo, the best pumpkin cheesecake I ever had was at a friends house who is something of a gourmet. She got the recipe from Cooks Illustrated. The secret was draining/drying the canned pumpkin, which I have done. I did mine with paper towels. It somehow makes the pumpkin less bitter. Here's a copy of Chris Kimball's directions:

Spiced Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake �" 'The Squeeze Job'

Many people have turned to making pumpkin cheesecake instead of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. And while Kimball recommends using pumpkin from a can instead of roasting your own, he also warns against a common, and serious, flaw in the store-bought variety.

"The problem is, it has a lot of moisture in it, and you don't want that extra moisture in your cheesecake," Kimball says, "because it ruins your cheesecake. So, what do you do?"

"The secret," Kimball says, "is the way we wick away the moisture."

His technique calls for putting a triple layer of paper towels onto a baking sheet �" one that has sides, to catch the eventual runoff. The pumpkin goes from the can right onto the towels, where it's smeared around.

"This is a great thing for kids," Kimball says. "They can make a big mess."

Then Kimball puts more towels on top, and folds the whole thing in half, then folds again. As he does, he's patting the bundle, squeezing water and moisture out. Then he flips it over, and carefully peels back the top layer of paper.

"This looks like one of those fruit rollups, doesn't it?" Kimball says.

Repeatedly flipping the bundle and peeling back the top layer of paper, Kimball eventually uncovers the pumpkin mash �" now much denser and ready to be combined with the cream cheese, which he recommends taking out of the refrigerator at least one to two hours ahead of time.

In another tip, Kimball says to use spices like cinnamon and allspice sparingly. But his recipe also uses plenty of white sugar and heavy cream.

"There's no stinting," Kimball says. "Stinting is not a verb that's used at Thanksgiving. Absolutely not."

When all is ready, he reveals the next trick to the cheesecake: baking it in a springform pan that sits in a water bath, so the entire cheesecake cooks evenly.

That is too cool! Thank you lpink! I will do that.

The pumpkin actually stays together and peels off the paper towels in one big blob. You might be able to find a video or pictures online. My friend copied the recipe for me out of the magazine, and it had photos accompanying it. I don't have it with me so I can't say what year or month, sorry.

Rob, sorry I'm a day late. I had an appointment with the eye doctor, who advised me to stay away from computers, and any other eye-straining activities. The best I could do was hold out for 24 hrs - needless to say, the longest 24 hours of my life.

In any case, the recipe was inspired by my favorite queen of cozy, Susan Branch, but I've altered it so much over the years, that it barely resembles the original. Still, I prefer to give credit where it's due.

Be as fearless as you like with the bourbon, but if you'll be serving this to kids, omit the bourbon and use vanilla. Just don' t tell me about it, or I might cry.

Sorry I didn't look through my photo files to add here. But you won't need it, as this is pretty straightforward.

Bourbon Praline Glaze

þ cup pecans, chopped
2 Tablespoons butter
ü cup brown sugar
ý cup maple syrup
ý cup heavy cream
1 to 2 teaspoons bourbon

Place chopped pecans in a dry skillet and toast, over medium heat, until fragrant. (Keep an eye on the pecans, they'll toast very quickly).

In a small saucepan, combine next 4 ingredients, and stir over low heat, until sugar is completely dissolved (5-7 minutes). Do not let mixture come to a boil.
Remove from heat, and stir in bourbon and toasted pecans. Makes 2 cups.

Sol

((((Sol)))) get better soon! My wish for you.

Thank you so much for this, and I'm sorry to put the onus on you to get this to me. It could've waited. I will probably be shopping tonight, and so, today was good enough.

Aw, got the hug, thank you RR.

Btw, you have absolutely nothing to do with my CF addiction, so please don't feel bad. I think my issues stem from too many hours, not only playing, but also working online. The long hours in front of the screen finally caught up with me.

Sol

Made my very first ever pumpkin cheesecake. It was delicious! Much more well-received than the Brussels sprouts!

My cheesecake was an amalgamation of three different recipes.

I used the pecan gingersnap crust from the recipe posted by annie1992 on Tue, Nov 19, 13 at 0:58. Wow! that crust is fantastic!

I used the Bourbon Pecan Glaze posted by Sol on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 12:47. Sol, my "glaze" was not very glaze-y. I would call it more of a sauce. Regardless of the consistency, it was very tasty.

For the filling, I used the Cooks Illustrated recipe referenced by lpink on Tue, Nov 19, 13 at 18:17. I "dried" the pumpkin, too, as recommended.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tastebook Cooks Illustrated Pumpkin Cheesecake

Happy Thanksgiving bbstx! Sounds like what was good about your cheesecake is what's good about this forum. This is one great recipe of a place.

here's a variation

I usually use two boxes of inexpensive vanilla wafers and crush them (run thru food processor) and add about half to three-quarters of a stick of butter and cinnamon.

It is a crumbly mix you can press into a pan. I use the side of a glass or a coffee cup to press it as solid as I can without cracking the crust.

I put it in a cookie sheet (with sides) lined with parchment paper and cook it til it is solid ⦠prob 12-15 minutes

Let cool.

After that, i spread a layer of cream cheese with a bit of powdered sugar to help it spread nice.

Let it set.

After that, I use two instant pudding mixes. You can use any kind, but here you could use a pumpkin and a cheesecake pudding.

Follow the directions, but use 3 cups (total) of milk (not 4) to mix the puddings. Add a tub of cool whip to the pudding mix and spread on top of the cream cheese mixture.

Let cool, or even freeze the pan.

When it's set, garnish with a layer of cool whip.

If frozen, it is really easy to cut into squares.

It is decadent, but always gets rave reviews.

I like a pistachio pudding mix with a cream cheese pudding mix, but you can use any two types of instant pudding ⦠like a vanilla and a french vanilla, or a chocolate and a vanilla, or two chocolate, or butterscotch (yum) ⦠whatever ⦠whatever floats your boat.

Enjoy.

Throw the leftovers in the freezer. It can keep quite a while frozen, or until you need your cookie sheet again.

dave