A smooth and creamy pumpkin cheesecake surrounded by a warm and slightly spicy Gingersnap crust…that’s what I have in store for you today! And let me tell you, it does not disappoint. In fact when I made this, half of the pie was gone before it even made it to the table, no joke. I’ve made a lot of cheesecakes in my day, but this was by far the easiest one. No Springform pan, no water bath, just pour the liquid gold –> pumpkin cream cheese mixture into your crust and bake. It makes a perfect potluck dessert for all those holiday parties we have this time of year.
Begin by tossing your Gingersnap cookies and sugar into the food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs. Add in some melted butter and continue pulsing until all is combined.
Press the mixture into the bottom a pie dish. Put into the freezer until it firms up, about 30 minutes. Next, take it out of the freezer and bake it for 15 minutes. Let your crust cool completely while we work on the filling.
It’s about to get sinfully delicious. Clean out your food processor from our Gingersnap mess, and add in the cream cheese. Pulse until smooth. Bagel anyone?
Okay, let’s skip the bagel and move on. Add in the sugar, pumpkin, egg, flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Pulse until completely smooth. The aroma is saliva inducing.
Pour the pumpkin mixture into the cooled crust and bake for about 33 minutes. It’s precise, but trust me here. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. I left mine to set overnight. You can eat as is, but I decorated the edges in vanilla whipped cream. No photo, because I barely got it on there before slices started disappearing. Martha Stewart actually did a meringue that would be outstanding. I stuck with the whipped cream because I was traveling with it, and beating egg whites and torching just wasn’t practical for me. It will be delicious any way you choose to serve it, I promise!
- CRUST
- 6 ounces of Gingersnap Cookies
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- FILLING
- 12 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¾ cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 large whole egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon plus 1½ teaspoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
- Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pulse gingersnaps and sugar in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add butter and pulse to combine. Press mixture evenly into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
- Bake crust until golden in spots, about 15 minutes. With the bottom of a measuring cup, gently flatten bottom and sides of crust. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.
- Filling: Pulse cream cheese in food processor until smooth. Add sugar and pumpkin and process until smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl. Add egg and yolk, flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; process until incorporated.
- Pour filling into cooled shell and bake until custard is just set, about 33 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate until cold and firm, at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
I’m bringing this over to my friends at the Fiesta Friday Party co-hosted by Cooking with Aunt Juju and La Petite Casserole ! If you’re not familiar with this, it’s a virtual blogging party where a bunch of bloggers get together and share some amazing recipes. Check it out!
I love everything from cake to kale. Life is all about balance. I like to live, laugh and love to the fullest! Our time is too short not to enjoy ourselves.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! I love gingersnaps and never thought about making a crust out of them, perhaps I have been to busy shoving them in my face to think about it… This looks so yummy!
Thank you Debbie! So the trick is to buy a bag big enough where you can shove half in your face and use the other half for the crust 😉
Hi Sarah, love gingersnaps! I posted a cool recipe on TK for Eggnog Parfaits using crushed gingersnaps as part of the layers of parfait. Yum! I say yum to both…Happy Weekend to you! Cheryl
Wow, that sounds absoltely wonderful! I’ll have to check it out.
Happy Weekend to you too!
I love the entire dessert from the crust to the pumpkin (my favorite holiday pie) and adding a cream cheese twist to it. How can you not like it! The party goers will be fighting to get a piece of this. I made a bunch of pastry leaves to decorate my pies and of course always some whipping cream. Thanks for bringing this to Angie’s party 🙂
Thank you Judy! Those pastry leaves and whipped cream would go amazingly with this pie! I’ll have to do that next time 🙂
This tastes amazing! I am going to make it several times over the holidays to impress our guests! I have to make extra just so my husband and I can have enough for us too!!!
So happy to hear you like it and that it’s a staple for your holiday cooking 🙂 It never disappoints!
Love the cheesecake! I can only
imagine the aroma when you bake this beauty!
Thanks Su! It is the most delicious aroma ever!
Oh my goodness, love this and that gingersnap crust is perfect. Love this!
Thank you Suzanne 🙂
What a beautiful pie. I just love the thought of using gingersnaps with the pumpkin.
Thanks Julie! The Gingersnaps really make it!
I bet the taste must be amazing! Thanks for being at FF!
It really is!