Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie

I'm going to start posting the Thanksgiving recipes. I hope to post a couple a day, but no guarantees.  My favorite new recipe this year was the Pumpkin Ginger Cheesecake Pie.  It was a little challenging because I had to make the crust myself and I've never made cheesecake.

It turned out pretty well though, no?  To be fair, I made some mistakes in this recipe - I'll be sure to tell you what I did wrong so you don't mess up. I very much look forward to trying it again.  The first thing to do is to make the crust - if you're under a time crunch, you can use a pre-made crust but this gingersnap crust is definitely worth the time.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Stir together all ingredients in a bowl and press evenly on bottom and up side of 9 to 9 1/2 inch pie plate.

The recipe recommends buttering the pie plate but the mixture already had sufficient amount of butter.  The crust will bubble if there's too much butter. Bake until crisp, 12 to 15 minutes, then cool on a rack to room temperature, about 45 minutes.

While the crust is cooling, start working on the filling.

Ingredients


3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (I couldn't find any so I tried to make my own. Sliced ginger, boiled it with sugar then dried it in the oven)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (Libby's did the trick)



Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Pulse sugar and ginger in a food processor until ginger is finely chopped, then add cream cheese and pulse until smooth. Add eggs, milk, flour, nutmeg, and salt and pulse until just combined.

Reserve 2/3 cup cream cheese mixture in a glass measure. Whisk together remaining 1 1/3 cups cream cheese mixture and pumpkin in a large bowl until combined.

Pour pumpkin mixture into gingersnap crumb crust.

Stir reserved cream cheese mixture (in glass measure) and drizzle decoratively over top of pumpkin mixture, then swirl with back of a spoon.

I made the mistake of not pouring all of the reserve because it looked like it was going to over flow.  Big mistake - the cake ended up cracking while it was cooling.  When I make it again I'll be sure to use all of the cream cheese mixture.  Put pie on a baking sheet and bake until center is just set, 35 to 45 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, then refrigerate, loosely covered with foil, at least 4 hours.

The cake turned out really well (even with the crack) but it was the crust that made it spectacular.  I will definitely be trying this recipe again.

Hungry yet?