theArtisticFarmer: Sour Cream Pumpkin Cheesecake

This is a fantastic holiday dessert! It needs to be made ahead and travels well; so try it for your next family get together!

I liked the idea of the unique sour cream topping; I thought it would be a twist on a basic pumpkin cheesecake...it was great!

I made it for Thanksgiving at my sister's house and it was said "its better than pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving"! We have decided it is definitely a keeper! And it takes a little time but its really pretty easy to make!

I found the recipe from Taste of Home.

Ingredients for Crust:

-1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs {single bag of crackers from box = 1 1/2 cups}

-1/4 cup sugar

-1/3 cup butter, melted

Ingredients for Filling:

-3 (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

-1 cup brown sugar

-15 oz. can pumpkin

-5 oz. evaporated milk

-2 tbsp corn starch

-2 eggs

-1 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg {I realized while making this that I only had about 1/4 tsp nutmeg left; so I used used 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground ginger plus 1/2 tsp mace... it worked out great!}

Ingredients for Topping:

-2 cups (16 oz.) sour cream

-1/3 cup sugar

-1 tsp vanilla extract

-additional cinnamon, optional

Tip for making graham cracker crumbs:

1.Coarsely crunch crackers in the bag they are packaged in.

2. Pour the coarse crumbs into a gallon sized ziplock bag, seal bag only about 3/4 way across {to let some of the air out}.

3. Roll over crumbs with rolling pin. {Just don't roll them out of the opening on the top.}

Process:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine cracker crumbs and sugar in a small bowl.

3. Add melted butter.

4. Stir to coat crumbs evenly.

5. Lightly grease/spray a 9 inch {10 inch} spring-form pan; I think next time {and there will be a next time!} I'll do it in a 10 inch spring-form, because the 9 inch got VERY full!

6. Pour the crumbs into the bottom of prepared pan.

7. Press crumbs into the bottom and about 1 1/2 inch up the sides of pan.

8. Bake crust for 5-7 minutes until lightly golden.

9. Meanwhile make filling.

10. Beat cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth.

11. Add pumpkin.

12. Add evaporated milk, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg (or nutmeg, ginger and mace).

13. Beat until smooth.

14. Beat in eggs.

15. Pour filling into baked crust.

16. Place spring-form pan on a baking sheet and bake for 60-80 minutes, until almost set in the center.

17. When filling is almost finished, combine the topping ingredients.

18. Beat well until smooth.

19. Remove cheesecake from oven. {I think mine cracked because I opened the oven to take the steamy picture above and let out all of the steam; oh well it still looked great and tasted fantastic!}

20. Pour the sour cream mixture over the baked filling, spread out evenly. {You can see its extremely full!}

21. Carefully, return to 350 degree oven and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes.

22. Remove from oven.

23. Carefully move the spring-form pan to a wire rack, and cool 10 minutes.

24. After cooling for 10 minutes, carefully run a knife around the edge of pan to loosen. Let cool 1 hour longer.

25. Chill in refrigerator overnight. {Mine was chilled for about 24 hours before serving; and it traveled really well in the spring-form pan.}

26. Remove the sides of the pan and let cheesecake stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before slicing.
27. I also moved the cheesecake to a serving dish; just so it looks nice! It actually moved from the spring-form base to the serving dish fairly easy with a large spatula.