PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

I love pumpkin pie for the holidays, but being lactose intolerant means that I have to take the time to make homemade lactose-free sweet and condensed milk. To keep the work to a minimum this time, I looked up a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake and found a simple and quick recipe for pumpkin cheesecake by Nigella. Just a few tweaks and the use of lactose-free cream cheese, and it was ready! I added my own homemade pumpkin spice and made a gingersnap crust out of Ana’s Ginger Thins.

And what’s a pumpkin dessert without whip cream?! For the whipped cream, I added a dash of the pumpkin spice to continue that pumpkin pie flavor. Although it is a surprisingly light dessert, it is rich and you’ll want to cut the cheesecake into 16 pieces.

Print

Pumpkin Spice

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

Print

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust

• 250 grams gingersnaps
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 125 grams melted butter

Filling

• 1 425g can pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
• 750 grams cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin spice
• 200 grams caster sugar known as berry sugar
• 6 large eggs
• juice of ½ lemon

Instructions

• Blitz the gingersnaps and pumpkin spice in a food processor until they are almost fine crumbs, and then add the melted butter.
• Process again until the crumb mixture starts to clump together like damp sand.
• Press the mix into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan.
• Put the pan in the fridge while you make the filling.
• Preheat the oven to 325°F.
• Put the pumpkin purée and cream cheese into a food processor and mix until the cheese blends into the pumpkin.
• Add the sugar and spices and with the motor running, add the eggs one at a time down the tube of the processor.
• Scrape down and process again, adding the lemon juice and blitzing to make a smooth mixture.
• Wrap the outside of the biscuit-lined springform tin with a few layers of clingfilm. Set on a large piece of double-layered strong foil and bring it up around the edges of the springform pan.
• Sit the foil-covered springform tin in a roasting pan.
• Scrape the cheesecake filling into the pan and then pour recently boiled water into the roasting pan to a level approximately halfway up the cake tin.
• Bake for about 1 ¾ hours, or until the filling has set with only a small amount of wobble left at its centre. It is worth remembering that it will continue to cook as it cools down.
• Take the tin out of the water bath and sit it on a cooling rack, removing the foil as you do so.
• When it is cool enough, put the cheesecake in the refrigerator overnight, before unspringing it from the tin to slice.

Notes

This makes for a rich, yet light, dessert. Recommended serving would be to cut the cheesecake into 16 pieces.