Get ready to WOW your guests with this easy and beautiful pumpkin cheesecake! I’ve been making this special cheesecake for Thanksgiving for the last couple of years, and I’m ready to bring the finished recipe to the world! Perfect for a harvest party, autumn birthday, Thanksgiving table, or even Christmas dinner. This beautiful cheesecake will be the talk of the party.
It looks fancy but is quite easy to make! The crust is the more time-consuming part, but it is worth the effort and tastes like yummy gingerbread.
This recipe is perfect to make a day or two ahead and then decorate right before serving. You don’t have to have any special cake decorating skills or supplies for this, just 4-5 simple ingredients for a naturally beautiful look.
Are you ready to bake up some yummy cheesecake?! Let’s get started
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Tools you will need for making the cheesecake
a stand mixer with paddle attachment
A rubber spatula
Ingredients for Making Pumpkin Cheesecake
Crust Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar or coconut sugar
6 tbsp cold butter, straight from the refrigerator (I’ve used both salted and unsalted)
1 tbsp blackstrap molasses (regular molasses works as well)
1.5 tsp ground ginger
1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
Cheesecake Filling Ingredients:
3 packages cream cheese, completely softened to room temperature
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
How to make the gingerbread crust:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and ginger. Next, grate in the cold butter. With your fingers, work the dough until it forms large crumbs. Add in the egg yolk and blackstrap molasses and work it into the dough.
Continue mixing the crust ingredients until it comes together to form a ball.
Take 1/3 of the dough (sometimes I need a tad more than that) and press it evenly across the bottom of a springform cheesecake pan. Take your time and get it nice and even. Place the pan into the 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven and bake for 6 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
Instructions for preparing the cheesecake filling:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the softened cream cheeses.
With the paddle attachment, whip the cream cheese on medium speed until creamy, pausing a few times to scrape down the sides with a spatula.
In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt and stir.
Add the sugar mix to the whipped cream cheese and beat on medium speed until combined.
Next, add the eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla and mix on medium speed for a couple more minutes until evenly combined. Be careful not to overmix once the eggs are in.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix just until evenly combined.
I like to take off my paddle attachment and use it to do one last scrape and stir on the bottom of the mixer bowl to make sure that there are no streaks of cream cheese.
Set your bowl of filling aside for a few minutes while you finish the crust.
Take the cooled bottom crust and carefully attach the sides of the springform pan to the bottom.
Using the remaining 2/3 of the crust dough, roll it into narrow logs and place them evenly around the sides of the pan, then begin pressing the dough evenly up the sides of the pan.
Continue pressing the dough up the side of the pan evenly all around until it is about 1.5-1.75 inches up the side.
Take your time on this, the crust is the hardest part of this recipe. If you do it carefully, it will look so nice when it is done.
When you’re done it should look like this: a baked bottom crust with uncooked sides pressed nicely all around.
Finally, pour your cheesecake batter into the pan, scraping the remaining batter out of the bottom of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula.
Place the cheesecake in a 250 degrees Fahrenheit oven and bake for 1.5 hours.
After it has baked for 1.5 hours, turn off the oven and open the oven door partway, but leave the cheesecake in there for another 30-45 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the oven, and with a very thin knife or rubber spatula (my food processor came with a super thin one that I like to use for this purpose), gently slide it around the outside of the crust to separate it from the side of the pan.
Allow the cheesecake to cool completely on a wire rack.
Cover the cheesecake with saran wrap and place it the refrigerator. Allow it to refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving, or you can make it a day or two in advance. Right before you serve, again gently slide a knife between the crust and the side of the pan, and then carefully remove the sides of the springform pan.
Decorate your Pumpkin Cheesecake
This is my favorite part! For my decorations I used 4 ingredients:
Fresh cranberries, some whole and some cut in half
Whole star anise I love the smell of anise so much!!
Pecans, some of the halves kept whole and some finely chopped
Mint leaves (small sage leaves would work as well)
Arrange these garnishes around the edges of the crust. I start with placing the star anise and pecan halves, then adding cranberries here and there and some mint leaves, and finally a sprinkling of finely chopped pecans circling a little closer to the center.
Stand back and admire your work!
Tips for success
-Baking the cheesecake low and long is essential to keeping it from cracking down the middle, which is a common issue with cheesecakes
-Do not overbeat cheesecake batter, because whipping the eggs can increase the risk of cracking during baking
-The crust takes a bit of practice, take your time and you’ll get the hang of it after a couple times.
How to Store and freeze cheesecake
Leftover cheesecake can be refrigerated for about 4 days, but it is best to remove the nuts and toppings first, as they will begin to get soggy.
Leftover cheesecake can be frozen for later use. It is best to freeze slices individually. Place slices on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and freeze for a couple of hours. Remove and wrap each slice individually in saran wrap, then place them in a freezer ziplock and store for up to 6 months.
Did you try this easy and beautiful pumpkin cheesecake? If you made this recipe and enjoyed it, I would love it if you came back and gave it 5 stars!
Tag me on IG or Facebook @makeityourselfmama
Easy and Beautiful Pumpkin Cheesecake
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- springform cheesecake pan
- large bowl
- small bowls
- rubber spatula
Ingredients
Crust Ingredients
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp cold butter straight from the refrigerator
- 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten
- 1 tbsp blackstrap molasses (regular molasses works as well)
- 1.5 tsp ground ginger
Cheesecake Filling Ingredients
- 3 8 oz packages cream cheese softened to room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup pumpken puree
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Ingredients for Decorating
- whole star anise
- mint leaves
- fresh cranberries
- pecans
Instructions
How to make the crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and ginger and stir.
- Next, grate in the cold butter. With your fingers, work the dough until it forms large crumbs.
- Add in the egg yolk and blackstrap molasses and work it into the dough.
- Continue mixing the crust ingredients until it all comes together to form a ball.
- Take 1/3 of the dough (sometimes I need a tad more than that) and press it evenly across the bottom of a springform cheesecake pan. Take your time and get it nice and even.
- Place the pan into the 350 degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for 6 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
How to make the cheesecake filling:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, place the softened cream cheeses.
- With the paddle attachment, whip the cream cheese on medium speed until creamy, pausing a few times to scrape down the sides with a spatula.
- Combine the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a small bowl.
- Beat the sugar mix into the cream cheese on medium speed until combined.
- Next, add the eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla to the mixer bowl. Mix on medium speed for a couple more minutes until evenly combined. Be careful not to overwhip once the eggs are in.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed and mix just until evenly combined. I like to take off my paddle attachment and use it to do one last scrape and stir on the bottom of the bowl to be sure that there are no streaks of cream cheese.
- Set your bowl of filling aside for a few minutes while you finish the crust.
How to finish the crust and pour in the filling:
- Take the cooled bottom crust and carefully attach the sides of the springform pan to the bottom.
- Using the remaining 2/3 of the crust dough, roll it into narrow logs and place them evenly around the sides of the pan, then begin pressing the dough evenly up the sides of the pan.
- Continue pressing the dough up the side of the pan evenly all around until it is about 1.5-1.75 inches up the side.
- Finally, pour your cheesecake batter into the pan, scraping the remaining batter out of the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Place the cheesecake in a 250 degree Fahrenheit oven and bake for 1.5 hours.
- After it has baked for 1.5 hours, turn off the oven and open the oven door partway, but leave the cheesecake in there for another 30-45 minutes.
- Remove the cheesecake from the oven, and with a very thin knife or rubber spatula (my food processor came with a super thin one that I like to use for this purpose), gently slide it around the outside of the crust to separate it from the side of the pan.
- Allow the cheesecake to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Cover the cheesecake with saran wrap and place it the refrigerator.
- Allow it to refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving, or you can make it a day or two in advance. Right before you serve, gently slide a knife again between the crust and the side of the pan, and then carefully remove the sides of the springform pan.
How to decorate the cheesecake
- Arrange the fresh cranberries (some half and some whole), pecan halves, whole star anise, mint leaves, and finely chopped pecans around the edges of the cheesecake.
Serve and enjoy!
