Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

· Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
For crust:
In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a greased 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.
For filling:
Beat cream cheese until smooth. It’s very important that the cream cheese is at room temperature and that you beat it well before adding ingredients or it won’t mix in well with the other ingredients. Add pumpkin purée, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl and make sure the cream cheese is well incorporated, beat again. Add eggs and egg yolk last. Do not overbeat the batter once the eggs are in.

Pour filling into crust. Spread out evenly and place in oven for 50-55 minutes. The center of the cheesecake will jiggle, the cake will set up once it’s cooled and refrigerated. Turn oven off and let cheesecake stay in oven with oven door open for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes on the counter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Top with fresh whipped cream. Whip up 1 cup of heavy cream then add 2-3 tablespoons of sugar.

**TIPS**

The first time I made this cheesecake, it cracked right down the middle of the cheesecake. Overcooking a cheesecake can result in large deep cracks, it is very common to have little cracks in your cheesecake. There are lots of different tips that can prevent cracking in cheesecake.

#1 Add your eggs very last to your batter. Overbeating eggs are the ingredient that will hold the air. So beat everything else together well then add the eggs last and beat until combined, no more.

#2 Don't over-cook your cake more then 1 hour. Don’t be afraid to take it out of the oven when it jiggles.. The cheesecake will set when cooled.

#3 Cooling the cheesecake. Basically cheesecake is very susceptible to quick changes in temperature. If the cake contracts too quickly when cooking, it will crack. There are a couple of different ways to cool your cake, A good way to do this is to leave the oven door open and let it sit for a good 30 minutes or more once it is done, with the oven off. Other methods include removing it from the oven and covering the top with a plate to have it gently cool, with the benefit of some moisture trapped by the surface of the cake, or just cooling it on top of the oven where it is still warm. The bottom line is to cool the cheesecake slowly before you stick it in the fridge.

With all of this info, there is still the possibility that you will get a crack. It’s not the end of the world. Just start your first slice on the crack and add some topping. No one will ever know!