Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake

Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake is the dessert you need for the Autumn and Winter holidays… or any time of year! We incorporated pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice with a slightly modified version of Vito’s Mom’s recipe for New York Style Cheesecake.

There are “must-do” parts in this recipe: 1) use a 9” or 10” springform pan, preferably with a non-stick coating, 2) use an electric hand mixer and 3) after baking, leave the Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake in the oven with the door propped open and the heat turned off for 1 hour to rest.

While many recipes call for using a bain marie or water bath when baking a cheesecake, it can be cumbersome.  For most home bakers, it is difficult to execute properly and if you get a leak between the springform pan and the bain marie, you have a soggy disaster on your hands.  While the water bath method is supposed to result in less cracking of the top crust, that has not been my experience.  That said, some light cracking in the cheesecake’s top crust adds character and traps some of our lovely Blueberry Bourbon Dessert Sauce. Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake is beautiful to serve and absolutely delicious to eat; it is well worth time required to make it.

For the crust: Prep Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 35 to 45 minutes.

For the cheesecake: Prep Time: 1-hour, Total Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes.

Yields One 9 or 10-inch cheesecake of 8 servings.

Support Cook and Eat at Home. Purchase a PDF of the Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake recipe for $1.00.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• 1 ½ cup Almond Flour
• ¼ cup Coconut Flour
• ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• ¼ tsp. fine Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 4 tbs. melted Unsalted Butter
• 1 large Egg, beaten

For the cheesecake:

• 3 8-ounce packages Cream Cheese, do not use low or no fat cream cheese
• 1 cup canned Pumpkin, not Pumpkin Pie Filling*
• 6 Eggs
• ¾ cup plus 2 Tbs Sugar or Stevia or Lakanto*
• 1 pint/16 oz/2 cups Sour Cream
• 2 Tb Corn Starch
• 1 Tb Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 2 Tb Vanilla Extract
• Finely grated zest of 1 Lemon (optional but strongly recommended)

Preparation:

Making the crust* (recommend doing this a day ahead of making the cheesecake):

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. In a large bowl, mix together the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, sea salt and pumpkin pie spice.
2. Add melted butter, mix with the dry ingredients lightly, then add the beaten egg and mix together to form the crust dough.
3. Using your hands, press the dough evenly into the bottom of a 9 or 10-inch springform pan, taking care to avoid thicker crust at the bend of the pan from the bottom to the sides; prick the dough with a fork to make holes into the crust.
4. Bake the crust to a light golden-brown, approximately 20 to 30 minutes depending upon the calibration of your oven; remove the crust from the oven place on a rack and allow to cool completely. Do not remove the crust from the springform pan.

Making the cheesecake:

1. Let cream cheese soften in its packaging at room temperature for an hour before using.
2. Remove the softened cream cheese from its packaging and place in a large mixing bowl along with the pumpkin. Zest one lemon and reserve, if using.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Reserve the egg whites separately.
4. Add the egg yolks to the softened cream cheese and pumpkin along with the sugar, Stevia or Lakanto, sour cream, corn starch, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract and optional lemon zest. Using an electric hand-mixer or stand mixer, mix until well-blended; the batter will not be entirely smooth.
5. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease the springform pan generously with the unsalted butter.
6. Add the egg whites to a separate bowl, preferably a copper one-ring bowl designed for beating egg whites (see picture). Beat egg whites, using an electric hand-mixer with the whisk attachment, until stiff peaks form.
7. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold half the whipped egg whites into the batter until lightly combined, then fold the remaining whipped egg whites into the batter taking care not to overly mix the batter.
8. Pour or spoon the batter into the springform pan slowly and give the pan a gentle shake to evenly settle batter in the pan.
9. Place the springform pan on a baking sheet and bake at 325 degrees F on a centered rack in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes at which time the cheesecake’s center will appear firm and the top a deep golden-brown color.
10. This step is mission critical! Turn off the oven, pop the oven door open a few inches, most ovens have a catch in the door mechanism to permit this, and let the cheesecake cool in-place for a minimum of 1 hour. Do not remove the cheesecake from the oven.  There will be some settling as the cheesecake cools which is normal.
11. Remove the Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake in the springform pan and baking sheet from the oven and set the baking sheet aside.  Place the springform pan on the counter and run a blunt-tipped knife around edge of the cheesecake to release it from the pan and allow it to continue to cool for at least 30 minutes.
12. Using the lever, release sides of the springform pan and use the blunt-tipped knife once again to release any spots of the cheesecake’s sides which may still be stuck to the pan. Remove the springform pan sides and allow the cheesecake to continue to cool completely.
13. This recipe will yield 8 servings; you can cut thinner slices but I don’t recommend it as they will likely fall apart when serving.  Serve the sliced Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake and a good strong cup of coffee. Enjoy!

*Notes:

• This recipe may yield a bit of extra batter; in that case, pour or spoon the extra batter in well-buttered mini-springform pans or ramekins and bake along with the full-size Pumpkin Pie NY Cheesecake.
• Use canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling; the latter is pre-seasoned and much too sweet.
• Stevia or Lakanto may be substituted for sugar on a 1-to-1 basis to reduce the carbohydrates.
• Preparing the crust can be done a day ahead of preparing the cheesecake; it is strongly recommended that you do so.