This week, I'm chronicling my quest for recipes to make with pureed pumpkin besides pumpkin pie.
Why is pumpkin pie so popular in the autumn? Because it tastes so good!
Pumpkin itself doesn't have much flavor, but the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger give it a spicy taste mixed with the sweet of the sugar. The creamy smoothness of the pie filling contrasts with the crisp crust. Adding whipped topping lightens the heavy pumpkin texture.
This easy no-bake cheesecake filling combines that light and heavy together. The creamy taste of the cream cheese blends with the pumpkin and spices. Although you can buy a pre-made graham cracker shell, try out the ginger snap crust recipe. It adds a bit more crunch with the spicy flavor of ginger to compliment the no-bake cheesecake.
First, I heated 1/2 of the pumpkin with all the spices. The heat releases their flavor.
As it was cooling, I made the crust. I put the ginger snaps in my Vita-Mix,
and it ground the cookies perfectly for the crust.
A good food processor would probably work, too.
I combined butter with the ground ginger snaps.
I used my antique pumpkin pie plate.
After I had it pressed in the pie plate, I baked it for 6 minutes.
Then, it was time to move on to the filling. I put the remaining pumpkin puree
and the cooled puree with spices in my Kitchen Aid.
I added the softened cream cheese and the sugar and turned it on...
After a few minutes, it was perfect.
Ready for the fridge!
EASY NO-BAKE PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE
Ingredients:
*1 can pureed pumpkin
*1/8 tsp. each of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger
*2 pkg. reduced fat cream cheese
*1/2 c. sugar
Directions:
1. Heat 1/2 of pumpkin and spices in the microwave for 1 min. Allow to cool for 5 min.
2. Add pumpkin and spices, cream cheese, sugar, and remaining pumpkin in high speed mixer. Mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined.
3. Pour mixture into prepared ginger snap crust (below). Refrigerate for 4 hours.
GINGERSNAP CRUST
Ingredients:
*1 1/2 cups ground ginger snaps
*1/3 cup butter, melted
Directions:
1. In a small bowl, combine the crumbs and butter and blend well.
2. Press onto the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9-in. pie plate. 3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before filling, or bake at 350F for 6 minutes.
4. Cool on a wire rack before filling.
- How did it turn out?
- Did you use the ginger snap crust or did you use a graham cracker crust?
- Do you usually use whipped topping, whipped cream, or eat pumpkin pie plain?
