If you are a cheesecake fan then you will fall in love with this delicious creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake. A lightly spice pumpkin crust and a dreamy cheesecake filling.
Preheat the oven to 325°F. In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, pumpkin spice, brown sugar, and salt until well combined. Press into the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and set aside.
In a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cream cheese and whip until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar, flour, and vanilla. Whip until combined.
Take 1/3 of the mixture and add it to a small bowl, set aside.
Add the pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice into the first bowl, and whip until combined. Pour half of this mixture over the graham cracker crumbs, smooth evenly.
Add 3/4 of the vanilla cheesecake mixture on top, and smooth out evenly.
Add the remaining pumpkin cheesecake mixture on top of the vanilla, smooth out evenly, be careful and make sure to cover up all the vanilla mixture.
Using a teaspoon and the remaining vanilla cheesecake, make small dollops all over the top.
Take a toothpick and swirl through the dollops to make a pretty pattern.
Wrap the outside of the springform pan in a double layer of foil and then place it in a roasting pan with 1-2 inches of hot water.
Bake for 45-55 minutes until the center is just slightly jiggly. Once done baking, turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside the water bath with the door closed for 40-60 minutes.
Then remove it from the water bath and let it finish cooling on the counter completely before transferring it to the fridge to set for 8 hours or overnight.
Slice and serve with the cinnamon whipped cream, or topping of your choice.
Notes
*Or two sleeves graham crackers made into crumbs in a food processor.**Adding the pattern on top is optional. If you do not wish to do this, just layer the different colors, add all of the vanilla mixture to the middle layer.
The whipped cream is not included in the nutritional value.
I highly encourage you too add pumpkin pie spice to the crust, it really gives this cheesecake a little more pumpkin power!
Make sure that you cool your cheesecake on the counter, this helps prevent cracking before you place it in the refrigerator to cool completely
This does need a full 8 hours to set up, do not skimp on that, its hard to wait but it's worth the wait!
You can swap vanilla bean paste 1:1 with vanilla extract in this recipe.
Make sure you use pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, it's easy to get them mixed up!
My trick for cutting the perfect slice of cheesecake is to run a sharp knife under warm water, wiping it off and cutting, perfect slice every time!
You can use regular graham crackers for this or the pre-packaged crumbs.
Make sure you do not skip the water bath, this is essential!