recipe review: pumpkin cheesecake

Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Cheesecake
Review: Easy and delicious! Not too rich, not too light. Could have used a touch more pumpkin, but otherwise fantastic!

In my opinion, you can never have too much pumpkin during the cooler months. Fall and winter make me crave warm, spicy, rich foods, and pumpkin almost always satisfies those cravings for me. My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year was pumpkin cheesecake, which we substituted for pie. This recipe is incredibly easy...no water baths or even the stand mixer. All you need are a few bowls, measuring cups/spoons, and a hand mixer.

A word of advice. Go for the full-fat cream cheese, not skim or fat-free. Trust me on this. I substituted baking splenda for sugar, which I think was a mistake. Next time I'll just stick with sugar (maybe turbinado instead of refined). It's cheesecake...it's meant to be indulgent!

Crust Ingredients:
* 1 1/4 cups graham-cracker crumbs from 10 whole crackers [We bashed them in a ziploc bag.]
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 4 T. unsalted butter, melted

Filling Ingredients:
* 4 packages (boxes) cream cheese, softened [Leave packages out for a few hours.]
* 1 1/4 cups sugar
* 3 T. all-purpose flour [I used whole-wheat pastry flour.]
* 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
* 2 T. pumpkin pie spice
* 1 T. vanilla extract
* 1/2 t. salt
* 4 large eggs, room temperature

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center.
2) For the crust: Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter. Press firmly into the bottom of a 9-inch nonstick springform pan. Bake until golden around edges for 10-12 minutes.
3) For the filling: Using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together on low speed until smooth. Mix in flour (do not overmix). Add pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and salt. Mix until just smooth. Slowly add eggs one at a time.
4) Place springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour filling into pan. [I gently rotated and wiggled the pan to get the air bubbles out and help the filling settle.] Reduce oven heat to 300 degrees, and place pan in oven. Bake 45 minutes. Turn off oven after this time and let cheesecake sit in oven for 2 additional hours (do not open oven during this time!)
5) Remove pan from oven, cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least 4 hours). Unmold just before serving. [I ran a sharp knife around the edge of the cake before undoing the sides of the springform pan.]