Pumpkin Cheesecake

I've been wanting to make a pumpkin cheesecake since last year, but for any different reasons, I couldn't, so finally, I made it. It was so delicious, definitely a keeper. I had many many recipes for this cheesecake, and wanted to try them all, but finally, I decided that the first test would go to Jamie's recipe, althought I ended up changing it a little bit. And it was a great adventure, the oven caught on fire! Anyways, read more about this later in the post..... 

I used:

• 2.5 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar (crust)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar (cheesecake)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 15oz can pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of spring-form pan with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, sugar (crust) and cinnamon. Press onto bottom of pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat cream cheese, sugar (cheesecake) and brown sugar until fluffy. 

About 3 minutes...

Add in eggs, pumpkin puree and heavy cream, mix until fully incorporated; scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Do not over beat. This will take around 2 to 3 minutes. Add in vanilla and pumpkin pie spice and mix until well combined. Around 30 seconds.

Pour batter into prepared crust. Bake 50 minutes: edges will appear to be set, and center will be jiggly. 

15 minutes after starting baking, because I didn't lined the pan with aluminium foil (silly me!), it started dripping something in the bottom of the oven, so this "oily stuff" caught fire and I had to turn the heat off, wait for the fire to consume and clean the oven (remove the cheesecake from the oven!) and start over again. I don't think it affected the cheesecake that much. It just broke a little bit on the top, but that may have been because I overbeat the cheesecake mix or of the sudden change in temperature.

Now, turn the oven off and let the cheesecake cool for 1 hour inside the oven.

Carefully remove the cheesecake from the spring-form pan and place on cooling rack to cool completely. Place it into the refrigerator overnight. Have a slice and enjoy! You can top it with whipped cream!

Or you can eat it like that.