Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake

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We had this last weekend for Canadian Thanksgiving. In fact, I've made this cheesecake for Thanksgiving and Christmas, for the last 3 years, and it is always delicious!

1 1/2 cups finely crushed graham crackers                    

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted                    

3x  8 ounce packages of cream cheese, softened                    

1 cup canned pumpkin  

(I usually make pumpkin pie also, and one of those large cans of pumpkin is enough for both the pie and the cheesecake)
2/3 cup packed brown sugar                  

1/4 cup pure maple syrup or maple-flavored syrup                    

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs, slightly beaten

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. For crust, in a medium bowl, combine finely crushed graham crackers, granulated sugar, and the melted butter. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom and about 1 inch up the side of an ungreased 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

 

For filling, in a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, the cream cheese, pumpkin, the 1/4 cup maple syrup, and the vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined.

 

Gently pour filling into crust-lined pan. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan. Bake for 60 - 70 minutes* or until center appears nearly set when gently shaken.

 

Cool in springform pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Using a small thin knife, loosen crust from side of springform pan. Cool for 30 minutes more. Remove side of springform pan; cool for 1 hour. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

*My brother-in-law taught me this: If you want to avoid having cracks in the cheesecake, you need to cool it as slowly and gradually as possible. To do this is a bit of an experiment with your oven. You will have to turn it off earlier, for me it's about 15 minutes (so 45min cooking time total) and then you leave the cheesecake in the oven to cool to room temp. The reason you turn it off early is that it will continue cooking because the oven is still hot. After another 45 minutes, I take it out and leave it on a wire rack to cool some more before refrigerating. Sometimes I leave the oven open a crack so it is not such a drastic change in temperature. Even if you do all of this, there are no guarantees, sometimes it still cracks. Other people swear by cooking cheesecake in a water bath for better results. For this particular cheesecake, I like this method better.


Makes 10 servings. I garnished with whipped cream and cinnamon but another option would be a fresh caramel sauce.