Pumpkin cheesecake

Here is one of those wonderful pumpkin recipes I alluded to earlier. This is what Jon requested for his birthday cake. By making it entirely from scratch and using all low fat and organic ingredients (including whole wheat organic graham crackers, who knew such a thing existed?) it became a relatively healthy version (note the key word, relatively, of course) of this special dessert.

Pumpkin cheesecake

Ingredients:
Crust:
  ● 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
  ● 3 tbsp. light brown sugar
  ● 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  ● 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:
  ● 3 (8-ounce) packages low fat cream cheese, at room temperature
  ● 1 15-ounce can pureed pumpkin (I used ~1.5 cups homemade pumpkin puree)
  ● 3 eggs
  ● 1/4 cup sour cream
  ● 1 1/2 cups sugar
  ● 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
  ● 1/8 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
  ● 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
  ● 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
  ● 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make crust, in a medium bowl combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.
Pour into crust and spread out evenly. Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes. Cake is done when it seems pretty set, but still has a little jiggle to the center.
Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Remove outer and transfer to serving plate when ready to serve. This is great with homemade organic whipped cream (or, we even found organic whipped cream in a spray bottle today, if that's the way you like it!)