Thanksgiving Recipes
Turtle Pumpkin Cheesecake
Creamy, dreamy cheesecake made just for autumn. Delight your senses with a beautiful blend of chocolate, nuts, pumpkin and spices, crowned with caramel!
Prep: 20 min | Yield: 16 servings
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/2 cups thin chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (about 30 cookies)
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
- 4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 5 eggs
Topping
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
- 2 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup caramel topping
Instructions
- Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Wrap foil around outside of bottom and side of 9 inch springform pan to prevent drips. Spray bottom and 1 inch up side of pan with cooking spray.
Crust
- In a small bowl, mix cookie crumbs and melted butter.
- Press crumb mixture on bottom and 1 inch up side of pan.
- Bake crust for 8 to 10 minutes or until set.
- Cool at room temperature for 5 minutes.
- Refrigerate for about 5 minutes or until completely cooled.
Filling
- In another small bowl, mix flour, pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin; set aside.
- In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Gradually beat in brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth.
- On low speed, beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Gradually beat in pumpkin mixture until smooth.
- Pour filling over crust.
- Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 25 minutes or until edge of cheesecake is set but center still jiggles slightly when moved.
- Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake.
- Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches.
- Let cheesecake remain in oven for 30 minutes.
- Cool in pan on cooling rack for 30 minutes.
- Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight before serving.
Topping
- Just before serving, sprinkle pecans over top of cheesecake.
- In small microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate and oil uncovered on HIGH for 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds, stirring every 15 seconds, until melted.
- Drizzle chocolate over pecans.
- To serve, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake; carefully remove side of pan.
- Drizzle caramel topping over each serving.
- Store covered in refrigerator.
Notes
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft) Before preheating oven, place pan of water on oven rack below rack cheesecake will be baked on. In step 3, bake 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes. Do not run knife around edge of pan until after cheesecake has cooled for 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Per serving: Calories 510 (Calories from Fat 280), Total Fat 31g (Saturated Fat 17g (Trans Fat 1g), Cholesterol 140mg; Sodium 360mg; Total Carbohydrate 50g (Dietary Fiber 2g, Sugars 38g), Protein 8g
Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 100%; Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 10%; Iron 15%
Exchanges: 3 1/2 Other Carbohydrate; 1 High-Fat Meat; 4 1/2 Fat
Carbohydrate Choices: 3
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Attribution
Recipe and photo used with permission from:
Pillsbury