Pumpkin Cheesecake

I think my favorite season is fall for two reasons.
1. The beautiful weather.
2. Pumpkin flavored food and drinks.

I have tried layered pumpkin cheesecake and just regular mixed pumpkin cheesecake, but I wanted to try a new recipe this time. I decided to try Paula Deen's recipe.

Ingredients:

• Crust
• 1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tbsps. light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 stick melted butter
• Filling
• 3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, at  room temperature
• 1 (15 ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus  egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/8 fresh nutmeg (I subs. with an equal amount of cloves)
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 2 tbsps. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

A few things about the ingredients:

• They now sell graham cracker crumbs (not crusts!) crumbs at the grocery store. I highly recommend them. They are good for 3 nine inch pies. You can also add stuff to the crust to add some flavoring. 
• The more at room temperature the cream cheese is, the easier it is to work with.

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix all dry crust ingredients. Then add melted butter. Press down flat in pan. I used a 9-inch springform pan. 
3. Beat cream cheese until it is smooth.
4. Add remaining ingredients, in order of list above.
5. Beat until smooth.
6. Pour into pan.
7. Bake for 1 hour.

So, I am still getting used to my new oven at home. The cheesecake did not crack the whole baking time! I made the mistake of opening the oven too early and it cracked.  :-(

The trick to cheesecakes is to allow them to cool very slowly. I didn't do this, this time, but next time I would suggest

1. After baking for 1 hour, turn off oven and leave cheesecake in until the oven temperature completely cools back to normal.
2. Remove cheesecake and allow it to cool.
3. Place in fridge :-)

Enjoy!