Best Pumpkin Cheesecake

Best Pumpkin Cheesecake Crust:

3 cups biscotti crumbs

1 cup ground pecans

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. On bottom rack of the oven, place a pan filled halfway with water.

Combine the cookie crumbs, pecans and cinnamon. Add the melted butter until everything is combined. Press the mixture firmly into bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Set aside.

Filling:

3 (8 ounce) packages of cream cheese, softened

1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk

3 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

With electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese until creamy. Add the condensed milk, orange zest, lemon juice and vanilla remaining ingredients and continue beating until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and blend well after each addition.Pour on top of crust.

Pumpkin layer:

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

A pinch of ground cloves

Juice of 1 orange

Combine all of the ingredients and beat until creamy and well blended. Pour over the cream cheese layer and then draw a knife through the two layers to swirl.

Increase the temperature to 350 degrees and bake cheesecake at 350 degrees for about 55 minutes or until it is almost set.

Allow cake to remain in the oven with it turned off and the door slightly open for about 15 more minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and loosen cake from the edges of the pan with a sharp knife but don't remove the rim. Allow it to cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for several hours.

Remove rim of pan before serving.

Serves 12. Best Pumpkin Cheesecake-->Best Cheesecake Recipes