Pumpkin Cheesecake with Oreo Crust

 

What a delicious dessert!  I rarely make a 'big' or 'rich' dessert like this one, but we were having a potluck to close out our 8-week Beth Moore Ladies Bible study at church. So it was a great! excuse for me to make something out of the ordinary.  

I was so happy to find this recipe at allrecipes.com 

I decided to reduce the amount of sugar in the cheesecake, and added a little more to the sour cream topping.  But I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream for the topping.  IT.WAS.SCRUMPTIOUS!!! 

An impressive dessert when you need one.  And of course, making anything pumpkin this time of the year is OK by me! 

I grated some chocolate to top it off, along with candy pumpkins for a pretty presentation.  You could sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, crushed cookies, or some seasonal sprinkles.

IT'S ALL GOOD!

 

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE WITH OREO CRUST

18 oreo cookies, finely crushed 

2 Tb. butter or margarine, melted 

3 (8 ozs. each) pkg. cream cheese, softened

2/3 c. sugar

1 (15 ozs) can pumpkin puree

1 Tb. pumpkin pie spice

1 Tb. cornstarch

3 eggs

1 c. sour cream (or plain Greek Yogurt)

1/4 c. sugar 

grated chocolate, nuts or candies for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 350*. (If using a dark 9" nonstick springform pan, 

bake at 325*).

In medium bowl, combine cookie crumbs and 2 Tb. melted butter; press firmly onto bottom of pan; set aside.

In large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.  Add pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice & cornstarch; mix well.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed, just until blended. Pour over crust. 

Bake 50 - 55 minutes or until center is almost set; cool slightly.

(While cheesecake is baking, combine sour cream {or Greek Yogurt} along with 1/4 c. sugar; refrigerate until ready to use.) After removing from oven, carefully spread sour cream mixture over top of warm cheesecake.  Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan.