Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Edit: Kate at Gluten Free Gobsmacked is hosting a Gluten-Free Holiday Baking Event. This is a way to collect everyone’s favorite holiday recipes in one place for easy reference. She is dividing the “holidays” up into Thanksgiving; Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa; then New Year’s. Click the link above for full details.

I’m retroactively adding this recipe to the Thanksgiving collection.

The sense of smell is our one sense most closely tied to memory. And because our sense of taste and sense of smell are so entwined, tastes often invoke strong memories as well. A few years ago, I was at this great little restaurant here in town where the chef, Derek, made his own ice cream. We ordered the “chef tasting menu”, so we were at his mercy for the whole meal (it was fabulous, by the way!) One of the ice creams I was served was a rosemary ice cream drizzled with an aged balsamic vinegar. After eyeing suspiciously for a moment, I took a small taste, and was immediately reminded of Christmas as a child. I’ve had that ice cream several times since, and that is what I think of every time. It’s a wonderful combination of the faintest touch of vanilla with the fairly bold rosemary flavor. The reason I’m reminded of Christmas is because growing up, we always had a miniature Christmas tree that was actually a rosemary bush, on a cabinet at the end of the hall. It even got decorated with mini ornaments and lights.

So what does this have to do with pumpkin cheesecake? Not much. Except that the spices that go in this–the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves–are the essence of autumn. Growing up, I never did like pumpkin pie, and certainly never had pumpkin cheesecake, but these are the same spices that find their way into my Mom’s apple crisp or my sister’s amazing apple pie. And even though the days are getting shorter, I love the crispness that’s the in the fall air. After a long, hot and humid summer, the cold air feels so good against my face in the morning. This had to be one of my favorite times of the year.

But without further ado, here is my cheesecake recipe. I made this for a Halloween party that I went to over the weekend. I was excited to find this recipe because it called for a ginger snap crust, and I know just where to get those! (Mi-Del makes great ginger snaps, and they seem to be in most stores.)

PUMPKIN SWIRL CHEESECAKE

25 Ginger Snaps, finely crushed (about 1-1/2 cups) (Mi-Del brand is good)
1/2 cup finely chopped Pecans
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar, divided
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
dash ground cloves

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Mix ginger snap crumbs, pecans and butter; press firmly onto bottom and 1 inch up side of 9-inch spring-form pan. (Use blender or food processor to finely chop cookies and nuts.)

Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup of the sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended.

Remove 1-1/2 cups of the batter; place in small bowl. Stir remaining 1/4 cup sugar, the pumpkin and spices into remaining batter.

Spoon half of the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half of the reserved plain batter. Repeat layers. Cut through batters with knife several times for marble effect.

Bake 55 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Cut into 16 slices. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

ENJOY!