In case you haven’t noticed, it’s already November. I’m not saying this to be condescending; I almost didn’t notice it was November because, well, wasn’t it just August?

Yesterday I read a tweet from Kristen that echoed my sentiments about how quickly time moves. When you’re in a four-hour meeting, yes, time moves quite slowly. But in the grand scheme of things, life moves quickly. Sometimes changes happen before you’re ready for them and sometimes when they happen, you realize that they were in fact long overdue.

In this case, I’m glad that time is flying as quickly as it is because the fact that it’s November means that it’s almost time for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is like Christmas for most foodies. Not only do you get to spend most of the day in the kitchen baking, basting, stirring and chopping, but the day culminates with a group of people oohing and aahing over the meal.

Contrary to just about every other meal I eat during the year, at Thanksgiving, dessert is my least favorite part. If you pace yourself like me, you’ll be too full for dessert by the time the pumpkin pie rolls around.

Creamy and just rich enough, this cheesecake is an easy replacement for any pumpkin pie and its gingersnap crust is the perfect teaser for a holiday season filled with gingerbread men and sugar cookies.

Creamy Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Ingredients:

For the crust:

3/4 cups ginger snap cookies crumbs (from about 25 gingersnaps, ground in food processor)

1/8 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

2 packages (8 ounces each) reduced-fat bar cream cheese, very soft

3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree

1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in center. Lightly butter a 9″ glass pie pan.

2. Make the crust: In a medium bowl, mix cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter until moistened; press firmly into bottom of pan. Bake 10 to 12 minutes.

3. Make the filling: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on low speed until smooth; mix in flour. Add pumpkin puree, pie spice, vanilla, and salt; mix just until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing until each is incorporated before adding the next.

4. Pour filling into pie pan, and gently smooth top. Transfer to oven; reduce oven heat to 300 degrees. Bake 45 minutes. Turn off oven; let cheesecake stay in oven 2

5. Remove from oven; cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate until firm, at least 4 hours or overnight.

If you like pumpkin, you might also enjoy Pumpkin Penne, Spiced Pumpkin Butter or Pumpkin Bread.

Did you notice that I’ve been posting more frequently than usual this week? In celebration of National Novel Writing Month, some bloggers choose to commemorate November with NaBloPoMo,
or National Blog Posting Month. I’ve challenged myself to post daily
this month and hope that you’ll challenge yourselves to read them all!