This month’s Taste Of Home magazine featured quite a few cheesecake recipes and they all looked amazing to me.  It made me wish that I liked cheesecakes!  I decided to try one of the recipes; maybe my tastes had changed since I last had cheesecake.  I chose the pumpkin cheesecake, because I love pumpkin.

Now, I’ve never made a cheesecake before, so I was entering new territory!  The process of putting it together was extremely easy.  I was looking forward to having a cheesecake that was as beautiful and yummy-looking as was in the picture in the magazine.

But, it ended up being not as pretty…

The graham cracker crust was soggy, for one.  Second, the topping was too brown.  It just didn’t have the mouth-watering look like the photo of the pumpkin cheesecake slice in the magazine!

The taste of the cheesecake though was to die for!  I loved it!  I couldn’t detect the taste of the cream cheese, although my mom said she could.  To me, it tasted like a pumpkin pie.  The brown sugar and chopped walnut crunchy topping was a great contrast in texture.

By the looks of the topping, it looks like I over-baked it.  The recipe said to bake until the center was set, but I realized I didn’t know what it would look like when the center was set because I’ve never made a cheesecake before!  It was still slightly wobbly in the center, but I didn’t want to bake it any longer because the topping looked over-done.

I will definitely be trying to make this cheesecake again.  For something different at Thanksgiving this year, I would highly recommend this recipe!

Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake
Adapted from Taste Of Home magazine, Oct/Nov 2009
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
5 eggs, lightly beaten

Topping:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts

Method

Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminum foil (about 18 in. square).  Securely wrap foil around pan.  In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in melted butter.  Press onto the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of prepared pan.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugars until smooth.  Beat in the pumpkin, cream, cinnamon and cloves until blended.  Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined.  Pour over crust.  Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 inch of hot water to larger pan.

Bake at 325F for 1 hour.  For topping, in a small bowl, combine butter and brown sugar.  Stir in walnuts.  Carefully sprinkle over hot cheesecake.  Bake 30 minutes longer or until center is just set.  Remove springform pan from water bath.  Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer.  Refrigerate overnight.