It has become a holiday tradition of mine to make a cheesecake for dessert at Christmas dinner. This tradition started out with this very first pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust I made when I discovered pumpkins randomly growing in my backyard one day.

Ever since then, I make a cheesecake for Christmas dessert as an alternative to the usual fruit cake traditionally made by Jamaicans since I am not fruitcake’s biggest fan. I’ve also added cookies to the lineup because clearly being overworked on Christmas morning is something I look forward to.

Jamaican pumpkins — Two random pumpkins reaped from my backyard

I found these two pumpkins growing in my backyard and asked my followers for some recipes because for a small family, that’s a lot of pumpkins! My sis Kimberley suggested pumpkin cheesecake which threw me (and everybody else on the thread) for a loop. Most of us hadn’t thought of a pumpkin cheesecake before.

The more I thought about it, the more I decided that pumpkin-flavoured cheesecake might not be so bad. I was still a little hesitant as I’ve been doing so well with my green smoothie diet and I know how difficult it would be to resist eating cheesecake every day. I LOVE cheesecake.

Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Cheesecake

I’ve never made a real cheesecake before. I have made those no-bake cheesecakes that come in a box in the supermarket but outside of that, I had no cheesecake experience. I think some things should be left to the experts, like lobster. Some things I enjoy when it is expertly created by people with years of experience. But even they were once an amateur and I was intrigued so I decided to try it.

I found this recipe from Paula Deen and knew I was about to catch the diabeetus but the recipe looked simple enough so I decided to work with it. I of course made some edits. I used half the sugar, and 4 whole eggs since I have no experience separating yolks from white and was too lazy to try. I also used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream since I wasn’t about to buy sour cream for this one recipe.

I have no idea how many ounces of pumpkin I used since I was using it cooked fresh. I just put spoonful by spoonful in until I thought “OK, that looks enough.” I had some reservations about putting in too much as I didn’t want it to be more pumpkin pie, and less cheesecake. The batter was sooooooooooo yummy!!!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust

I couldn’t find Graham crackers in my supermarket so I picked up a pack of ginger cookies for my crust. Ginger and pumpkin, so Autumny right? It worked SO well! Try it!

MAN! It was SO good! I got away. I went all the way in. The crust was a little hard, maybe I baked it too long… Also, the tops had cracks, it wasn’t a nice, pretty, smooth, professional-looking cheesecake. But it was insanely delicious!

The texture was dense and awesome and the taste of the pumpkin wasn’t overpowering. I can’t believe the recipe called for all that sugar?! Maybe brown sugar really is stronger than white sugar, I used brown. This cheesecake was super rich and just sweet enough. It was also perfectly complimented by the gingersnap cookies I used for the crust!

Why do cheesecakes crack? I read afterward about water baths for cheesecake. I use water baths now to try and lessen the cracks in my cheesecakes but I have not yet perfected this trick. Any tips?

I mean, if you’re gonna top it with strawberries or whipped cream then who cares? I really wanted to whip out a can of whipped cream for this cake I had to draw the line somewhere in this deliciousness that was outside of my diet. However, whenever my cheesecakes do crack, I simply add a topping.

This was the easiest cheesecake recipe ever that totally began a new holiday tradition my family looks forward to every year. A new tradition I’m thinking of starting is this left right Christmas game that looks so fun!

Have you ever had pumpkin cheesecake? What are your thoughts? Thanksgiving dinner is coming up, put on your pumpkin patch outfits and try this one out!