Festive Pumpkin Cheesecake

If you are a pumpkin pie and cheesecake lover you can have the best of both worlds with this delicious cheesecake. An easy recipe with few ingredients, but a bit costly due to the fact that the recipe calls for four packs of cream cheese. I used light cream cheese and it still turned out great! This is by far the best cheesecake I've ever had / made. The pumpkin makes it super moist and not too sweet. I used pure pumpkin from a can, not the kind for pie filling.

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup graham crumbs

3 tbsp. butter -melted 

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. brown sugar

Filling:

4 - 250g packages cream cheese -softened 

5 eggs

1/4 cup flour

2 tsp. pumpkin spice or equal parts ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg

1- 14oz can pure pumpkin (not pie filling)

2 tbsp. light rum

1 cup whipping cream -whipped 

splash of vanilla

Combine crust ingredients. Lightly grease a 10" springform pan and line bottom with crumb mixture. Pat firm and chill. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat softened cream cheese till fluffy on low-med. setting. Slowly beat in sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour, spices, pumpkin and rum. Pour batter over crust. Bake for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours or till filling is set. Cool for an hour. Refrigerate several hours. Garnish with vanilla whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Serves 10 to 12.