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Ingredients
- Crust Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 1 1/2 16 cups graham cracker crumbs, about 16 crackers worth (gluten free crackers work fine)
- 1/4 1/4 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 2 2 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- Pie Ingredients:
- 24 24 24 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 3/4 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 1 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 3 3 eggs
- 3/4 3/4 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 1 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice mix
- Optional topping: Vanilla Whipped Cream
- Vanilla Whipped Cream
- 1/2 1/2 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 1 1 vanilla bean
- 1 1 1 slightly heaped tablespoon powdered sugar
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Stir together the crust ingredients and press into 2 pie pans. Beat the cream cheese and sugar together with a mixer until smooth. Add the vanilla and the eggs and beat again.
Pour 1/3 of this mixture over each pie crust. (This was approximately 1 1/3 cups of the filling.) Stir the pumpkin puree and the spices into the remaining filling and beat until well combined. Divide the pumpkin mixture between the two pies and use a spatula to smooth it across the cheesecake layer.
Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the center looks almost set. A knife inserted should come out mostly clean. Cool at room temperature and then refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight. Top with whipped cream, just before serving.
Vanilla Whipped Cream
Place a large metal bowl and the beater for your mixer in the freezer for at least 20 minutes. Using a small paring knife, split the vanilla bean lengthwise. Use the tip of the knife to scrape the seeds from both sides of the bean. (Do not throw away the pods! They can be used to make extract or flavored sugars.)
In a large mixing bowl, combine the cream, vanilla seeds and powdered sugar. Set your mixer to medium (with the whisk attachment for a kitchenaid, or regular beaters for a standard mixer) and whip the cream just until peaks form. If you whisk it too long, the mixture will turn to butter (with this recipe, you'd be left with a strange sweet vanilla butter, but butter nonetheless). Serve immediately. Enjoy!