- 12
Ingredients
- Cheesecake:
- Pie Crust: ready made dough
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 c. sugar
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/4 c. diced candied ginger, opt. but good
- Pumpkin:
- 3/4 c. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
- 1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
- 1 c. (8 oz.) evaporated milk
- 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
- Topping: whipped cream with pinch of ginger and tsp. of vanilla
Preparation
Step 1
Crust: Allow pie dough to come to room temperature and carefully transfer dough to at a pie plate that is at least 9" wide and 1 1/2" deep (a giant spatula works well for this). Settle the crust and crimp the edges.
Cheesecake Filling: Remove the cream cheese from its wrapper, and place it in a mixing bowl. All it to warm up to room temp, then add the sugar and beat till fairly smooth. Stir in the egg, vanilla and ginger. Spoon filling into the pie crust.
Pumpkin Filling: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the sugar, salt and spices. Add the pumpkin, evaporated milk, and eggs, and whisk gently until smooth. (You don't want to beat a lot of air into this mixture; just be sure it's thoroughly combined.) Gently spoon the pumpkin filling atop the cheesecake layer, filling within 1/4" of the top of the crust. Note: do this carefully at first, so as not to disturb the cheesecake layer; once you've covered the cheesecake, you can be less careful. Depending on the exact depth of your pie pan, you may have leftover filling. Simply pour it into a custard cup or other small baker, and bake it along with the pie, removing it from the oven when it appears set, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Bake the pie in a preheated 425 degrees oven, and bake it for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40-45 minutes, covering the edges of the pie with a pie shield if they seem to be browning too quickly. The pie is done when it looks set, but still wobbles a bit in the center when you jiggle it. (An instant-read thermometer will register 165 degrees when pie is done.) Remove the pie from the oven, allow it to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate it till serving time. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream flavored with a pinch of ginger and teaspoon of vanilla.