Pumpkin cheesecake is the prima donna of all the holiday desserts: rich, decadent, and always a bit over the top, she stops the show wherever she goes. In that spirit, a lot of pumpkin cheesecake recipes pile on loads of flavored garnish and décor (caramel! nuts! crazy whipped cream piping!); but for this, our forever favorite version, we’ve stripped it right back and returned the focus to its true essence: a thick, crunchy crust, and a super-creamy, super-pumpkiny filling.
Making a baked cheesecake (like this one) is not difficult, but there are a few tips that will really help you along the way. Read on for all our tips to help smooth your journey toward cheesecake nirvana:
Our top 5 tips for making the best no-bake pumpkin cheesecake:
— Work ahead. Cheesecake doesn’t take long to mix up, but it takes a LONG time to bake and cool. While you might get away with chilling it in the refrigerator for a few hours and serving it the day it’s made, it will be easiest to cut and chill the cheesecake if you bake it the day before, take time to cool it down properly in the water bath at room temperature, then refrigerate it overnight.
— Cream the cream cheese well. Much like creaming together butter and sugar for a regular cake, it’s important to mix the cream cheese and spiced sugar until it’s very soft and creamy; otherwise, the eggs won’t mix in smoothly and you’ll end up with lumps of cream cheese flecking your batter.
— Don’t overbeat the eggs. In certain types of cakes, whipping the eggs helps the cake rise. But here, with a cheesecake, the purpose of the eggs is to help the cake set firmly—not rise. Beating the eggs too much will cause the cheesecake to soufflé in the oven, then fall and crack when it comes out. For best results, keep the mixer on low while adding the eggs, and mix just until they’re incorporated into the batter.
— Use a water bath. Cheesecakes can get rubbery or even crack if they’re baked at too high a temperature. Surrounding a (very carefully foil-wrapped) cheesecake pan with hot water ensures the temperature in that cheesecake pan will never exceed the temperature at which that water will boil, which means that the cheesecake will bake slowly and evenly, and come out with a perfect silky texture.
— Look for the wobble in the middle. For the best results, pull your cheesecake when it’s set around the edges but still slightly wobbling in the very center. The cheesecake will continue to cook a bit as it sits in the water bath at room temperature, and will set up even more as it sits in the refrigerator overnight, and you’ll end up with a silky-smooth cheesecake with a perfectly smooth top and not a crack in sight.
One last thing: For this recipe, we specifically recommend Libby’s pumpkin puree. In testing, we found Libby’s puree to have the most consistent moisture content—which believe it or not, is really important to achieving a beautifully set, crack-free cheesecake. Other brands might work as well, but for the most consistent results, we highly recommend using Libby’s!
Made this? Let us know in the comments below.
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