Posted by Emily  Print Recipe

By far, the most popular recipe on this site is my Black and White Chocolate Cheesecake Supreme. I actually made it for the first time for Thanksgiving last year and I decided it would be our new Thanksgiving tradition to have cheesecake instead of pie. I’ll take cheesecake over pie any day!

But this year, after discovering my love for all things pumpkin flavored, I decided I wanted to attempt a pumpkin cheesecake. But of course, I didn’t want to use any other recipes because Brandon and I both think that my Cheesecake Supreme recipe is the best cheesecake we’ve ever had (other commenters agree, I’ve had a bunch of people come back after they made it and tell me how much they loved it). I also really like the concept of the black and white chocolate version and wanted to do something like that instead of having just a plain pumpkin cheesecake. In the end, I took my black and white chocolate cheesecake recipe and substituted pumpkin and caramel for the white and dark chocolates, then I topped the whole thing with extra caramel.

It was a gamble, but it totally paid off. In fact, I think this cheesecake is better than the other version. Brandon agreed. If you can believe it, he wasn’t as big a fan of the chocolate version since he’s not a chocoholic like me, but he loved this pumpkin version even though he doesn’t really like anything else with pumpkin in it. He especially loved that this uses gingersnaps instead of graham crackers. (He ate ALL the crust. He NEVER eats all the crust.) I’ve seen other pumpkin cheesecake recipes that use gingersnaps and I thought that was a great idea. After eating it, I think the gingersnaps really enhance the pumpkin and caramel flavors. Plus, it’s given me all sorts of ideas to use gingersnaps in other desserts, too.

I was hoping this would have the same kind of look of the chocolate version, where you can see the globs of dark chocolate throughout, but caramel and pumpkin are pretty much the same color, so it doesn’t have that effect. You can kind of see it if you look at the top of the cheesecake, the caramel batter turned a slightly darker color and you can see the cinnamon mixed in with the lighter pumpkin batter around the edge. But that effect is only on the top, the inside of the cheesecake looks uniform. But that’s ok, it may not be as pretty as the other version but the taste of the pumpkin and caramel together is wonderful. I think this cheesecake is my new new Thanksgiving tradition. Maybe I’ll save the black and white chocolate version of Christmas…

P.S: Don’t forget I’m participating in Springsgiving at SpringPad. If you like this recipe, please click on the button below that says Spring It, to save it to your recipe box at SpringPad. You will automatically be entered for a chance to win $100!

Swirled Caramel and Pumpkin Cheesecake Supreme

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 cups crushed gingersnaps
• 6 tbsp. of butter
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp. salt

Caramel:
Note: You can buy premade caramel sauce if you don’t want to make this from scratch.

• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp. heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cheesecake:

• 5 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
• 5 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/8 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. allspice

The Process

1. Get out your cream cheese, eggs and cream and let sit while making the crust so that they are at or close to room temp by the time you need them. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix gingersnaps, sugar, salt and butter in a bowl until combined and press into the bottom and about an inch or two up the sides of a 10″ springform pan.

3. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes. Take out to cool. Turn off the oven.

4. While the crust is baking, make the caramel: Cook sugar, corn syrup, water and a pinch of salt in a heavy bottomed, 3 quart saucepan over medium heat. Stir only until sugar is dissolved, then let the mixture come to a boil.

5. Boil mixture until it turns a deep golden caramel, about 10 minutes. DO NOT STIR. EVER.

6. Remove from heat and carefully pour the cream and vanilla down the side of the pan. Be careful, the mixture will bubble and steam.

7. Turn burner to low and place pot back on. Stir carefully until the caramel is smooth. Remove from heat and let cool.

8. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla; mix until smooth. Add in the sugar, flour and heavy cream and blend until smooth. Do not over-mix as this will create more air bubbles which can contribute to your cake cracking.

9. Pour 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl. Add 1/2 cup caramel (if it has hardened too much, heat it up until it’s easier to pour). Mix until combined.

10. Add the pumpkin and spices into the remaining 2/3 of the batter.

11. Pour 1/3 of the pumpkin batter into the prepared crust. Drop in spoonfuls of the caramel batter on top. Pour in another 1/3 of the pumpkin batter and repeat the spoonfuls of the caramel batter. Pour in the rest of the pumpkin batter, it should be over 3/4 full, but not completely to the top (you may have some batter left over, it’s great for making mini-cheesecakes in mini muffin tins). Then drop in spoonfuls of the remaining caramel batter (cover the top, but don’t overfill). Finally, drizzle the caramel (again you may need to heat up a little) over the top and swirl it all around with a knife, but don’t overmix.

12. Place in the oven and turn it on to 400 degrees (F). It should NOT be preheated. Bake for 10 minutes and then turn it down to 200 degrees (F). Bake for 3 hours. Turn the oven off, prop open the door slightly and let cool for 1 hour. Finally, place in your refrigerator and chill for a full 24 hours before removing the springform pan’s side and serving.