Pumpkin Spice New York Cheesecake with a Cognac Praline Sauce

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom  a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper and lightly coat with nonstick spray.

CRUST

1-12 ounce box Ginger snap, crumbs

2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 cup butter melted

Crush ginger snap cookies until fine crumbs and place in a bowl, stir in sugar. Add melted butter and combine until crumbs are moistened. Press crumbs into the bottom of prepared spring form pan and 1/4 inch up sides of pan. once your have your crust form place spring form pan in freezer while you make your filling.

Pumpkin Spice Filling

32 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

15 ounces pure pumpkin puree

1-1/3 cups sugar

2 Tbsp corn starch

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp cloves

2 tsp vanilla

3 eggs, room temperature

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Place cream cheese into bowl of mixer and beat on medium speed (4) until fluffy.  Add pumpkin to cream cheese and beat until combined well. Add sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all spice cloves and vanilla continue to beat until smooth. Turn mix down to lowest setting (stir) add eggs one at a time beating just until incorporated, you do NOT want to over beat here and add too much air or else it will cause your cheesecake to crack, but don’t worry if it does crack it will still taste delish!! 🙂 By hand stir in whipping cream. Pour filling into your prepared crust and set on a foil lined cookie sheet, place in oven. bake at 325 degrees for 75-80 minutes or until your cheesecake is set on the outside and slightly jiggly in the middle. Once baked remove from oven and set on a cooling rack for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes carefully run knife around edge and then continue to cool for another 45 minutes. After 45 minutes place in fridge and let “set” at least 6 hours overnight is best.

Cognac Praline Sauce

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

2 Tbsp milk

2 Tbsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp Cognac

1 tsp vanilla

1 dash salt

Place pecans and butter in medium sauce pan over medium heat, cook for 4 minutes or until nuts are toasted, stirring frequently. Add brown sugar and cream stir until smooth. In a small bowl blend milk and cornstarch together and then stir into mixture in sauce pot. Turn heat up to medium high and bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 2 minutes, stirring, or until thickened. Remove from heat, stir in cognac, vanilla and salt. Once cooled to room temperature top cheesecake. 🙂

Store in fridge until ready to serve. 🙂