Pumpkin Cheesecake

The night before Halloween my mom had us over for dinner with my grandparents to show them her new dining room table. I volunteered to make dessert. After looking all over the place I finally decided on a Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap crust. I found the recipe in my Betty Crocker Fall Baking book, yet can't seem to find it on their website. Anyways, here is it:

Crust

• 2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs
• 1/4 cup butte/margarine, melted

Cheesecake

• 4 packages (8oz each) cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

• Heat oven to 300*F. Grease or spray 9-inch springform pan. Wrap outside of pan in heavy-duty foil. In bowl, mix crust ingredients. Press in bottom & 1 inch up side of pan. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool 5 minutes.
• In large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed just until smoothe and creamy, do not overbeat. On low speed, gradually beat in sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time, just until blended. Spoon 3 cups of the mixture into pan; spread evenly. Add pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg to remaining cream cheese mixture; mis with wire sick until smooth. Spoon over mixture in pan.
• Bake 1 hour 25 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until edges are set but center of cheesecake still jiggles slightly when moved. Turn oven off; open oven door at least 4 inches. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Remove from oven to cooling rack. Without releasing side of pan, run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake. Cool in pan on cooling rack 30 minutes. Cover loosely; refrigerate at least 6 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
• Run knife around edge of pan to loosen cheesecake again; carefully remove side of pan. Place cheesecake on serving plate. Cover and refrigerate any remaining cheesecake.

Everyone loved this cheesecake. My stepdad said it easily rivals Cheesecake Factory, I don' t know about that but it was good. My mom really liked the gingersnap crust. I did serve it up with a little dollop of Cool Whip on top. :)
(photo note: I cut the cheesecake when the cake was near room temp...I probably should have had it refrigerated while we ate. But anyways, that's why it looks so soft.)