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Cinnamon Mini-Cheesecakes With Pumpkin Pie Frosting

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So the trend around the blogosphere this fall seems to be pumpkin pie…frosting!

Yep, that’s right. You literally take a perfect pumpkin pie and pipe it onto your cake of choice. Brilliant? I decided I would have to give it a try to find out.

I had been wanting to try a cinnamon cheesecake recipe for awhile, so this seemed like the perfect pairing. Mixed up a batch of cute little mini cheesecakes, complete with my favorite gingersnap crust, and then made a crustless pumpkin pie to serve as the icing on top.

I have to admit…I had to give myself a pep talk before plunging a spoon into the middle of a perfectly gorgeous pumpkin pie to scoop it into a not-so-gorgeous piping bag. But sure enough, the end result was quite cute and ridiculously delicious. I’m a big fan of all things pumpkin and cinnamon, so this was a definite winner in my book. I will warn you that it takes a little extra time to make both the cheesecake and pumpkin pie recipes, but well worth it.

Cheers to blogosphere fads!

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Cinnamon Mini-Cheesecakes with Pumpkin Pie Frosting

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  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 65 minutes
  • Total Time: 75 minutes
  • Yield: 12 mini cheesecakes 1x

Description

This Cinnamon Mini-Cheesecakes With Pumpkin Pie Frosting recipe celebrates all of your favorite holiday flavors, including gingerbread, pumpkin and cinnamon.


Ingredients

Scale

Gingersnap Crust:

  • 1 cup gingersnap cookie (or graham cracker) crumbs
  • 1/4 cup (half stick) unsalted butter; melted
  • pinch of salt

Cheesecake:

  • 2 bars of cream cheese (8 oz each), room temperature
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon

Pumpkin Pie “Frosting” (**recommend cooking this first**):

  • 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream

Instructions

To Make Gingersnap Crust:

  1. Prepare 12 baking cups with paper liners, or grease with cooking spray. In a separate bowl, whisk together the three crust ingredients until well blended. Scoop 1 packed tablespoon of crust into each baking cup, and press down to pack firm. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then remove and set aside.

To Make Cinnamon Cheesecakes:

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Begin to boil a large kettle or pot of water for the water bath.
  2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the cream cheese and sugar, then mix on medium-speed until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla and cinnamon, and mix until smooth. Do not overmix. Pour batter into each crust-prepared baking cup until 3/4 full.
  3. Once your kettle or pot of water is boiling, carefully place a large baking dish on the lower rack of your oven and pull the rack out a few inches towards you, and then pour the water into it. (Or use your best judgment on how to do this without burning yourself. I just heat the water in a kettle, which is very easy to pour into the pan.) This will create a water bath that will give off lots of steam while the cheesecake bakes.
  4. Then place the cheesecake pan in the oven, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the edges appear to be set and the center still has a slight jiggle to it. Turn off the oven and open the oven door slightly for 5 minutes. Then remove the pan and place on a cooling rack until completely cooled. Top with pumpkin pie frosting.

To Make Pumpkin Pie Frosting:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a mixing bowl, whisk together all ingredients until well blended. Pour into a greased 9-inch pie pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean. Remove and let cool, then refrigerate.
  2. When ready to “frost” the cheesecakes, remove the pumpkin pie and spoon the filling into a piping bag. Use as you would regular frosting.

Notes

To make most quickly, first cook the pumpkin pie, then the gingersnap crust, then the cheesecakes.

Basic cheesecake recipe adapted from My Baking Addiction.

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50 comments on “Cinnamon Mini-Cheesecakes With Pumpkin Pie Frosting”

  1. What a brilliant idea. This cheesecake looks and sounds like complete Thanksgiving perfection.

  2. These really look delicious and they certainly are appropriate for the season. This is my first visit to your blog, so I took some extra time to browse through your earlier posts. I’m so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you share with your readers and I’ll defintely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary

  3. I love these! What a perfect holiday dessert. I will have to try this pumpkin pie ‘frosting’, such a great idea!

  4. Hi! I can’t wait to try this for Thanksgiving! One question, though, for the crust is it 1/4 cup butter or 1 stick (which equals 1/2 cup)? Thanks!

  5. your butter measurement is off — 1 stick is 1/2 cup!

  6. Looks fantastic! I bet they are delicious.

  7. Love the pumpkin pie frosting – these would make perfect Thanksgiving desserts!

  8. Oops! Sorry everyone – corrected the butter measurement. It should be 1/4 cup (a HALF stick) of butter. Thanks!

  9. looks good! just a clarification, when you wrote “Then place the cheesecake pan in the oven,” does this mean in the water bath itself, or on another rack on top of the water bath?

  10. What a fantastic idea. And, your pictures are just beautiful. I have to try this!

  11. These look AMAZING!! I want to take a big bite right now!

    Thanks for sharing!
    Willa

  12. I made these yesterday. They were soooo yummy!!!

  13. Love this! I found a recipe for pumpkin pie with a caramel whipped cream frosting… because I had left over from the pie I made mini pumpkin pies with whipped frosting like this. Thanks!

  14. How many mini cheesecakes will this recipe make?

  15. I can’t wait to try these! Such a good idea!

  16. Oh definitely this sounds like a lovely combo, cinnamon + cheese + pumpkin pie = YUM-O!!! They look fantastic! Take care, Terra

  17. I’m loving the opposing choices for the frosting and the cheesecake flavor. Most people would have made a pumpkin cheesecake with cinn. frosting, but this is neat!

  18. How many average sized cupcakes does this recipe make?
    Also, can it be done in “mini” sizes?
    I’m so excited to try this recipe!

    • Staci…did you make this recipe? How many did you get?

    • It’s actually not as hard as it looks Cheyenne. The toguehst part for me is always cutting the layers in the cake without turning the whole thing into crumbs LOL. I found a really good bread knife made all the difference in that step. And I’m with you on the pumpkin love

  19. that looks delish

  20. I made this at my 16 yr old daughter’s suggestion. She brought them to a school fundraiser and they disappeared, AND were asked for again! These are kids asking! They may be time consumming, but well worth it and very elegant looking. Thanks for this recipe!!

  21. These look amazing!! How many cheesecakes will this recipe make? Thank you!

    • a single recipe made 12, I believe. I doubled up. I made 18 cheese cakes and had left over filling which I used as a warm dip for my extra ginger snaps. I’m a junkie for decadence. What can I say? lol

    • Did you put them in the water bath or on the rack on top? I am actually baking these right now, so I am guessing on the rack on top, I will know once they are done, ;)

  22. I made these for my husband’s work. They had a contest for yummiest office dessert. He won first place!
    They are sooo rich and so delicious! I’ll be making them again and again.

  23. where do i u guys see 1 stick of butter. she said 1/4 stick

  24. I found this on Pinterest a while ago, couldn’t wait for Thanksgiving to give it a try. We just had Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend, its a bit of work but well worth it!!! I made it as stated but managed to get 17 full size cupcakes, and 1 a bit smaller.

  25. I made these with a gluten free graham cracker crust… HUGE hit!!!

  26. I have made these a couple of times. I am not a fan of cinnamon. However, there are AMAZING!!! :)

  27. Has anyone tried to bake this as a cake instead of minis? Are there any adjustments that need to be made?

  28. What was the verdict? Do you put them in the water bath or on the top rack above the pan with water in it?

    • I did it the way I would do a cheesecake…..put the muffin tin in a large casserole or roasting pan. Then carefully pour boiling water in the raosting pan. Just be sure not to splash any water onto the prepared muffin tin.

    • I have always put the pan IN the water bath when making custards and such so that’s what I did. It’s in the oven now…. so here’s hoping I followed directions! This was very time consuming (I had to crush the gingersnap cookies into crumbs by hand, then had to redo the crust part because I misread the butter measurement …..) and I really hope that the time and effort is worth it!

  29. Just got done making these for tomorrow. Getting ready to pumpkin frost them!!! Would they look more presentable if I took the paper liners off them and then put them on a platter…or should I just leave the liners on??? I want them to look more like mini cheesecakes rather than cupcakes. They do look very delicious!!!

  30. I was super excited to make these for thanksgiving which is tomorrow BUT I’m bummed because my pumpkin pie turned out quite watery it was solid not liquid but at the bottom if the pan was a lot if watery liquid so when I piped it water dripped

  31. Just made these, and for not liking to bake at all, although there were many steps, these turned out amazing! Thank you for the wonderful recipe! These are brilliant for Thanksgiving!

  32. I just made these and I got 24 mini cheesecakes. Next time I would fill them more and would probably get 18. As for the water bath, I put it on the shelf below my cupcake tins. I haven’t eaten them yet, but will know tomorrow if that worked. :)

  33. I want to make this for my daughters birthday, but I don’t have a stand mixer. Would I use a hand mixer, or wooden spoon instead?

  34. What pans do you use? All of my muffin tins are slanted and I like yours because they are straight up and down.

  35. Ali,

    This recipe sounds wonderful and I am going to try it out.. However, I’m confused on whether the cheesecake pan goes into the water bath or on the rack above it. Please let me know so I can try them out.

  36. You don’t have to make a pie for the pumpkin. I’ve made pumpkin pie filling in the glass pie dish to serve in custard cups with whipped cream without the crust. Just one step eliminated!

  37. This would be perfect for fall! I love pumpkin and I LOVE cheesecake!

  38. All I can say is….OMG, I love you woman!  Pumpkin is my fav and this time of the year is like manna!

  39. Makes more then 12!! I found that it makes closer to 16 but had to make more crust.

    Very tasty though