Haunted Pumpkin Cheesecake in A Country Harvest Pie Plate

I found this glorious Royal China Jeannette Country Harvest Cheesecake recipe pie plate at Goodwill a few weeks ago. I set it aside thinking I would try the cheesecake recipe after I made a few Halloween desserts. However, after eating at the Cheesecake Factory last week in Chicago, the pie plate kept calling my name! So, I starting thinking of ways I could modify the recipe with a spooky theme. The result was a Haunted Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Country Harvest Pie Plate. If you want to make a regular cheesecake, without the Halloween theme, the original recipe can be easily read below.

Ingredients

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Cheesecake

• 2 cups of chocolate graham cracker crumbs (9 whole crackers, beaten)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• 16 ounces of cream cheese (two blocks)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin

Decorations

• haunted house cookie cutter
• icing decorator’s bag with fine cake decorating tip for writing
• orange icing (I used Funfetti)
• two candy corn pieces
• 9 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups-they are in both pictures, but actually belong in the decor portion
• use the 1/2 cup chocolate graham cracker mixture left over from the cheesecake recipe above

Directions:

If you have whole chocolate graham crackers like I did, you will need 9 full-sized crackers, or one pack. Put them in a quart-sized ziplock bag, then pound/beat them gently with a spatula or wooden spoon until your crumbs are very small.

Add 3 tablespoons of sugar and 4 tablespoons of melted butter. Mix well with a spoon.

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Separate 1/2 cup of the crust mixture for the decorating portion later. Press 1 1/2 cups of the stirred graham cracker mixture into the bottom and lower sides of your pie plate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the crust for 10 minutes while making the cheesecake filling. Combine cream cheese and sugar with a mixer. Add vanilla extract, eggs, and pumpkin. Mix well.

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Once the crust has baked for 10 minutes, remove it from the oven and lower the temperature to 300 degrees. While the oven is cooling down, pour the cheesecake filling into the crust. Once the oven reaches 300 degrees, place your pumpkin cheesecake on the middle rack and bake for 60 minutes.

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The original recipe recommends cooling the pie for three hours. I didn’t wait that long. I’m impatient, so I jammed it in the freezer for 30 minutes, then proceeded to decorate. Place the haunted house cookie cutter in the middle, slightly closer to the top than the bottom.

Load your icing bag with the orange icing, using a fine, round cake decorating tip for writing. I wrote Boo and Yikes.

Place the candy corn wherever you want a window. I thought about using baking m&ms for the window, to create a melted, stained glass look. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth taking the risk. I didn’t want a messy cheesecake, in case things didn’t work out the way I thought they would.

Chop up the 9 small Reeses Cups with a knife. Spoon them into the house.

Carefully add some of the leftover graham crust crumbs to the bottom of your house with a small spoon. Try not to get them in your icing! Gently remove the cookie cutter.

You’re all done! I hope you enjoyed my recipe for Haunted Pumpkin Cheesecake in a Country Harvest Pie Plate!

Happy Halloween!

Kristie

Read my other Country Harvest pie plate recipes: I love seeing the recipe peeking through when I cut a piece of pie!

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This post was featured on: Thursday Favorite Things, What’s For Dinner?

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