Pumpkin Cheesecake

Every Thanksgiving, I bake pumpkin cheesecake. I've been doing so since I was in grad school (How did I have the time back then?! How has it been so long that it now qualifies as "back then"?!).

I use this recipe for the most part, but I use ginger snaps for the crust (about two cups of finely ground ginger snap cookies and half a stick of butter), I don't use brandy, and I don't measure the spices (cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg)--I just put however much looks right.

The recipe says to use a 9-inch springform pan, but the pieces are just too big. Instead, I like to use two 6-inch springform pans and one mini springform pan (it's the perfect size for tasting, and it's cute). This recipe makes a lot of batter (not every cheesecake recipe that calls for a 9-inch pan will yield the same amount of batter as this one).

We took some over to Michigan this Thanksgiving. Of course, the problem was that by the time dessert rolled around, everyone was too full, so not much of it was eaten. But at least a couple of people thought it was good. Oh well. I'll be making more for Christmas, since our moms haven't had it yet this year and they requested it. And I don't plan on bringing any back!