Basically, a delicious pumpkin cheesecake with a graham-gingersnap crust.

A perfect (and easy!) Thanksgiving dessert. Also amazing for fall in general. This dish looks complicated, but I couldn’t believe how quickly it came together when I made it on Thanksgiving morning. I might need to work on my ‘marbling’ skills a bit, but taste always trumps imperfections in presentation. This is also the first of many recipes I will make from my new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. It’s an absolutely wonderful and beautiful collection of recipes. I can’t wait to share more with you!

Recipe

Marbled Pumpkin GIngersnap Tart

From the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

yield: one  9-inch tart, serving 8 (I used a 10 1/4 inch tart pan, things still worked out great, slightly less time in the oven).

Crust 

• 4 ounces gingersnap cookies (about 16 cookies), coarsely broken
• 3 ounces graham crackers (five and a half graham cracker sheets)
• ¼ cup (½ stick) salted butter, melted.

Cheesecake batter 

• 4 ounces cream cheese, well softened
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large egg yolk

Pumpkin batter 

• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• 1¼ cups (about ½ to ¾ of a 15- ounce can) pumpkin purée
• ¼ cup granulated white sugar
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• Few fresh gratings of nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy cream

Make crust – Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Finely grind the gingersnaps and graham crackers in processor (yielding 1½ cups). Add the melted butter, and process until the cookie-crumb mixture is moistened. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of  9- inch- diameter tart pan with removable bottom. (I like to use the bottom and outer side of a measuring cup to help pack the crumbs into the base and neatly up the walls of my crumb crusts.) Place pan on rimmed baking sheet. Make cheesecake batter.  Mix together the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.

Make pumpkin batter.  Beat the egg and the egg white lightly in a large bowl. Whisk in the pumpkin, sugars, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Gradually whisk in the cream. Assemble tart  Pour the pumpkin batter into  gingersnap graham crust. Dollop the cheesecake batter over pumpkin batter, marble the two together decoratively with a knife. Try not to pierce the bottom crust as you do.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the tart completely on a rack, or in the fridge if you prefer it cold. We made this early in the morning, cooled it, put it in the fridge, then served it for Thanksgiving dessert. It was great, and I’m thinking it’s even better on day 2!