The Pumpkin Dessert That’ll Make You Forget About Pie This Thanksgiving

Dear Great Pumpkin, I am looking forward to your arrival on Halloween Night.” —Linus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Linus sits in the cold pumpkin patch, silly Sally too googly-eyed and blinded by pulsating pink and red cartoon hearts to realize there is no giant gourd coming that night. Oh Great Pumpkin, humble squash, martyr of October. Stabbed, defaced, lit on fire, hidden in metal cans. I, too, am looking forward to your arrival, but in a more tangible form.

One of my favorite seasonal desserts is pumpkin cheesecake, despite the abundance of its variations and oversaturation of the market with all things pumpkin-and-spice. 

This pumpkin cheesecake, made with a gingersnap crust and topped with candied walnuts, may not be what you had on your Thanksgiving table growing up. But it sure as heck evokes all those taste memories and combines them in a package that will make your Thanksgiving spread feel fancy without seeming contrived.

This is the Thanksgiving dessert to make when you’ve got in-laws you want to impress coming over. Here’s how to make it, complete with step-by-step photos that will make a dessert that’s slightly complicated seem as easy as, well, gingersnap-crusted, candied walnut–topped pumpkin cheesecake.

It’s the Great Pumpkin Cheesecake, Charlie Brown. I promise not to pull it away from you.

October 2011