Gingerbread Cheesecake

12 servings
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.

Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.Gingerbread Cheesecake is the perfect marriage of the classic holiday gingerbread dessert and the always popular cheesecake. The warm spices and flavors of this cheesecake are really nostalgic for me as my grandmother used to make gingerbread cake for us every year during the holidays.

When McCormick® reached out to me to work together in creating a holiday recipe using some of their most amazing baking spices I was thrilled because I am obsessed with all things gingerbread and all things holidays! For proof check out my Gingerbread Cookies, Gingerbread Pancakes and Gingerbread Cheesecake Dip from last year, I am a lover of all things gingerbread. Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.Flavors are memories to me. Aside from the gingerbread cake my grandmother used to make for us when we were kids the scent of these spices bring back memories of french toasts, German chocolate covered holiday cookies, pies and all the holiday seasons filled with goodies as a kid.

It all came flooding back into my head as I was baking this Gingerbread Cheesecake and the smell of these iconic flavors like McCormick Ground Cinnamon and McCormick Ground Nutmeg were wafting through the kitchen. Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.If you’re as nostalgic for Gingerbread as I am and you’re already printing this Gingerbread Cheesecake out as we speak here are a couple of ideas to make it even more of a showstopper.

  • Sometimes I make double the crust and put half on the bottom as described in the recipe and the other half through the middle of the batter layer for a delicious spiced ribbon of buttery cookies. Since it is in the middle it won’t bake crisp, it will be like cookie butter.
  • To get the perfect top with no cracking at all, make sure you are using a water bath. To be clear about how to do it, you’re going to need a sheet of foil that is wider than your cheesecake pan, I find extra wide foil works perfectly on this. Then put the cheesecake pan in the middle of the sheet and press the sides of it up the outside of the pan. Put the pan in a larger pan and fill that outside pan with an inch of hot water. This controls how the heat cooks the cheesecake and now with the water bath it will cook it evenly for you. Cracked Gingerbread Cheesecake risk averted! Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.
  • Top the Gingerbread Cheesecake with mini gingerbread men. I use graham crackers and spices here on purpose because you can mimic the gingerbread flavor with all the same spices in the cheesecake so there is no need to waste delicious gingerbread cookies on the crust. But that doesn’t mean they can’t get used as decorations on top or even grated over the top instead of a dusting of spice.
  • To slice the perfect slice of cheesecake make sure you have chilled it all the way through. Even better? Put it in the freezer 1-2 hours before serving and then slice for perfect slices.

Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.

Pin this recipe now to remember it later

Pin Recipe

Gingerbread Cheesecake

Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.
Yield 12 servings
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients
 

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Wrap the outside of your springform pan in foil for a water bath.
  • In a food processor add the graham crackers, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and melted butter and process for 15-20 seconds or until all the ingredients have a fine moist crumb.
  • Add them to the bottom of the springform pan and press up the sides of the pan about an inch.
  • In a stand mixer add the cream cheese and beat until fluffy.
  • Add in the brown sugar and beat until fully combined, then add in the vanilla and the eggs one at a time.
  • Add the molasses, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves on medium speed until fully combined.
  • Pour into the springform pan, place the pan into a larger pan and fill the outer pan with an inch of hot water.
  • Bake in a water bath for 60 minutes.
  • When done baking turn the oven off and remove the pan from the water bath and just leave it in the oven to cool gently.
  • Refrigerate for 6-8 hours or until fully chilled before serving.
  • Serve with whipped cream dusted with cinnamon.

Nutrition

Calories: 398kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 113mg | Sodium: 385mg | Potassium: 246mg | Sugar: 28g | Vitamin A: 935IU | Calcium: 104mg | Iron: 1.5mg
Keyword: Christmas cheesecake, Gingerbread Cheesecake, Holiday cheesecake

Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of McCormick®.

Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.
Gingerbread Cheesecake is creamy and tangy and full of warm holiday flavors that is the perfect ending to your favorite holiday meal.

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

Categories

Leave a comment & rating

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comments

  1. Hi!

    Instead of making a crust from scratch would I be able to use a pre-made graham cracker crust and just add the filling to bake?

    1. Everyone loved it! I used gingersnaps instead of Graham crackers, and used homemade cinnamon whipped cream topped with gingersnap crumbs.

        1. Hi Dennis,
          Not in this recipe. Let us know if you make the Gingerbread Cheesecake and what you thought!

  2. Just made this today , smells like heaven!
    It is for Christmas day ( today is sunday and xmas is wednesday ! Should I freeze it or fridge ! Thanks

  3. My friend made this for Thanksgiving! She use cinnamon graham crackers to make the crust (great idea). It was so good I ate some for breakfast.

  4. Sounds delicious. Thanks for the water bath tip. I have a wonderful recipe for New Yrok style cheesecake, but i have only been able to make it once without it cracking. How long do you cool this cheesecake in the oven and do you leave the door slightly open or fully closed?

    1. Crack it open a few inches and let it cool for a couple hours, more than that is unnecessary. I like to let it cool to room temperature before it goes in the fridge, so even once it comes out of the oven make sure it is not warm at all before it goes in the oven. This is playing it a little loose with how long it sits out, but it should only take another 20 minutes tops. Then refrigerate until fully chilled. I hope you love this recipe!

    2. My cheesecakes always cracked, but now each and every one comes out perfect!
      My secret is I grease just the SIDES ( not the bottom) and dust it with the crumbs. Then I mix the rest of the crumbs and melted butter for the bottom crust. This helps the cake not stick as it shrinks during baking, and looks pretty, too! Of course a water bath is a must!
      ( and I don’t bake crust first, it comes out fine!)

  5. For many years I have tried recipes trying to reproduce a pumpkin cheese cake that I had at Falling Water’s small restaurant in western PA. I found it this year!!! It’s Betty Crocker’s Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake. It has two layers – the top one is pumpkin, the bottom cream cheese cake, and a gingersnap crust!

    You could use the gingersnap crust instead of creating the one in this recipe. It’s just 2 cups of gingersnap crumbs and 1/4 c. of melted butter – great crust and so easy.

  6. What size springform pan for this recipe? I have a 10″ but don’t know if that will affect the cooking time. I am planning on making this to bring to a Christmas dinner. Thank you.

  7. Looks like I can adapt the crust for my 23 year old daughter who cannot eat gluten. Years ago she loved eating ginger bread and my molasses spice ginger cookies. I have a feeling this will bring back happy flavor memories of the past.

  8. Oh my goodness yum!  Can’t wait for the holidays to test this one out….maybe I won’t wait;-). Thanks for the recipe!

  9. I don’t care what time of year it is, gingerbread is always good in my book. And cheesecake is one of my favs. What a great recipe. Its too bad the boyfriend doesn’t like gingerbread. Oh well, I guess that means more for me 🙂

    1. So sorry for the delay in responding, I hope you didn’t have a cheesecake in the oven when you asked. I usually leave it in there an hour or so just to let it cool gently. It reduces the risk of the cheesecake cracking. If it was in the oven when you asked and I am too late, I hope you enjoyed it and it worked out for you!

  10. I am in heaven imagining the smells that must fill the house as this is baking. I am definitely giving this one a go!

  11. YUM! What a delicious spin on a holiday dessert. I can imagine this cheesecake smells utterly delightful and TASTES like the holiday season – so good!

    1. It is so amazing with that river of crust in the middle it is making me want to bake a second one even though we have some of this one left in the fridge still!

  12. Oh wow! This Gingerbread Cheesecake looks amazing! I love the smells and tastes of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger together and McCormick spices are always in my pantry! BTW: Did I say how much I love cheesecake also! LOL

  13. My husband’s grandmother used to make a gingerbread cake at Christmas time. I have a feeling he would love this cheesecake!

  14. This might be the prettiest cheesecake I’ve ever seen! It sounds absolutely perfect for the holidays!