This was the very first Cheesecake I've ever made! I made it for Thanksgiving this year and it was a TOTAL HIT! Being this was the first time I made any cheesecake, I read a lot of the reviews and made the following modifications: ADDED about 3/4 teaspoon of Pumpkin Pie Spice, DIDN'T REFRIGERATE the mixture, placed a waterbath in oven while baking then baked at 325 for the first 15, then lowered it to 300 for the remaining 40-45 minutes. I have to say that for my FIRST cheesecake it came out very well. If I make it again, (WHICH I MOST LIKELY WILL) I would make the following modifications: Add a tad more butter to the crust. I found that certain parts of the crust were very crumbly and hard to get to stay up on the walls of the pie dish! Use slightly LESS pumpkin spice. I really thought that it tasted too much like a pumpkin pie and not enough like a CHEESECAKE and I think I'll try chilling the batter somehow before swirling - It seemed rather runny to me. Maybe I over-mixed the batter? ALL IN ALL, GREAT cheesecake! It was easy to make and everyone liked it! I'm really excited to try it again! EDIT: I forgot to add that I also mixed the Gingersnap cookies with Reduced Fat Nilla cookies and Cinnamon Graham Crackers. No particular amount of each, just kinda mixed them all together! It was good!

Reviewed On: Nov. 30, 2009