Pumpkin Cheesecake

Cooking Light fans rave about this rich, creamy pumpkin cheesecake with a vanilla wafer crust that has only 256 calories per slice and less than 10 grams of fat.

Yield: 16 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

Ingredients

• Crust:
• 56  reduced-fat vanilla wafers (about 8 ounces)
• 1  tablespoon  butter or stick margarine, melted
• Cooking spray
• 
  Filling:
• 3  (8-ounce) blocks fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 2  (8-ounce) blocks 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2  cup  granulated sugar
• 1/2  cup  packed brown sugar
• 3  tablespoons  all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon  ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground nutmeg
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground ginger
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• Dash of allspice
• 2  teaspoons  vanilla extract
• 4  large eggs
• 1  (15-ounce) can pumpkin

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare crust, place wafers in a food processor; pulse 2 to 3 times or until finely ground. Add butter; pulse 10 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Firmly press mixture into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 10 minutes; cool on a wire rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 325°.

To prepare filling, beat cheeses with a mixer at high speed until smooth. Add the granulated sugar and next 8 ingredients (granulated sugar through vanilla), beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin; beat well.

Pour cheese mixture into prepared crust; bake at 325° for 1 1/2 hours or until almost set. (Cheesecake is done when the center barely moves when pan is touched.) Remove cheesecake from oven; run a knife around outside edge. Cool to room temperature; cover and chill at least 8 hours.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

256 (34% from fat)

Fat:

9.8g (sat 5.3g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.5g)

Protein:

11.4g

Carbohydrate:

29.3g

Fiber:

1.4g

Cholesterol:

86mg

Iron:

1.2mg

Sodium:

479mg

Calcium:

172mg