Last week I received my November issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. The cover photograph immediately intrigued me, and I promised myself I was going to attempt to make each one of the pies featured.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie with Gingersnap Crust

Detour Number One – I didn’t count out the 23 required gingersnaps, choosing instead to process them in my small food processor, measuring out about a cup and a half to two cups as the cookies crumbled. Since I have made many cookie crusts I know this is a good ratio for a medium thickness. I also cut back the sugar to one tablespoon; gingersnaps are sweet enough on their own. I followed the rest of the recipe instructions as written.

Detour Number Two – I own a very small food processor. I realized the impossibility of processing all the filling ingredients at one time, so I opted to use my mixer instead. I had no problems substituting the mixer for the processor. I followed the filling instructions as written. The Pumpkin Cheesecake baked perfectly!

Detour Number Three – No one in my family likes meringue topping on a pie. Although it looks pretty, the ingredients and the time involved in whipping it up would be a total waste. Instead of the meringue I used large marshmallows masquerading as an elegant topping.

Quick Tip – To give the marshmallows a prettier appearance I cut them in half and notched the edges.

I placed them, cut side down, on a piece of parchment and toasted them in the toaster oven. Ah, lovely…they began to brown and give off the aroma of campfire marshmallows. I took them out when they deepened in color to golden brown.

I placed the whole tray in the freezer and let them harden. Believe me when I warn you touching them right out of the oven will firmly attach them to your finger or the knife you are using. When they were fairly frozen, I flipped them and let the sticky underside harden in the freezer.

The marshmallows turned out to be a pretty good stand-in for the meringue.

I also left a portion of the cheesecake edge bare.

The marshmallows are cute, but I prefer whipped cream on almost all the pie I eat.
Whoops! Almost forgot to mention the taste of the pumpkin cheesecake is fabulous! Definitely a recipe to keep. The recipe is on the Martha Stewart Living Website – Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie with Gingersnap Crust