Thankful, blessed, and obsessed with our Creme Brûlée Pumpkin Cheesecake! This semi-sweet dessert has a graham cracker base, filling made with our probiotic, high-protein farmer cheese topped with torched sugar for a true crème brûlée taste. We swear your guest’s plates will be clean of any crumbs!
The Benefits of Cultured Dairy for Better Health:
Research continues to show the importance of eating healthy foods, including cultured dairy such as kefir, for optimal digestion and gut health, a strong immune system, and to support the microbiome. Fermented foods like kefir hold important value in this line of research due to the link between the gut-brain axis and overall health. Specifically, kefir has been shown to help diversify the microbiome, improve digestion, reduce inflammation, support healthier blood sugar levels, and improve satiety since the bioavailable protein it contains triggers the release of GLP-1.
Lifeway Kefir is packed with a variety of vital nutrients important for overall health, including bone and muscle health; these include vitamin D3, K, calcium, and vitamin B12. Along with our probiotic-rich kefir, Lifeway also offers artisan-made Farmer Cheese,a creamy, high-protein cheese made with live and active cultures to support healthy muscles and a healthy microbiome. Lifeway Farmer Cheese is easy to spread, free of gums and thickeners, and contains no added salt or sugar for optimal health benefits.
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 2 cups or 2 sleeves graham crackers pulsed to crumbles
- 1 tsp. pumpkin spice powder
- 5 tbsp. Lifeway Kefir Butter -- melted*
For the Filling:
- 4 cups (or 2 packages) Farmer Cheese
- ½ cup Organic Whole Milk Plain Kefir
- *or you can use vanilla whole milk kefir for extra decadence
- 2 eggs
- 1 ¼ cup pumpkin purée
- ¾ cup granulated cane sugar
- 2 tbsp. corn starch or arrowroot starch
- 2 tsp. pumpkin spice powder
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
For the Topping
- About 1/3 cup fine cane sugar
Directions
- CRUST: Pulse gram crackers and kefir butter into the food processor to get 2 cups of crumbs to place on the bottom of your pie tin.
- FILLING: With an electric mixer beat farmer cheese on medium till smooth and fluffy, add sugar and then mix again, continuing mixing as you add eggs one at a time. Add pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and Lifeway Kefir, and mix till everything is well combined.
- Turn to a lower speed as you add in cinnamon and corn starch (or cornstarch). Pour the cheesecake batter into the pan with crust.
- Pour the batter into the springform pan, wrap the bottom of the pan in foil, place in a larger pan with a small amount of hot water and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for about 60 minutes. You can let the cheesecake cool and put it in the fridge.
- Once cheesecake has cooled, top with sugar and blow torch until top is nicely browned.
- Cut and serve!
