Holiday Ginger Snap Crust Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl, whisk together gingersnap crumbs, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Add butter and stir until mixture is well combined. Press some of the mixture against the side of the bowl with your fingers. If the crumbs do not hold together, add cold water, a little at a time, up to 1 tablespoon, and stir to combine.
• Press crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie plate, evenly covering the bottom and sides. Transfer to freezer and chill for 10 minutes. Place pie plate on a baking sheet and bake until crust is fragrant and set, about 10 minutes. Transfer pie to a wire rack; let cool completely.

Steps:

• Mix flour, 1 cup sugar, canola oil, molasses, egg, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a bowl. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Pour 1/4 cup sugar into a bowl.
• Roll dough into 1-inch balls and coat each ball in sugar. Flatten each coated ball onto a baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges begin to harden, 7 to 8 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Steps:

• For the gingersnap cookie crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Place the gingersnap crumbs in a large bowl and drizzle half of the melted butter all over. Using your hand or a silicone spatula, mix thoroughly. Add more butter a little at a time until you can make a fist with the crumbs that retains its shape but is easily broken (not too dry, and not too wet).
• Press the crumbs tightly into a 9-inch pie plate. A deep pie plate is much more suited to this task.
• Bake until the crust feels quite firm to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Set aside and let cool.
• For the pumpkin filling: Whisk together the milk, brown sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes, whisking constantly.
• In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Gradually add half of the hot milk mixture to the eggs, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thick, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the pumpkin puree and salt. Pour into the pie shell and chill until set, 2 to 3 hours.
• For the rum cheesecake topping: Cream together the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cream, rum extract, egg, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla bean seeds. Mix until well combined. Use a silicone spatula to fill a pastry piping bag with the filling. Cut off the tip.
• Pipe the cheesecake over the pumpkin filling, minding not to get too close to the crumb crust. Use a spatula to smooth out the topping to just meet the crust edge, being careful not to drag crumbs over the surface. Bake until the top is glossy and the center still wiggles, about 45 minutes.