Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcakes - Gluten Free

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of gluten free gingersnap crumbs (I use Trader Joe’s)
• 6 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 8oz packages of cream cheese – softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 15oz can of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 eggs at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake tins with paper liners. I only have one regular cupcake tin and an mini cupcake tin, so I used both. Crust: Crumble the ginger snaps either in a plastic zip-lock bag with a rolling pin or in a food processor. Melt the butter in the microwave. Add the brown sugar and butter to the crumbled ginger snaps in a medium bowl and mix until all crumbs are moist. Scoop about one table spoon into the bottom of each cupcake liner and press down (I used the bottom of one of my spice jars…it fits perfectly for the regular tins, for the mini tin I used the back of my coffee scoop). Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, let cool in pan on wire rack.

Filling: In a stand mixer, cream the sugar and cream cheese together until smooth, add the pumpkin puree, vanilla, pumpkin spice and salt. Mix well. Add one egg at a time. Continue to mix until the mixture is completely combined and smooth. Scoop the mixture into the prepared cupcake liners. I used the same coffee scoop that I used to press the crust into the bottom to do this. It was the perfect size – three scoops for the regular tin and 1 1/2 – 2 for the mini ones. For the regular tins bake for 40 minutes, rotating 180 degrees half way through. For the mini tins bake for 30 minutes, rotating 180 degrees half way through.Cool in the pan on a wire rack until completely cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least six hours. Top with whipped cream, caramel sauce or candied pecans if you wish. I hope you enjoy these tasty little treats! About the Author: Jenny Manseau is a Chef, Culinary Nutrition student and author of the blog Creative Cooking Gluten Free. Jenny created her website after being diagnosed in 2008 with Celiac Disease and takes many “regular” every day recipes and alters them to the gluten-free diet.