Daring Bakers Challenge November 2015: Cheesecake Crumble Pie

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was completely new to me, but seemed like a "how could this possibly turn out anything but yummy" kind of challenge. We were asked to do our own take on a cheesecake crumble pie. When I first read the challenge brief, I thought "they want us to make a what??" Lo and behold, this "cheesecake crumble pie" is really a thing and quite a popular thing. Who knew??

We were given quite a bit of leeway when it came to the flavor profile, so I opted to fill my go-to pie crust recipe with a pumpkin cheesecake recipe that I've been meaning to make for YEARS. Plus, it's fall ... no better time for something flavored with pumpkin! Based on the cheesecake recipe given in the challenge brief, I decided to half the cheesecake recipe I decided to use and I'm glad I did ... it was the perfect amount for my pie. I followed the crumble recipe that was provided in the brief (YUM) but easily could have halved that amount, too. I wound up with a bit too much on the pie and still had plenty left in my mixing bowl. That said, always better to have too much than too little when it comes to a crumble topping! :)

 I served the pumpkin cheesecake crumble pie as the dessert for our recent family dinner and everyone gave it a big thumbs up! I wasn't sure if our kids would think much of it, but from the pictures below, you'll see that I shouldn't have wondered. :)

Taste test

Future food critic's official verdict

Crumble face

Here are the recipes I used:

Butter Pie Crust (from a pie-making class I took a few years ago- amounts below make 2 crusts)
2 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 c cold butter
1/2 c ice water

Pumpkin Cheesecake (I halved all of the amounts listed below when I made the pie)
Four 8-oz packages regular cream cheese (room temp)
1 1/2 c sugar
5 eggs (I used 3 when I halved the recipe)
1/4 c flour
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
14 oz can pumpkin puree
Pinch of salt

Directions: Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Slowly ad sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Gradually add everything else.

Crumble Topping (from challenge brief)
1 cup scooped and levelled / 140g all-purpose (plain) flour
½ cup / 75g rolled oats
1 cup / 200g white sugar
⅔ cup / 135g brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp salt
½ cup / 1 stick / 113g cold unsalted butter

Directions: Mix all dry incredients together in small mixing bowl. Add butter and crumble together until it resembles a coarse meal (pea-sized).

For this challenge, I made and pre-baked the pie crust. When the crust was cool, I filled it with the pumpkin cheesecake filling, baked it at 500 for 15 minutes (10 would have been enough!), dropped the temp to 200, topped the pie with the crumble topping, and baked for 1 hour more. I should have followed my gut instinct and covered the crust with a collar before the 2nd bake because it got too dark, but oh well! No big deal... just a slightly darker crust than I otherwise would have preferred.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Pie

Yum!

 For the month of November Krista & Nicole of "Two Cups of Sugar" challenged us to make our own version of cheesecake crumble pie.