Creamy and smooth Instant Pot gingerbread cheesecake topped with a white chocolate mousse and made with a ginger snap crust.
Gingerbread Cheesecake
Perfect for the holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, this lusciously flavorful and creamy cheesecake is a great addition to the dessert table.
This cheesecake is made with molasses, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. It has the classic flavors of gingerbread.
When making a cheesecake filling, it’s important to follow the steps and not be too eager to “overbeat” the mixture. It’s also important to use room temperature ingredients. The use of room temperature ingredients will ensure that your cheesecake is velvety smooth, and the flavors will marry better.
It's also a good idea to tap the springform pan on the counter to pop any air pockets that may have formed while pouring the gingerbread mixture into the pan.
You can use a hand mixer to make the cheesecake batter but be very careful when adding the eggs.
I prefer to use my food processor because it allows me to create short pulses that combine the ingredients. You can also choose to beat by hand but it will take quite a bit of work to get any and all lumps out of the batter.
Ginger Snap Crust
To make this cheesecake even more delicious, it is made with crushed gingersnap cookies mixed with melted butter and brown sugar. It softens the gingersnaps into a buttery soft texture. By blind-baking the crust before pressure cooking the cheesecake, it ensures that the crust is not too soft and it holds up well during serving.
It is not necessary to blind bake your crust - it's really your preference!
TIP: Blind baking is when you bake a crust in the oven without the filling. It makes the crust a little more crunchy than if you were to skip the blind baking step.
RELATED: White Chocolate Chip Mocha Cookies
White Chocolate Mousse Topping
The combination of white chocolate and gingerbread creates a wintery delight of flavors. The white chocolate mousse is made using cream cheese, melted white chocolate morsels or a white chocolate baking bar, and whipped topping.
This topping whips together quickly to make a creamy and delicious mousse topping perfect for this cheesecake.
Reserved crushed gingersnaps are used to sprinkle on top of the mousse to not only garnish this cheesecake but to also add texture.
ACCESSORIES NEEDED TO MAKE THE INSTANT POT GINGERBREAD CHEESECAKE
- Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
- 7″ Cheesecake Pan
- Baking Spray
- Instant Pot Sling or Handmade Aluminum Foil Sling
- Aluminum Foil
DIFFERENT SIZE CHEESECAKES
What if you have an 8 qt. Instant Pot? You can still make this cheesecake with the 7-inch pan or if you would prefer you can make this recipe in an 8-inch pan. The amount of ingredients (for the 7″) will make a slightly shorter cheesecake but it will still taste the same. If you are making the cheesecake in the 8-inch pan, you will have to adjust the time by 5 minutes.
📖 Recipe
Gingerbread Cheesecake (Instant Pot)
Creamy and smooth gingerbread cheesecake made in the Instant Pot and topped with a white chocolate mousse.
Ingredients
- 16 oz cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup heavy cream, room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon molasses
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
Cheesecake Crust & Topping
- 8 tablespoon butter
- 30 ginger snaps cookies, finely crushed
- ⅛ salt
- 3 teaspoon brown sugar
White Chocolate Mousse Topping
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened
- 6 oz white baking chocolate
- 4 oz whipped topping (half container)
Instructions
Gingersnap Crust
- Preheat oven to 325°
- Melt the 8 tablespoon of butter and add the crushed ginger snaps cookies, brown sugar, and the salt together in a bowl.
- Spray the bottom and sides of a 7" springform pan with baking spray.
- Add the crushed gingersnap mixture to the springform side and press it onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan.
- Reserve about ¼ cup of the mixture for the cheesecake topping.
- Bake for 12 minutes and remove from the oven allow it to cool.
Gingerbread Cheesecake Mixture
- Combine the room temperature cream cheese and heavy cream. Beat together well and add in the granulated sugar and vanilla extract.
- Beat in the cornstarch, salt, molasses, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg.
- Once well combined, add in the room temperature eggs one at a time.
- It's very important not to overbeat the eggs, it will result in a bumpy cheesecake.
- Pour the cheesecake mixture into prepared crust and gently tap the pan on the counter to pop any air bubbles.
- Loosely cover the top of the springform pan with aluminum foil.
- Pour 1 cup of water into the liner of the Instant Pot.
- Use a silicone sling or create a sling out of aluminum foil and place the cheesecake into the sling.
- Lower the sling into the Instant Pot.
- Set the Instant Pot to MANUAL for 40 minutes and allow the pot to completely naturally release (about 18 minutes)
- Carefully remove the cheesecake from the Instant Pot and remove the foil.
- Use a paper towel to dab any condensation that has collected on the cheesecake.
- Allow the cheesecake to sit on the counter for 10 minutes before transferring it to the cheesecake to chill in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
- Once the cheesecake is filled, remove from the pan, serve as is, or garnish with topping.
White Chocolate Mousse Topping
- Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or use a double boiler. Beat in the room temperature cream cheese and gently fold in the whipped topping.
- Using a knife or a piping bag, top the gingerbread cheesecake with the mousse.
- Sprinkle the remaining ginger snap crumbles on top of the cheesecake.
- Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 857Total Fat: 63gSaturated Fat: 38gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 20gCholesterol: 173mgSodium: 667mgCarbohydrates: 63gFiber: 4gSugar: 37gProtein: 12g
Jeannette
Tuesday 18th of July 2023
This sounds and looks SO GOOD!!! Thank you for your easy to follow directions too; my brother gave me an instant pot so I’m very new to using it. I just have one question: can I use ANY springform pan or does it have to specifically be an instant pot springform pan? Oops! I just thought of another question: do you have any sugar free dessert recipes?
Ronak Mehta
Wednesday 21st of October 2020
I tried out a cake with the above recipe. The cake was very soft and tasty. Thank you.