This just in - taste test has a clear winner!

Last night I was playing around with some cheesecake recipes to make a caramel apple pumpkin cheesecake with a ginger snap crust.  I think I invented a winner. 
First I made a tangy pumpkin cheesecake with a buttery ginger snap crust.

The toppings:
     1) apple and caramel
     2) apple, caramel and streusel
     3) apple, cinnamon and caramel
     4) apple, cinnamon, streusel and caramel


The clear winner was number 4. They liked them all, but the caramel sauce over the streusel was prettier and everyone preferred cinnamon to no cinnamon. The caramel over just the cheesecake and apples was far too moist and lost its pretty golden color...still tasty, but not pretty.
Cupcake size was also a good choice. No cutting!!!


Now, to make them again and write down everything I did. lol

Flavors from left to right:
apple/caramel -- apple/caramel/ streusel -- apple-cinnamon/caramel -- apple-cinnamon/streusel/caramel


Changes for the next go 'round:
   a little thinner crust
   a more gooey caramel sauce applied just before serving
   smaller apple chunks - just a touch since the cooking time was only 30 minutes
   one more egg in the filling to firm it up a bit more since I added quite a bit of pumpkin


I will post the recipe when I've got it perfected.


Happy fall flavors!!!