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With a tangy, rich flavor and velvety consistency, cheesecake’s characteristic qualities make it well-suited to variation: Lemon cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake, and berry cheesecake are all common. But our favorite variation might just be pumpkin cheesecake.

We love the way the tangy cream cheese offsets the warmspiced pumpkin, and we set out to create a streamlined version in the form of a pumpkin cheesecake bar.

To avoid a soggy, heavy bar, we knew the key would be to remove excess moisture from the canned pumpkin, so we cooked the puree on the stovetop to reduce it. This step also concentrated its flavor and enhanced its sweetness so it wasn’t overshadowed by the cream cheese.

Adding pumpkin pie spice to the puree as it cooked allowed its flavor to bloom. We thought a gingersnap crust would be a fitting match for the pumpkin filling; but while the flavor of the crust was great, we found that the crushed gingersnaps baked up unappealingly hard.

To get the flavor of gingersnaps without the tooth-breaking snap we used the traditional graham crackers and simply added ground ginger to the crackers to spice them up.

PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE BARS

Servings: 24 Start to finish: 3 hours 1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin puree 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 1/2 teaspoon salt 15 whole graham crackers, broken into 1-inch pieces

1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces) plus 1 1/3 cups (9 1/3 ounces) sugar 1 teaspoon ground ginger 8 tablespoons butter, melted 1 pound cream cheese, softened 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 large eggs, room temperature Cook pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until reduced to 1 1/2 cups, 6 to 8 minutes. Let pumpkin mixture cool for 1 hour.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 F. Make foil sling for 13 by 9-inch baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil.

CARL TREMBLAY/AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN VIA AP Pumpkin cheesecake bars in Brookline, Mass. This recipe appears in the cookbook “The Perfect Cookie.”