For Thanksgiving I wanted to bake something special with my children. My big brother’s suggestion was pumpkin pie. As strange as it might sound my husband and I are not huge pumpkin pie fans. Weird, I know!
I wanted to stick with the pumpkin theme. I do ? pumpkins! 😉 Thanks to Google (one thing I am grateful for!) I did a search and found a recipe that combined pumpkin with two other things I love, cheesecake and chocolate. Yummy!
I owe many thanks to MarthaStewart.com for this one. It is Halloween heaven over there right now!
Here is the glorious recipe in its original form: Chocolate-Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
The recipe to follow is only a slight adaptation.
Pumpkin-Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake Bars
When you want to celebrate and pumpkin pie is not exactly what you are looking for. Why not add chocolate and cheesecake to the tradition!
Ingredients:
Bottom Layer
1 cup Oreo chocolate baking crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Filling
2 bars cream cheese, 250g or 8 ounces each
1 cup sugar
1 cup pure pumpkin puree
3 eggs
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon all-spice
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line baking pan (brownie pan or 8 inch square) with aluminum foil, leave excess foil hanging over all sides.
In a bowl combine chocolate baking crumbs and 2 Tbsp sugar. Stir in melted butter until crumbs are moistened.
Pour crumbs into baking pan and gently press down. Bake 12 minutes, and then set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.
To the bowl add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, flour, pumpkin puree and eggs. Mix until combined.
In a small bowl melt chocolate chips, either in short 20 sec increments in the microwave, or in a double broiler.
Stir chocolate chips until smooth and melted without lumps. Add 1 cup of pumpkin mixture to the melted chocolate and stir.
Pour the rest of the pumpkin mixture into the baking pan. Drop spoonfuls of chocolate mixture onto the pumpkin mixture. Using a butter knife drag it through the mixture creating swirls.
Bake cheesecake about 40 minutes.
Cool in pan. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or more. Remove cheesecake using the foil overhang. Cut and serve.
Enjoy!
*For bar recipes I love to use my Perfect Brownie Pan. When I bought it I was seriously sceptical it might just be a gimmick, but I LOVE to bake and make my creations look good so cutting bars and having them crumble apart sometimes was just not appealing. I decided to give the pan and try and have loved it ever since. Although you absolutely do not need a pan like this, if you love baking as much as I do you and have wondered about it yourself, I give it my thumbs up!
I might just have to make this recipe again for American Thanksgiving, or the holiday season. I do love more reasons to celebrate 🙂
Have a great day!
