For Thanksgiving I wanted to bake something special with my children.  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

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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!
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*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!
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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!

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Comments

10/18/2010 11:29pm

I love pumpkin. It's one of the reasons that autumn is my favourite season. These sound good enough to have all season long. No need to wait for another Thanksgiving!

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10/19/2010 11:34am

Yum! This looks awesome Wendy! Thanks for the recipe :) One question- do you add the pumpkin/chocolate bowl to the cream cheese mix before spreading it? I'm assuming so :)

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10/19/2010 11:36am

Actually, scratch my last comment. I read the directions again and they make sense :)

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Wendy - I had seen these before on Martha's site and you did such a great job, it was the fabulous looking result (rather than the name) that jogged my memory! They really look terrific and are currently wreaking havoc with my will power!

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10/19/2010 9:25pm

I'm thrilled you guys think they look good. What is better than pumpkin treats in the fall?!

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10/20/2010 4:10am

Yummy!!! I love pumpkin. Thanks for the recipe. Would like to make some for myself.

Reply
10/20/2010 9:18am

Stop it right now. I have to resist the urge to bath in pumpkin this time of year. I LOVE it!! Can't wait to try this recipe!! Thanks :-)

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