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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day: Add Chocolate


I love all these food holidays. October 21 is National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day: Add Chocolate...I love pumpkin and chocolate... and cheesecake is my thing, so here's an easy recipe for a Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake! Celebrate. Great for Halloween and Thanksgiving!

The filling for this pumpkin cheesecake is from Hershey's Kitchens. I like this one, though because it has a Chocolate Cookie Crust, but I've also posted another simple crust recipe using chocolate wafers!

Ingredients:

CHOCOLATE COOKIE CRUST
3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups HERSHEY'S Mini Chips Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Directions:
1. Prepare CHOCOLATE COOKIE CRUST. Increase oven temperature to 400°F.

2. Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until well blended. Add pumpkin and eggs; beat until well blended. Stir in small chocolate chips; pour batter into prepared crust. Bake 10 minutes.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 250°F; continue baking 60 minutes or until almost set. Remove from oven to wire rack. With knife, loosen cake from side of pan. Cool completely; remove side of pan. Refrigerate about 5 hours before serving. Cover; refrigerate leftover cheesecake. 10 to 12 servings.

CHOCOLATE COOKIE CRUST: Heat oven to 350°F. Stir together 1 cup vanilla wafer crumbs (about 30 wafers), 1/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa, 1/4 cup powdered sugar and 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter or margarine in medium bowl. Press mixture firmly onto bottom and 1/2-inch up side of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 8 minutes; cool slightly.

You can always make a chocolate cookie crust with chocolate wafers. I think that's what I'd do... Here's an easy recipe for
Chocolate Cookie Crust:

Ingredients
30 chocolate wafers (Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, to yield about 1 1/2 cups crumbs)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
1. Put the cookies in the container of a food processor; process them until they are finely ground.
2. Transfer crumbs to a mixing bowl; combine crumbs, butter, salt, and vanilla; stir until the crumbs are moistened.
3. Press mixture evenly across the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan and all the way up the sides of the pan; pack tightly so crust is even and compacted.
4. Bake in a 350° oven for 6-8 minutes or until crisp.
5. Let cool completely before filling.

3 comments:

Robert Walker said...

how can you go wrong? pumpkin, cheesecake, chocolate. I could see someone getting murdered over this.

~~louise~~ said...

Oh Janet, I am so delighted you chose to share this recipe for National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day. The chocolate cookie crust sounds like the "icing on the cake." I must grab this link. I wish I could figure out how to do the create a link at the bottom of your page. Every time I try to create it, I wind up on the top of my page. So many things for this little mind of mine to learn:) Thanks Janet:)

Janet Rudolph said...

I need to figure out how to create a link. I'll be trying.. this cheesecake is outstanding. Use the second chocolate cookie crust.. good for others, too.