Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Years ago I tried a sample of a pumpkin cheesecake at Costco and fell in love :-). This year I decided to try making my own and was surprised at how easy it was! The other good news is that this is a much more manageable size so I wasn't tempted to keep eating it for days and days and days! I once again went to allrecipes.com for this holiday hit. It got rave reviews from everyone at dinner!!!

Ingredients:
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2.In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.
3.Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.
4.Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

Butterfinger Cheesecake Bites

All I have to say about these...LITTLE BITES OF HEAVEN!!! (and I found the recipe on Favorite Family Recipes and doubled it, thank goodness!)

Ingredients:
1 c. ground Vanilla Wafers
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1/8 tsp salt
8 oz softened cream cheese
1/4 c. creamy peanut butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
5 Tbsp. heavy cream, divided
1/8 tsp salt
6 Fun Size Butterfinger Candy Bars, crushed
1 c. semi sweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookie crumbs, sugar, butter and salt into a bowl; mix to combine. Spoon mixture into bottoms of mini cheesecake pan or mini cupcake pan and press. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from oven.
Reduce heat to 300 degrees. In a stand or electric mixer, beat cream cheese and peanut butter until smooth. Beat sugar, egg, cream and salt until well combined. Slowly stir in crushed Butterfinger. Evenly pour batter over baked crust. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until cheesecake is set. Let cool for 2 hours, then remove from pan.
Melt chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second intervals until smooth. Stir in cream until smooth and glossy. If needed, return back to microwave for 15 seconds or so until smooth. Spoon over tops of cakes then sprinkle crushed butterfinger over top.

To Die For Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

Becoming a better bake is something I definitely need to work on. My friend Susan (who is amazing) made and brought these to the book club meeting I hosted earlier this month and they were SOOOO GOOD!!! She had them cut in bars and I kept a whole plate of them after the meeting...and only let Mike eat one...I wanted them ALL for myself :-)! These will be the first thing I try to master! Definitely make these, you can thank Susan later! (and I'll thank her now...thank you for sharing the recipe Susan)

CHOCOLATE PETAL CRUST
Ingredients:
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1¼ cups unsifted flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:
-Beat butter in large bowl of electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add sugar, egg and vanilla, beating until light and fluffy.
-Combine dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture, beating well.
-Preheat oven to 375. Grease 9" by 13" pan. (I lined the pan with waxed paper, too)
-Pat crust mixture into pan.
-Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until crust is slightly puffed and feels somewhat firm when gently touched with fingertip. Cool slightly before filling.

FILLING:
Ingredients:
2 lbs cream cheese (low fat, not non-fat) (room temp helps)
1 1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs (room temp.)
1 Tablespoon Vanilla
1 cup sour cream (light)
1 cup semi sweet choc chips, melted

Directions:
-Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 or two at a time and then stir in the sour cream. I usually have to scrape the bowl 2 or 3 times while beating the cream cheese, sugar and eggs to get it all smooth.
*For the Chocolate swirl Cheesecake I made, pour all but 1/3 (roughly) of the batter on the prepared crust. Stir the chocolate in to the batter in the bowl, and then spoon it onto the batter in the pan. Try to place the spoonfuls so they are not touching and then gently swirl the batter a little with a butter knife.
-Cook at 300° for 1 hour or until middle springs back when touched. Chill before serving.

GLAZE:
I glazed it with a Ganache made with 1/2 cup cream and 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Bring the cream to a boil, add the chips, and stir until smooth. Unnecessary, but good.

Other Options:
Once you have the basic filling, you can melt 2 cups of chocolate chips and stir it into all the batter and have chocolate cheesecake. Or you can buy a bag of mini chips and stir them in. Or you can make it plain and put fresh berries or a glaze on it. You can also do it in a 10" spring form pan and cook for 1 hour 15 minutes. It will make a tremendous mess if you try a 9 inch pan.