Brown Sugar Pumpkin Cheesecake with Chocolate Shortbread Crust

I made this for Thanksgiving, but it could easily make an appearance at Christmas time as well!  It turned out very well...it tasted good and looked really pretty!  Often, my cheesecakes crack on top, but this one was almost picture perfect!  Too bad I don't have an actual good picture of it...that's what happens when I have a hundred things going on at once.  

This recipe came from The Hungry Mouse via Pinterest

Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
5 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
10 Tbls. butter, diced and softened
1/2 cup + 2 Tbls. confectioner’s sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Filling
1/4 cup flour
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 Tbls. cognac *I used vanilla extract but I think cognac would be amazing
1 15-oz. can 100% pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
24 oz. cream cheese (that’s 3 8-oz. bricks), at room temperature
1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
4 eggs

Makes 1 9-inch cheesecake

Directions

crust - 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan with butter or oil and set it aside. Put the powdered sugar and butter in the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large bowl if you’re mixing by hand). Beat together until well combined. Toss in the egg yolks and vanilla. Beat until well combined. The mixture will be thick, fluffy, and a pale, buttery yellow. Add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Beat until the dry ingredients are well combined. You want the mixture to be a uniform color and texture. It will feel kind of like Play Doh.  Scrape the dough out and plop it into your pan. With your hands, press the dough so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pan (stop maybe a half an inch from the top edge). 

You want the dough to be relatively even in thickness, but don’t make yourself nuts. Prick the dough in several places with a fork. The butter in the dough will release steam as it bakes, and those holes allow it to escape—and keep your crust from getting big air bubbles. Pop the pan into your pre-heated, 350-degree oven. Bake it for about 20 minutes, until it’s completely opaque in color and the edges are starting to brown. When it’s done, yank the pan out of the oven and set it on a wire rack to cool. If you do have air bubbles under the crust, poke one or two very small holes in the crust and gently press the air out to deflate it.

Filling - 

When your crust has cooled to room temperature, make the filling. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. (If you left your oven on, don’t forgot to drop the heat. The cheesecake itself bakes at 25 degrees cooler than the crust.) Put the cream cheese in the bowl of your mixer. Beat it to break it up. Add the brown sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Toss in the eggs. Beat well to incorporate the eggs. The mixture will be a thick, soupy light brown, kind of like melted chocolate ice cream. Toss in the pumpkin. And the cognac vanilla. Beat to combine. The filling will be thick and creamy. Toss in the flour and pumpkin pie spice. Beat gently to combine. 

Bake - 

Pour the filling into your cooled crust. Pour it just until it fills the crust. Depending on how high up the sides of the pan your crust comes, you may wind up with a little extra filling. I had enough filling to fill a small store-bought graham cracker crust. So I made that for my Grandma! Pop the pan into your pre-heated 325-degree oven. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, until it *looks* set (i.e. firm and opaque) but the center jiggles a little when you move the pan.

Turn the heat off, crack the oven door about 4 or 5 inches. Leave the cheesecake in there (with the door cracked open) for an additional 3o minutes. Yank the cheesecake out of the oven when that last 30 minutes is up. Then, cool it in the pan on a rack for another 30 minutes. Then, pop in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight before serving.

**Verdict - YUM! You could really taste the brown sugar and the chocolate shortbread was a different twist.  It would also be awesome with a gingerbread crust!  We also had cinnamon cool whip for the top, but it didn't really need it.  I liked how the recipe was written with very explicit instructions and she let you know what to expect (colors and consistencies).  For an inexperienced cook like myself, it was very helpful!  Check out the original recipe post for step by step pics.

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I'm linking this recipe up with Everything Under the Moon, Homemaker on a Dime, Delightfully Dowling, Mouthwatering Monday @ A Southern Fairytale, Skip to my Lou, Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative, Eat at Home