pumpkin cheesecake bars;
It’s that time of year again! The temperature is finally changing (a little too much with this November snow!) and the pumpkin-flavored foods are back on all the shelves! So what better way to celebrate than with delicious pumpkin cheesecake? Plus, you know what I noticed when I was editing photos for this post? A slice of cheesecake is kinda candy corn colored. So it’s double down on the fall festivity! It’s not quite that neon yellow color, and the colors are out of order, but I think the resemblance makes these little squares even more fall-festive.
So if any of you are wondering where I’ve been the past few months, the answer is–wedding planning! Things have been crazy at work with a huge software release and some late nights working, plus all the organizing and coordinating of our wedding, plus planning the honeymoon, and we’re back just in time for Thanksgiving! It’s funny, I actually forgot Thanksgiving was so close. It is early this year, and we were halfway around the world in New Zealand where they obviously don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. But this would be a wonderful addition to any Thanksgiving dessert table, trust me!
Our wedding day was wonderful, filled with love and family and friends, and despite raining (it’s supposed to be good luck) we still had a blast. Everything seemed to come together, and I hope our personal touches paid off. We went with dusty blue and cranberry for our colors, I along with my mother-in-law made both regular and chocolate caramels to welcome guests, we used instax polaroid cameras as our guestbook, and handed out little jars of apple pie moonshine as favors! Don’t worry, it was apple cider for the kids.
You can expect some Tipsy Life photos of our honeymoon coming along because I want to make sure I document it! But despite all the craziness of wedding planning and traveling, I’ve still been cooking, so I’ll make sure to share those recipes with you too!
pumpkin pie cheesecake bars;
Ingredients
Crust
- 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 6 Tbsp melted butter
Filling
- 15 oz cream cheese
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup + 1 Tbsp. sour cream
- ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 4 tsp/ corn starch
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp vanilla
- 8 oz canned pumpkin
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg
Instructions
Crust
- Line a 13” x 9” baking sheet with parchment paper
- In a medium bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Once evenly mixed, press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
Filling
- In a large bowl, add cream cheese and sugar and mix on low speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg until just blended.
- Cover the graham cracker crust with slightly more than half the filling mixture and spread evenly. (Pumpkin puree will add volume to remaining mixture.) Cool in the fridge to set.
- To the remaining filling add the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice and whisk until smooth. Pour over other layer and smooth.
- Bake cheesecake in a waterbath for 50 minutes or until just set. Allow to cool and top with whipped topping/sprinkles/cinnamon.
