Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares

It might be January & maybe I have missed pumpkin season but these Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares are so delicious they are good any time of year & any day!

These Pumpkin Cheesecake Squares have a mild pumpkin flavour. The recipe calls for Pumpkin Pie Spice which I do not have so I just used a but more cinnamon & ginger! Also, I used canned pumpkin!

The pumpkin filling is swirled with the cheesecake filling making this just so pretty! One of my favourite bases for squares & pies is a Graham Wafer crust! The recipe is for a 13×9 pan but I only wanted to make half the recipe so I used a square baking dish

I froze the leftovers & we enjoy them right from the freezer! I let them sit out for a bit so she crust is not frozen solid but we like the filling a bit frozen! You can let them defrost in the fridge before eating as well.

I used my food processor to mix the filling.

Here is an affiliate link to a Kitchen Aid food processor. My food processor is really old so this one is different to the one I have but when I need a new one I would like this one!

The recipe is from Canadian Living. Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake Bars if you want to make a 13×9 pan you can check out this website for that recipe

Here is the recipe the way that I made these!

Ingredients

Crust

2 cups graham wafer crumbs

1/2 cup melted butter

2 tbsp sugar

Filling

1 1/2 250g pkg of cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

3/4 cup pumpkin I used canned pumpkin

Method

Preheat oven to 325f

Grease an 8×8 square pan.

Crust

1. Mix the crust ingredients together.
2. Press evenly into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until browned. Let cool

Filling

1, You can use a stand mixer for this or your food processor if you want. I used my food processor. Beat the cream cheese with the sugar & vanilla until smooth. Scrape down the sides & bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula.

2. Add the eggs , scape the bowl again with a spatula to make sure all of the ingredients are well combined

3. Remove half of the cream cheese batter & put into a bowl.

4. Add the pumpkin & spices to one of the halves of the batter. Mix well

5. Now put the batter alternately onto the crust… a dollop of pumpkin batter, a dollop of plain batter etc. but as you can see in the video I started doing this but then I just put the pumpkin filling on the crust & dolloped the plain filling on then swirled with a knife to create a pattern.

6, Bake in the preheated oven for approx 35 minutes until just about set

7. Let cool for an hour then chill in the refrigerator until firm. The recipe on Canadian Living says it can take about 4 hours to chill.

Cut into squares & enjoy!