The leaves are changing, Halloween is coming, the air is chilly - isn’t it time to cook with pumpkin? Not just for pies, pumpkin is delicious in sweet and savory dishes and packed with nutrition. It’s loaded with vitamins A, C, K and E, minerals, fiber and antioxidant carotenoids. Canned puree is easiest to cook or bake with, but you can make your own puree by putting a few slits in a pumpkin and baking on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for  an hour or until a knife goes in the pumpkin easily. Scoop out the seeds and discard and then scoop and use the soft flesh. Speaking of pumpkin seeds, who doesn’t love roasted pumpkin seeds? Check out our own Last Minute Lady’s roasted pumpkin seed how-to at our Halloween Central section.

Pumpkin pie is old news - this weekend I made these delicious Chocolate Swirl Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies for a family party and they were a big hit. These feed a crowd - cut them small as they are rich. They need to chill for at least two hours and up to two days so plan accordingly.

Chocolate Swirl Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Crust:

• 1 1/2 sleeves of chocolate graham crackers (you’ll need 1 1/2 c. crumbs)
• 6 tbs. melted butter

Cheesecake filling:

• 3 8-oz bars cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 can solid-pack pumpkin puree (approx. 1 1/2 c.)
• 4 eggs
• 4 tbs. flour
• 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp. salt
• 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 12 brownie pan with foil (leave an overhang) and grease. In food processor, crush graham crackers until finely ground and add melted butter. Pulse until combined and press mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 until firm - 10 - 12 minutes. Be vigilant to be sure it doesn’t burn. Let cool and prepare filling.

Blend cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, pumpkin, eggs, flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt and blend until smooth. Scrape down the bowl a few times to make sure it’s completely blended.

Melt chocolate in microwave and stir after one minute then 30 minute intervals to avoid burning. Stir until smooth and add 1 1/2 cups of the filling mixture from food processor bowl.

Pour remaining filling on top of crust in pan and spread until level and smooth. Place evenly-spaced dollops of the chocolate mixture on top and using a knife, make swirls by dragging blade through the pumpkin and chocolate mixtures until swirled - it should look like this when you are done:

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Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until set. Cool and then chill covered in pan for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days. When ready to slice, remove cake from pan by lifting foil and cut into uniform squares.

Here are some of Rachael’s recipes featuring our friend the pumpkin - Happy Fall!

Savory Recipes:

Chipotle-Pumpkin Black Bean Soup

Pumpkin Cream Tortellini Lasagna

Saltimbocca Brown Butter Ravioli with Pumpkin

Pumpkin Turnovers

Pasta with Pumpkin and Sausage

Pumpkin Polenta with Grilled Vegetables and Sausage

Sweet Recipes:

Gingerbread Waffles

Pumpkin Pudding

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Blogroll, Food, Friends, Yum-o! tips for healthy eating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.