Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

I love, love, love Elly’s recipes. This one was adapted from Allrecipes.com, but I like what Elly did with it so thats the one I made. :) What a great way to get your pumpkin fix. The cheesecake was nice, but the pumpkin cut the sweetness a little bit so it’s not as overwhelming. And my favorite part of the whole things is the crust. Gingersnaps & Pecans? Yum!

Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

2.25 cups crushed gingersnap cookies

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1 stick (8 Tbsp.) unsalted butter, melted

2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 (heaping) tsp. ground cloves

Preheat the oven to 250 and lightly grease a 9×13 baking pan.  In a large bowl or in your food processor, combine the gingersnaps, pecans, and butter.  Press into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 10-12 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl or in your stand mixer bowl, mix the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla just until smooth.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, blending after each addition.  Set aside one cup of the mixture.  To the remaining mixture, mix in the 1/4 cup sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

Spread the pumpkin batter into the crust.  Drop the remaining plain batter by spoonfuls onto the top. Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until filling is just set (the middle will still jiggle a little bit).  Cool the bars in the pan and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving.