Another Pumpkin Dessert

Ok, so after having pumpkin muffins for a week, I tried Orange Leaf's pumpkin pie frozen yogurt and I thought it was delicious! I also bought some of Bigelow's Pumpkin Spice Tea....not much of a hit with me. And then last night, I made another pumpkin dessert. I'm just getting my fix, ok?


So we had a birthday at work and I volunteered to make the dessert. I found this recipe on www.bettycrocker.com, too! Are you surprised? I.Love.Betty. So anyways, here it is!

Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake Bars
You can check it out on the website by clicking here.

Ingredients:

Cookie Base

1	pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
1/2	cup crushed gingersnap cookies
1/2	cup finely chopped pecans  (I didn't use these)
1/2	cup cold butter or margarine

Filling

2	packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened (I used 1 pkg fat free, 1 pkg 1/3 less fat)
1	cup sugar
1	cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
2	tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1	tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
2	tablespoons whipping cream
2	eggs

Toppings

1/3	cup chocolate topping (I used melted chocolate chips)
1/3	cup caramel topping (I used melted peanut butter and white chocolate chips)

 
Sounds amazing, right? Here is a picture of how mine turned out:

.....and a look at the inside

I'm pretty sure it was a hit! I didn't intend to modify this recipe, because calories don't count on birthdays, right? And I just took that rule to the next level by applying it to everyone else whose birthday it was NOT.

• I only used reduce fat and fat free cream cheese because that's the kind I had in my fridge. That's one way to reduce the calories and fat, IF you wanted to.

• And I don't like nuts in my dessert. That's why I left them out. Plain and simple.

• If you wanted to reduce calories you could try the baking splenda in place of the regular sugar, but I wouldn't mess with the butter in the streusel/crust! It's just too hard to make a crust with no fat because you need it to bind the other ingredients in the crust. I used smart balance omega-3 butter, also because that's the kind I had in my fridge.

I WILL be making this for Thanksgiving. It was that good. This is definitely a recipe worth making!


I'm off to pack for another weekend in Fayetteville, after our long trek to Magnolia for Friday night's game. Woo!!