rOur front office held two tables of goodies, ranging from a fantastic cold noodle salad by art director Linda to delicious stuffing from web specialist Lindsay to mouthwatering butternut squash soup with frizzled shallots from events editor Karly. Shrimp cocktail, crab dip, chicken salad, sesame chicken, green salad -- needless to say, we had plenty of food leftover!
I chose to make pumpkin cheesecake ownies, a dessert recipe I must make every year. The rich chocolate base and swirls of creamy pumpkin filling just make for a fantastic fall dessert.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies
For the ownies
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Combine the butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl and combine thoroughly. Add the dry ingredients slowly and mix together. Spoon the batter into a greased 8x8 metal baking dish, making sure it's level.
For the cheesecake batter
6 ounces cream cheese, softened (Make sure it's really soft or else little chunks of cream cheese will bake into the batter)
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Beat the ingredients together. Using a spoon, drizzle vertical lines of batter, spaced 1/2 inch apart, on top of the ownie mix. Swish a butter knife through the lines in a perpendicular manner so it creates swirls of cheesecake batter.
Bake the ownies for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out of the center clean. Let cool thoroughly before cutting them.
