Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

I found this recipe in the Fall edition of Kraft Foods "Food and Family". I think it is very good!

First, for the crust, you need:
1 1/2 cups Ginger snaps, finely crushed

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup or 1/2 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix crumbs, nuts and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan.

Next you need:

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese ( used 2 regular and 2 low-fat)

1 cup sugar divided into 3/4 cup and 1/4 cup

1 tsp. vanilla

4 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Dash of ground cloves

Beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla with mixer until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each just until blended. Remove 1 1/2 cups batter. Stir remaining sugar, pumpkin and spices into remaining batter.

Spoon half the pumpkin batter into crust; top with spoonfuls of half the plain batter. Repeat layers; swirl with knife.

Bake 45 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Wow, what a mess. I guess I have the bake time and refrigeration time to get it cleaned up!

Finally, the taste test. Mmmm pretty yummy!

I am tempted to just make it with the whole can of pumpkin mixed into all of the cream cheese mixture and "up" the spices a bit. I would like it to be a bit more pumpkiny! If anyone tries this, let me know what you thought.

Ya'll Come Back!

Lorilee