Pumpkin-Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
Submitted by Sue Lowes on Feb 10, 2010

Yummy pumpkin pie variation

Servings:
8

Complexity:   
Medium

Total Time:
2 hours

Ingredients:
1 recipe Deep Dish Pie Pastry
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup finely chopped semisweet chocolate or miniature chocolate pieces
1-15 oz can pumpkin
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup half-and-half or light cream
Chopped chocolate (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line pastry with double thickness of foil. Bake pastry for 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 6 more minutes or until golden. Cool on wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
2. In medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg. Beat on low speed until smooth. Spread cream cheese mixture in cooled pastry shell. Sprinkle with chopped chocolate.
3. In bowl combine pumpkin, brown sugar and spice. Stir in 4 eggs. Gradually stir in half-and-half. Slowly pour pumpkin mixture on chocolage layer. To prevent overbrowning, cover pie edge with foil.
4. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until knife inserted near center come out clean. Remove foil. Cool on wire rack. cover and refrigerate 2 hours. Top with chopped chocolate.

Cook's Notes:
Be sure to chop the chocolate into small pieces before sprinkling it over the cheesecake layer of the pie; larger chunks will sink.