Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

Ingredients:
2 eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
3 oz unsweetened chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour or spray with baking spray one 8x8 inch baking dish. In a small pan, melt the chocolate and 2 tablespoons of butter together, stirring occasionally. Set aside. In a medium bowl, beat together the eggs and sugars until fluffy. Add the vanilla and melted butter, mix thoroughly. Add in the baking powder and flour. Beat to combine. Divide the batter into two bowls. Add the melted chocolate to one bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the cream cheese, nutmeg and pumpkin to the second bowl of batter and mix thoroughly. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared pan. Drop large spoonfuls of the chocolate batter on top and swirl throughly with a knife for a marbled look. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out nearly clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Slice and serve.

My thoughts:

I've had luck with cheesecake brownies in the past but wanted to make something a little more seasonal. These are really moist and flavorful brownies. Keep in mind when you make this recipe that it is pumpkin cheesecake flavored and not pumpkin pie flavored. Pumpkin has a subtle squash flavor that the tang of cheesecake compliments, but if you've only ever eaten pumpkin in pie form, it might not taste quite the way you expect. I hadn't thought of making that distinction, but that's the reaction that I've been getting from people who tried them, the brownies were great, but tasted nothing like pumpkin pie! Which, of course, they weren't supposed to-it's the spices that give pumpkin pie that distinctive taste and aroma, not the pumpkin.