Toffee Pumpkin Cheesecake

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So this was another gem adapted from one of those little Betty Crocker recipe booklets that stare you down in the supermarket checkout line!  

For those of you worried about the intricacies of cheesecake - DON'T!  It may look fancy (hopefully), but it was super easy.  Of course mine doesn't look exactly like the original, because I like to put my own stamp and style on it in terms of decorating it, etc., but that is up to the sole discretion of the cook.

 
Ingredients: 

2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (32 squares)

1/2 cup melted butter

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

5 eggs

1 (8 oz) bag toffee bits

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

3/4 cup whipping cream

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt
Toppings of choice

Method:

Heat oven to 300 degrees.  Spray 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray.  Pulverize graham crackers to a fine powder.  I used my food processor, but you could also put them in a ziptop bag and pound them. In a small bowl, mix crumbs and butter.  Mix until a course meal is achieved.  Press in bottom of pan.  Bake 15 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on high speed until smooth.  Beat in 2 of the eggs.  Mix until smooth to incorporate the eggs.  STIR in 1 cup of the toffee bits.  Spread over crust.  In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, whipping cream, 2/3 cup sugar, the cinnamon, salt and remaining 3 eggs just until blended.  Slowly and carefully spoon over cheesecake layer.  You don't want to disrupt the first layer. Bake 2 hours or until edge of cheesecake is set at least 2 inches from edge of pan but center still jiggles slightly when moved.  During this process, I added a small pan of water to the bottom rack of the oven filled with water.  I wanted to have some more moisture in there to prevent splitting. Turn oven off, open oven door at least 4 inches.  Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Run spatula around edge of pan.  Cool 30 minutes or more on cooling rack. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.  Run spatula around edge of pan; remove side of pan.

Decorate at will!  This could mean piping whipped topping around the edges of the cheesecake and sprinkling with remaining toffee bits as suggested by the recipe.  I didn't want the topping to "melt" all over the top of mine, so I took a different route.  I crushed up an additional 2 squares of cinnamon grahams and mixed them with extra toffee bits.  I sprinkled this mixture around the outer 1 inch of the cheesecake, and around the bottom.  I took a couple of large bars of caramel and and sea salt dark chocolate and broke them into large angular chunks.  I placed these around the top for some added dimension.  Little pieces made a pile in the center.
 

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