Chocolate-Crusted Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:
9 oz (half package) Oreos, crushed (eat other half of package while cooking)
1/4 c. sugar
6 T. butter, melted

Pumpkin mixture:
1-1/2 c. canned pumpkin
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 eggs, slightly beaten
5 oz evaporated milk
1 t. vanilla

Cheese mixture:
1/2 c. sugar
1 T. cornstarch
1-1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cloves
salt (the recipe doesn't say how much, and I don't remember how much I used last year--maybe 1/2 t.?)
24 oz softened cream cheese


Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together the three crust ingredients. Press mixture firmly into the bottom of a greased 9x13-inch pan. Bake until crust is set, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and cool crust completely.

In a bowl, stir together the five pumpkin mixture ingredients. Set aside.

In the mixer, mix all the cheese mixture ingredients EXCEPT the cream cheese. When mixed, add the cheese and beat on high speed until smooth. Take out 1/4th of the cheese mixture and set it aside to be used two steps from now.

With mixer running at low speed, add pumpkin mixture to the cheese mixture and mix until combined and smooth.

Pour pumpkin mixture into pan. Drop dollops of the reserved cheese mixture over the pumpkin mixture. Use a thin metal spatula or knife to gently pull the cheese dollops through the pumpkin to make swirls.

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes, or until center of cheesecake is just set. Remove from oven and cool 30 minutes. Cover and chill for a few hours. Eat in handfuls directly from pan in fridge. Or, slice it into squares and serve it on plates, I guess, if that's the way you want to do it.