Brown Sugar Pumpkin Cheesecake

For the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan with non-stick cooking spray. Cover the outside of the pan in a double layer of aluminum foil (pan needs to be water tight), set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and butter, beat until well combined. Add egg yolks and vanilla, beating until combined. At this point the mixture will be thick, fluffy, and pale-buttery yellow. Add flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Beat until dry ingredients are well combined. The dough should feel a little like Play Doh. Place dough into prepared springform pan, press dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Once dough is pressed down, prick the dough in many places with a fork. This prevents the dough from forming air bubbles while cooking.

Place pan into preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until it’s completely opaque in color and begins to brown. When crust is done, remove from oven and set on wire rack to cool.

For the filling:
While crust is cooling, begin the filling. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until soft. Add brown sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until combined. Add pumpkin and cognac (if you prefer to not use cognac you may substitute vanilla extract) and beat to combine. Add flour and pumpkin pie spice, beating gently until just combined.

To bake the cheesecake:
Pour filling into cooled crust. Pour just until it fills the crust (I ended up only using about half of the batter). Place foil-covered pan into a jellyroll pan and add enough water to cover the entire jellyroll pan but not enough to spill over the sides. Very carefully place in the preheated oven. Bake for 75 minutes. Turn heat off, crack open the oven door about 4 or 5 inches. Leave cheesecake in there for an additional 30 minutes. Once the 30 minutes are up, remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30-45 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours (overnight is best) before serving.

Chill, slice, garnish with whipped cream, serve, and enjoy!