Giraffe Legs: Pumpkin Sopaipilla Cheesecake

First off you may be asking what in the world is a Sopaililla?

To this I answer:

A sopaipilla, sopapilla, sopaipa, or cachanga

is a kind of fried pastry and a type of quick bread

served in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, New Mexico,

Peru, Texas, and Uruguay.

No, I am not really that smart, I just cut and paste the answer from Wikipedia! What I call it is yummy deliciousness. I found this recipe on the Pillsbury site here when I was looking for a quick and tasty dish to serve at our ice breaker meeting at my MoMs group. The recipe looked good, but I wanted something with a little more fall flavor, so I decided to kick it up and add some pumpkin. Now, if you are my husband, you are saying things like, "why do you make something new every time we have to bring something some where? What if it tastes bad? What if everyone hates it? Why can't you ever make the same thing twice. Stay with the tried and true." I say, "What's the fun in that?" I like to change recipes and create. And so I take that chance and I have never had a total flop - yet!

So, here is MY recipe for a Pumpkin Sopaililla Cheesecake.

2 cans of butter flavored crescent rolls

2 8oz. reduced fat cream cheese - room temp.

8 oz. of canned pumpkin (yes the can is 16oz. use half and save the rest for something else)

1 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice

3/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp. of vanilla

1/4 cup of melted butter

plus another 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp. of cinnamon mixed together for topping

Preheat oven to 350.

Begin by pressed one can of crescent rolls into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 glass dish.

Mix together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, pumpkin and spice. I used a mixer to get it nice and smooth.

Spread mixture over the crescent rolls.

I used waxed paper to place the second rolls of crescents on and roll it out a little to fit the pan, as the rolls are slightly smaller than the pan. I then transferred the rolls onto the mixture by flipping over the wax paper on top of the pan.

Next you pour on the melted butter and sprinkler the cinnamon sugar mixture over the top.

Looks good already- right?

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until it is browned and bubbly. The pumpkin increases the cooking time from the original recipe. Too bad I learned this as I waited for it to finish baking, then I threw it in a carrier and rushed off to the meeting. I served it warm (almost hot) due to my increased baking time. When it cooled down the pumkin and cheese mixture firmed up and was almost like pudding. I would recommend letting it cool for at least 1/2 hour before serving. It can also be refrigerated and served cold, but I like my pumpkin a little warm.