Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

What do you cook for the cook extraordinaire? This was the dilemma I faced a few weeks ago, when my co-worker Doris had a birthday. Doris is THE cook at the station and has held that title for years. Nothing humbles a girl who cooks for everyone's birthday like finding out "the cook's" birthday is coming up. GULP.

So...I thought I'd give this little Pinterest find a try...just, you know, to see. So I made it, took it to work, and for the first time that I can remember since beginning my job, she took a vacation day! LOL!! The rest of the staff ate it and raved over it...so I made it again and took it (rather nervously) for Doris to try. I almost apologetically put it down on her desk and scampered away to wait.

She loved it so much, she asked for the recipe. I'm still scraping my jaw off the floor. I think that speaks enough for this recipe, which I found on Pinterest from here at "The Girl Who Ate Everything."

The Recipe

Crust:

2 cups flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

Cheesecake Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons, divided

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Streusel Topping:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup caramel topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Press evenly into a greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust.

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture.
For the streusel topping:  In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Sprinkle Streusel topping over apples. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

It's true that it's a lot of ingredients and involves apple chopping but trust me  it is SO WORTH IT! I did use the 1/3 less fat cream cheese and it worked fine. (Will anyone notice with 3 sticks of butter? But I digress...)

Flour, brown sugar, and melted butter mixed together for the crust....

It's a very thick crust once you have it all combined.

I put a sandwich baggie over my hand and pressed the crust into the bottom of the pan.

While it baked, I chopped up the apples - truly the worst part of this entire recipe. (Might not be as bad if I learned to use the apple peeler/corer/slicer I have owned for how many years now?)

I tossed them in the sugar and cinnamon mixture to keep them from looking ugly when they started to brown. I'm such a visual cook. :)

Soften the cream cheese just a little.

Add the sugar.

As you add the eggs and vanilla, it will get pretty runny.

Pour it over the crust after it comes out of the oven.

Sprinkle the apples with the cinnamon/sugar over the batter

Combine the butter, flour, brown sugar, and oats for the streusel topping.

The topping will be really thick and hard to combine.

Break it up and sprinkle it over the cheesecake bars.

Bake - and it will come out all pretty like this.

Add the caramel topping and refrigerate.

It's just straight up good. Even for breakfast....not that I know...