I gotta get at least one apple recipe in before pumpkin season completely takes over. I baked for a BBQ a few weekends ago, and wanted to bring a dessert that would surely be a crowd pleaser and make use of the abundance of apples in my fridge. Bars make for a great treat to bring for a crowd – they travel well and can be cut large or small depending on the number of your guests. Plus these bars are more than great – they’re made up of of graham crackers, cheesecake, spiced apples, and a mighty layer of streusel on top.
I have another apple bar recipe on the blog from all the way back in 2010 that lacks the cheesecake in this one, and has much bigger apple chunks. One of the reasons I love these apple cheesecake bars is that the recipe calls for the apples to be cut into tiny pieces. So you get the flavor of the apples, without any big chunks of apples that I historically despise. The creamy cheesecake is a great compliment to the spiced apples and streusel and makes these bars truly decadent.
As you can see from these photos, I burned the graham cracker crust a bit, but thankfully that mishap didn’t disrupt the overall taste too much. Just be careful not to let the crust bake too long – I forgot to set my timer with the initial baking! Also, I learned a great tip when doing a bit of research for this recipe. Use a food processor to make the cheesecake layer – it results in the smoothest, creamiest batter every with not a single lump of cream cheese!
Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars
Recipe adapted from Crazy for Crust
Ingredients:
for the crust:
12 graham cracker sheets
50 Nilla wafer cookies
1/4 tsp cinnamon
12 tbsp butter, melted
for the cheesecake layer:
16-oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 tsp cinnamon
for the streusel topping:
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
Directions:
for the crust:
Line a 9x13" pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers and nilla wafer cookies in a food processor until powdery. Transfer to a medium bowl and stir in the cinnamon and melted butter. Press into prepared pan and bake for 5 minutes.
for the cheesecake layer:
In the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a food processor!), beat together the cream cheese, eggs, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Place chopped apples in a bowl and add the cinnamon, mix until cinnamon is well distributed.
for the streusel topping:
Add the brown sugar, flour, oats, and butter into a medium bowl and use your clean fingers to combine all of the ingredients until coarse crumbs form.
Pour the cream cheese mixture over hot crust and sprinkle with apples. Add the topping evenly over the apples and bake for 40-45 minutes. Cool to room temperature in the pan and then chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before cutting and serving.
These look delicious! How long do you estimate for prep time? With the kids under 7yrs I need to make sure I’m not signing up for too much!!
Erica — October 17th, 2016 @ 10:40 am
I would estimate about 45 minutes – it’s not the largest undertaking in terms of my recipes, but chopping the apples and doing the different components does take a bit longer than just throwing together a batch of cookies. I think you could do it!