Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Can’t decide between apple crisp and cheesecake? These caramel apple cheesecake bars offer the best of both. Creamy vanilla cheesecake, sweet and spiced apples, and a crisp oat topping drizzled with mouthwatering salted caramel sauce.
Cinnamon crust
I didn’t want just a plain graham crust for these, but I also didn’t want to overcomplicate the recipe. Using cinnamon grahams and a bit of brown sugar keeps the spiced “fall” theme intact without being distracting.
Cheesecake filling
I tried a few different things with this before ultimately settling back on my “no frills” vanilla bean cheesecake. I used brown sugar instead of white for one test, swirled a ribbon of caramel through the next one. The brown sugar made no difference, and the caramel got lost in the other flavors.
Because there’s more going on with the spiced apples and oat topping, the vanilla cheesecake is the perfect blank slate, while still offering a sweet, tangy flavor that ties everything together. It’s a great break up of textures, too. Crisp oats, tender apples, creamy and dense filling, and a crumbly crust. These caramel apple cheesecake bars are a sensory delight!
Spiced Apples
You can use any apple you want, but I prefer Honeycrisp or Granny Smith. Both hold their shape well when baked and have great flavor!
Start by peeling the apples, then remove the cores and divide each apple into 8 slices. I like using this apple tool to do both the coring and dividing at the same time.
Once you have the peeled and divided apples, use a mandoline to slice them to about an 1/8th inch thickness. While you don’t need to use a mandoline, it really helps with getting perfectly uniform slices in a short amount of time. Just be careful when you reach the end of an apple slice, the blades on a mandoline are extremely sharp!
Toss the slices in cinnamon and cardamom before cooking them with a little butter to soften them up. This will only take a few minutes, since the slices are thin. Just cook them until they’re tender crisp, and they’ll finish up to the perfect texture as the cheesecake bakes.
Oat Streusel
Use old fashioned oats rather than quick cooking ones. The old fashioned has more oat-y flavor, at least in my experience. However, if all you have on hand is quick cook, then you can definitely use them instead.
When you make the streusel, be sure to use cold butter. If the butter is warm or melted, the water can separate from the butterfat and react with the flour and sugar. That’s great for cake and bread, but it’ll make your streusel gooey instead of crunchy.
Serving & Shelf life
These cheesecake bars are the BEST when drizzled with warm salted caramel. It’s like having a caramel apple, apple pie and cheesecake all in one. You want to know what’s really good? A scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of one of these. Hello.
Store these caramel apple cheesecake bars sealed up in the fridge. They’ll last for the better part of a week before the streusel starts to get gummy from the moisture.
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cooling & Chilling: 6 hours
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 7 hours + 30 minutes
- Yield: 16 squares 1x
- Category: Dessert, Cake & Cheesecake
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Smooth vanilla cheesecake topped with spiced apples and crisp oats on a cinnamon graham crust. Drizzle with salted caramel for the ultimate fall dessert!
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 12 full sheets of cinnamon graham crackers
- 3 TB light brown sugar, packed
- 6 TB unsalted butter, melted
For the apple topping:
- 1 lb apples (Honeycrisp or Granny Smith preferred), peeled, cored and sliced to 1/8th inch thick (use a mandoline for uniform thickness)
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cardamom
- 1 TB unsalted butter
For the oat streusel topping:
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
- 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
For the cheesecake filling:
- Two 8 oz packages of full fat cream cheese, cool room temperature
- 1/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 TB all purpose flour
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon juice
To garnish & serve:
Instructions
To make the crust:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and line a 9 x 9 square pan with parchment paper. If the parchment paper doesn’t come up the insides of the pan, use butter or baking spray to grease the sides.
- Pulse the cinnamon grahams and the brown sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Add the melted butter and pulse again until the crumbs are evenly and completely moistened.
- Pour the moist crumbs into the prepared 9 x 9 pan. Using a spatula, your hands, or the bottom of a measuring cup, press the crumbs firmly over the bottom of the pan. Make sure to get it evenly packed, especially into the corners.
- Bake the crust for 8-9 minutes and remove from the oven. Leave the oven set to 325 degrees. Allow the crust to cool completely before adding the filling.
To make the apple and oat streusel toppings:
- For the apple topping, toss the sliced apples with the cinnamon and cardamom until evenly coated.
- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat until it begins to sizzle. Add the spiced apples and cook for 2 minutes until tender crisp and hot.
- Transfer the apples to a large paper towel lined plate or platter and allow to cool while you make the oat topping and cheesecake filling.
- For the oat streusel topping, pulse the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor until the butter has been incorporated and the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Add the mixture to a small bowl and stir in the oats. Set aside while you prepare the cheesecake filling.
To make the cheesecake filling:
- Pulse the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and flour in the bowl of a food processor until smooth. This should only take a few seconds. Add the first egg and pulse for a few seconds to combine, and scrape down the bowl. Add the remaining egg, vanilla extract and lemon juice all at once, and pulse for another couple seconds to combine.
- Scrape down the processor bowl well, making sure to mix in any lumps or unmixed ingredients, and pour the filling into the cooled graham crust. Spread the filling into an even layer.
To add the toppings and bake:
- Spread the softened, spiced apples into even layers over the cheesecake filling. This will take some time, and you will end up with 2-3 layers of apples. Be sure to evenly distribute them over the surface, patching up any open spots. Use all of the apple slices.
- Sprinkle the oat streusel topping over the apples, creating an even layer.
- Bake the cheesecake bars in the preheated oven for 43-45 minutes. The oat topping should be lightly golden.
- Cool to room temperature and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Ideally, chill overnight to set the cheesecake filling.
- Before serving, drizzle the cheesecake bars with salted caramel sauce and slice into 16 squares.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 square with caramel sauce
- Calories: 339
- Sugar: 25.7 g
- Sodium: 221.3 mg
- Fat: 20.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 11.4 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 36.9 g
- Fiber: 1.3 g
- Protein: 4.3 g
- Cholesterol: 75 mg
