Apple Caramel Cheesecake Bars

If summer’s got you down and you just can’t wait for cooler weather, you can at least pretend it’s that golden-brown time of year with these apple caramel cheesecake bars. They’re cool and wonderful to eat in hotter weather but have that apple-cinnamon-caramel taste that evokes falling leaves and cool breezes. These bars come together in layers and are incredibly simple to make. Best of all, the apple and streusel layers, along with the caramel sauce, mean you don’t have to worry about any cracks forming on the top of the cheesecake and affecting the appearance of these bars.

Apple Caramel Cheesecake Bars Ingredients

• All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour has a good amount of gluten, making it great for doughs where you need structure but don’t want the resulting pastry to be too tough.
• Brown sugar: Brown sugar’s molasses content adds flavor and moisture, making the crust have a deeper flavor and a denser texture.
• Butter: This helps bind the flour and sugar while adding a buttery flavor.
• Cream cheese: This forms the bulk of the cheesecake filling.
• Sugar: When combined with the cream cheese, sugar helps add air to the filling while sweetening the combination.
• Vanilla extract: This is your flavoring agent for the cheesecake layer.
• Eggs: The eggs help everything stick together and give the filling a better structure.
• Apples: Tart apples help the apple layer stand out from the rest of the sweet cheesecake. Also, tart varieties tend to keep their structure better after baking instead of turning into mush.
• Cinnamon: One of two spices used to flavor the apples.
• Nutmeg: The other spice used to flavor the apples.

Streusel:

• All-purpose flour: That gluten mentioned before makes the streusel topping crumbly but not super-soft.
• Brown sugar: Besides the moisture and flavor that the brown sugar provides, using it here ensures the topping and crust match flavors.
• Quick-cooking oats: Oats add a lot more substance to the topping. Quick-cooking oats are thinner and smaller than regular oats and easier to mix throughout the flour and sugar mixture.
• Butter: This binds the flour, sugar and oats.
• Caramel ice cream: Caramel ice cream is the final topping. This gives the bars a wonderfully gooey icing that pairs well with the apple layer and cheesecake filling.

Directions

Step 1: Make the crust

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mix the flour and brown sugar in a small bowl and cut in the butter until the mixture has a crumbly texture. Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan and press the crust mixture down, covering the entire bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 15 to 18 minutes or until it becomes light brown.

Step 2: Make the cheesecake filling

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs and beat the filling with a beater set on low speed until combined. Spread the filling on the crust.

Step 3: Make the apple layer and streusel topping

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

In another small bowl, toss the apples to coat them with the cinnamon, nutmeg and the rest of the sugar. Spoon this all over the top of the cream cheese filling. Combine the flour, brown sugar and oats in another small bowl and cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle this topping over the apple layer.

Step 4: Bake the bars and top with caramel sauce

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Bake the cheesecake for 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is set. Drizzle the caramel topping over the streusel top, and let everything cool in the pan on a wire rack for one hour. Refrigerate the cooled cheesecake for at least two hours. Cut it into individual bars.

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

Apple Caramel Cheesecake Bars Variations

• Switch up the crust: Don’t like a flour and brown sugar crust? You can crush cookies or graham crackers into a powder and use those as the bottom crust. That does mean the crust and streusel topping will differ in flavor, but they’ll still taste good.
• Use pears: Try pears if you want a fall fruit but don’t like apples. Find a firm baking variety such as Bosc. You can bake pears in a wide range of fall desserts.

How to Store Apple Caramel Cheesecake Bars

Leftover apple caramel cheesecake bars can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer. If you haven’t already, divide the remaining cheesecake into individual bars and place each in airtight containers (freezer-safe if storing in the freezer).

How long do apple caramel cheesecake bars last?

These bars will last four to five days in the refrigerator and up to three months in the freezer. They may last longer in the freezer if the temperature is consistently below 0°. But keep an eye out for freezer burn, which can dry out the bars.

Apple Caramel Cheesecake Bar Tips

Julia Hartbeck for Taste of Home

What’s the easiest way to core an apple?

If you don’t have an apple core tool, cut the apple in quarters lengthwise and slice off the portion of the core on each quarter. Scoop out any remaining bits of core or seeds with a melon baller.

Can you use artificial vanilla extract or vanilla paste?

While artificial vanilla extract (often labeled as vanillin) can be a lot cheaper than pure vanilla extract, the flavor you get from the real stuff is much better than any artificial copycat. Vanilla paste is interchangeable with extract in a 1:1 ratio (in other words, use the same amount), but the paste has little vanilla bean specks and a more intense flavor. Those will affect how the bars look and taste. By the way, if you find a cheap bottle of Mexican vanilla, always check the ingredient label. It must list vanilla beans and not tonka beans. Many Mexican vanilla extracts are tonka bean extract, which contains coumarin and can affect anyone who uses blood thinners. By the way, did you know you could make your own vanilla extract?

Do you have to use tart apples?

Tart apple varieties like Granny Smith help elevate the apple flavor and make it stand out. The rest of the ingredients are either rather sweet or are sweetened, such as the cream cheese mixed with sugar. Sweet apples may not stand out so much among all that other sweetness. But if you don’t like tart apples, you don’t have to use those as long as you choose a variety that holds up well when baked. Golden Delicious apples, for example, are surprisingly good for baking. If you want to find other baking apples is the final topping. It gives the bars a wonderfully gooey icing that pai, you’ve got a few options.