Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Bars (Holy Unhealthy)

This gooey bit of unhealthy-ness comes from a Nesties cookbook, taken from Picky-Palate.com. I had to use the photo from the Nesties cookbook because this was a real pain to get out of the pan. I definitely do not have 9 bars that look like slices of pie. I have a gooey piled mess that looks kinda crappy but tastes awesome.

Caramel Apple Cream Cheese Bars

Servings: 9

Ingredients:

3 tbs melted butter

3 cups Golden Grahams cereal, crushed

1 roll Pillsbury sugar cookie dough

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

21 oz. can apple pie filling

1 package (2 bars) Nature Valley Oats N Honey Granola Bars

Caramel ice cream topping

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Combine melted butter and crushed Golden Grahams into a medium bowl.

2. Line an 8x8 inch baking dish with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.

3. Press Golden Graham mix into the baking dish.

4. Bake for 10 minutes and remove from the oven.

5. Break off small pieces of cookie dough (use half of the roll) and flatten on top of the crust.

6. Place cream cheese, sugar and vanilla into a mixer and beat until smooth. Spread over the cookie dough and bake for 25 minutes.

7. Top with 3/4 of the apple pie filling (or the whole can) and top with the rest of the cookie dough roll, spread out thinly. Crumble the Oats n Honey bars and sprinkle on top.

8. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

9. Let cool completely and cut into squares. Drizzle/pour caramel on top. Refrigerate leftovers.

This kind of tastes like a super sweet not rich cheesecake with apples. Its hard to explain really, but its definitely a sugar overload. The apple flavor also doesn't come through as well, so I'm thinking the filling could be replaced a fresh baked apple:

1 red apple, peeled, cored and sliced

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

Bake until the apple is soft.

Another idea would be to refrigerate the bars after cooling them but before adding the caramel. I think they would be easier to manage and get out of the pan. A cake server might also help, considering I don't have one of those either.

Its definitely something that I'm going to make again though!