Baking & A Lost Kitty

Today was an interesting day. I was finally able to persuade the very cute cat who has been visiting our yard to join me on the deck. He is actually a very friendly and socialized cat. He loves sleeping in the old barrel we converted in to a flower pot. He was definitely very hungry and then slept a lot. He seems pretty comfortable with us and has not so subtly tried to make his way in to our house. We are conflicted. At this point, we do not have funds to support yet another animal in our house, but he really is a cutie and a talker!

I will call him Optimus

During this time of working with the dogs to keep them from going through windows and doors (we all know of course that the cat would then probably beat the dogs up) I also made a yummy dessert I found on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. Believe me this was as good as it looked. The only part of the recipe I did differently was spraying the pan instead of placing foil in it. I will break down the pro's and con's of the recipe.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars.

Pro's

It requires three packages of cream cheese.

It really was a quick recipe.

Con's

Both the crust and crumble required mixing sticks of butter in by hand. Necessary to ensure a complete mix up of both, it is too much work for me.

Here is the recipe courtesy of the Desserts & Sweets group page on Facebook.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars - Desserts and Sweets Group!

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) 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
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Streusel Topping:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Drizzle:
1/2 cup caramel topping for drizzling after baked

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour and brown sugar
Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) until mixture is crumbly Press evenly into a 9x13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil 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, cinnamon, and nutmeg
Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture.

For the streusel topping: 

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients 

Use clean hands to thoroughly combine the butter into the mixture.
Sprinkle Streusel topping over apples 
Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until filling is set 
Drizzle with caramel topping and let cool 
Serve cold and enjoy!