Apple Cream Bars

So I have this awesome cousin, her name is Kate, and she has a blog of her own! You should check it out- A Dash of Salter.

She alerted me to this recipe and so, I decided to "give these a whirl," as she suggested.

And you know what, they're easy, they're delicious, and Brandon had two. And the Husband says he even likes them better than Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes- I know, I know. Blasphemy.

So grab a couple of ingredients, and give these things a whirl, because my cousin Katie-poo had a stroke of genius when she told me about these things.

Your ingredients- a can of apple pie filling, yellow cake mix, sour cream, an egg, butter, sugar, and cinnamon

First, melt that butter and mix it together with the yellow cake mix until it looks crumbly like this.

Press it into the bottom of your pan and bake it a little bit.

Now, spread the apple pie filling evenly over that crust, then mix together the cinnamon and sugar. Then take a moment to think about how cinnamon and sugar together is never wrong.

Sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top of the apples. I know it looks like a lot of sugar. It is, my friends, and I was nervous that it was way too much. But put it all on there , because it turns out delicious. Trust me.

Now, beat your egg, mix it into the sour cream, then spread that on top of the apples. If you want, you can reserve some of the cinnamon sugar and sprinkle it on top, like I did. Now bake that mess.

And look at that! Trust me, it doesn't look exciting but it tastes delicious.

Apple Cream Bars

From my beautiful cousin Kate

1 box yellow cake mix

1 can apple pie filling

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup sour cream

1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix together the melted butter and yellow cake mix until crumbly. Press into the bottom of a well-greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

Spread the apple pie filling evenly onto the crust. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the apples. Mix together the sour cream and beaten egg and spread over the cinnamon and sugar.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until they are set.



Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

When I pulled these out this morning to photograph, I said, "I will not eat one. I will take pictures, put them back in the pan and go on with my morning."

Because sometimes I can justify eating the slices I cut out to photograph. Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars? It's got dough in it... it's like a biscuit! Orange Mango Bars? Fruit! There's fruit in it! Everyone eats fruit for breakfast!

But there is nothing good to say about eating a brownie at 8:13 AM. Except that.... it's delicious and I'm pretty sure my day's going to be slightly better because of it. In fact, I'm changing my tune.

I have lots of good things to say about eating a Nutella Cheesecake Brownie at 8:13 AM while simultaneously blogging and raving to Backstreet Boys' "Masquerade." You need it in your life.

Your ingredients: Devil's Food Cake Mix, eggs, butter, vanilla, cream cheese, powdered sugar, Nutella

First, mix together the cake mix, 1 egg, and melt one of those sticks of butter and throw it in there too. It'll look like this. Press that evenly into the bottom of your pan.

Next, beat together the cream cheese and nutella until it's creamy. Add the eggs, the rest of the butter melted, and vanilla.

Now, beat in the powdered sugar a little at a time until it's thoroughly mixed. It looks slightly more delicious.

Now just pour that on top of the pressed cake mix, and bake! It comes out looking like this and smelling like chocolate heaven.

Mmm, look at those delicious layers.

Nutella Cheesecake Brownies

From Lovin' From the Oven

Bottom Layer:

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

1 egg

1/2 cup butter, melted

Top Layer:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup Nutella

1/2 cup butter, melted

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 16 oz. box powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.

In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, 1 eggs, and butter. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan.

In an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and Nutella until creamy. Add in the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter and combine. Add in the powdered sugar a little bit at a time until the mixture is thoroughly combined. Pour the mixture on top of the cake layer and spread evenly.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until it is set. It's supposed to be gooey, so don't overbake it.



Orange-Mango Bars

Ta-da! Something else new and different! It's fruity! Sure, it's still a bar, but it's a deliciously sweet and fruity bar. As you can probably tell from the photo, it's been raining here off and on for the last week or so, and I'm pretty tired of it.

So we needed something for desert this week that was sunshin-y!

Your ingredients: Flour, sugar, butter, eggs, oranges, and a mango- ingredient arrangement this week by The Husband, who was very proud of himself.

Mix together some flour, sugar, and butter until it looks dough-y and ready for being a crust. Then press it into the bottom of a foil-lined 9x13, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until it's golden brown.

Squeeze all 3 of your oranges out, then squeeze some mango juice into a bowl, add some more sugar, flour, and the eggs, until it looks like this.

Then pour it on top of the crust and bake some more! It's that easy! Don't worry, the middle will still be very jiggly when you pull it out of the oven- it will set as it cools. Yum, yum.

Orange-Mango Bars

Adapted from From Apples to Zucchini

Crust:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

Filling:

Fresh-squeezed juice from 3 orange, about 3/4 cup

Juice of 1 mango

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.

In an electric mixer on low speed, beat together the crust ingredients until they look like a soft dough. Press it evenly into the bottom of the pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

Mix together the juices, eggs, remaining flour and sugar until thoroughly combined. Then pour the mixture over the crust and bake for another 22 minutes or so. The middle will still be very jiggly, but it will set as it cools. 



Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

This recipe is so easy. It's so easy you'll have time to do all the dishes while it's baking. Because you know what else is great about it? It hardly makes any dishes.

I know, I know. It's another bar recipe, and it's another cheesecake recipe. What can I say? I have a serious problem. But that problem results in delicious recipes to share with you, so quit your complaining.

Just kidding! Sorry, some leftover teacher sass from this morning. But I'm not kidding about how easy and delicious these are. So make them! They're going with our Game Night Mexicana, including a build-your-own taco bar and sangria.

Ingredients: Cream cheese, crescent rolls, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, butter, and honey

First, roll out one package of the crescent rolls into the bottom of a 9x13. You can use a rolling pin if you want it to be perfect, but that's not how I roll so I just smushed it in with my fingers. Worked like a charm.

Beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, and vanilla extract until it's smooth. Mmm. Spread that deliciousness onto the crescent rolls, then unroll the other crescent rolls on top of that. Repeat the smushing until it's in place. Then take a break and lick the cream cheese spoon.

Mix together the butter, sugar, and cinnamon and dollop the mixture on top of the crescent rolls. Now listen, very carefully. Please do not lick these spoons. It will be so incredibly tempting, and you know me well enough by now to know that I would never stop you unless it was important. And it is really, really important to get every bit of buttery-sugary goodness onto your bars. You'll thank me later.

Now just bake it until the crescent rolls puff up, about 30 minutes. Take it out and immediately drizzle with honey. Bask in how good your kitchen smells while the bars cool.

And then eat them up. Because they are SO SO GOOD. 

Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars
Adapted from My Baking Heart
2 8 oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 8 oz. cans Crescent rolls
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp. cinnamon
honey for drizzling

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.

Unroll one of the tubes of crescent rolls and press into the bottom of the pan.

Beat the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the vanilla until smooth. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the crescent rolls. Unroll the second tube of crescent rolls and lay it over the cream cheese mixture.

In a bowl, mix together 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Dollop the mixture over the crescent rolls. Bake for 30 minutes, until the crescent rolls start to puff up. Take out and immediately drizzle with honey.

Butter Toffee Chess Pie Bars

I'm sorry to have to tell you about this. I really am, because it's about to change your life forever, in a more-fat kind of way. Remember our friend Brandon? Of the velvet-jacketed-musical-prowess fame? Well, he brought over these things to Game Night:

He said, "You can only get these at Walgreens, and they are so delicious." And it was true. It was so, so true. I proceeded to consume untold amounts of Butter Toffee Peanuts. Only me and the recycling know how many cans of these I consumed. And when you get through eating the peanuts, at the bottom are these lovely Butter Toffee bits that get knocked off and wait there for you.

And, as Brandon pointed out, these little bits were ripe for a desert to go into. So I had to make one up. What flavor would complement the butter toffee deliciousness? Chess pie, of course. So here they are:

And I'm sorry to burden you with this knowledge, but they are so, so delicious. So rich and wonderful. Please make them. Please go to Walgreens and buy yourself some Butter Toffee Peanuts.

Your ingredients: Yellow cake mix, 3 eggs, dark brown sugar, powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter toffee bits, and butter

First, melt your butter and mix it with the cake mix and 1 eggs until it's dough-y

Press it into the bottom of a greased 9x13. Mix together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, brown sugar, 2 eggs, and butter toffee bits for about 1-2 minutes.

Now, just pour it over the crust and bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown. Oh it's that easy, my friend.

I'm sorry. But you needed to know. It's a secret that must be shared.

Butter Toffee Chess Pie Bars

1 box yellow cake mix

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

3 eggs

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 stick butter, melted

1/2 cup-ish of Butter Toffee Bits

Preheat oven to 300°. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Mix together the cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter until it becomes a soft dough. Press it into the bottom of the pan.

Mix together the powdered sugar, brown sugar, cream cheese, 2 eggs, and butter toffee bits until smooth. Pour it over the crust and smooth out. Bake for 40-50 minutes, until the top is golden brown.



Blueberry Pie Bars

I'm not going to lie to you guys, it's been kind of a weird and bad week.

It shouldn't have been because it was only a four-day week, what with Monday being a holiday. But I actually worked on Monday, I mean, only for 2 hours handing out balloons, but it was sticky gross hot outside.

Then Tuesday I woke up with a sore knee. I thought, slept on it wrong maybe, it'll go away. Go in to see my trainer on Wednesday morning, it's like a knife cutting through my knee every time I bend it while putting weight on it. He tells me it's inflamed and to rest it, including not bending down or picking anything up. Which, if you work with kids, is basically your job description. Not to mention I was sick.

So I got sent home Wednesday at 10:00AM and took a 3-hour nap and spent the rest of the day with ice on my knee. Which made me better, mostly. My knee is still being weird.

I was all worried about baking while moving around on this knee but you know something? Once I started baking everything else just went away. It was so nice. Of course once it went into the oven it all came back again, but it was nice while it lasted.

What does this have to do with Blueberry Pie Bars? Nothing. I just felt like sharing and saying, in a roundabout way, that these are fun to make, and a lot less stressful than last week's desert. Sorry if it's TMI.

PS, These are really delicious.

Your ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Eggs, Butter, Blueberries, Sour Cream, and 2 lemons

So first you're going to do my favorite step, which is make lemon sugar. Zest your lemons into 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Using the back of a spoon, press the zest into the sugar. You get a nifty lemon-scented sugar.

Then, cut your butter into cubes, put it into your mixer with the lemon sugar, 3 cups of flour, and a little salt and mix it together until it's crumbly-looking, like this.

Save 1 1\2 cups of the mixture, press the rest into the bottom of a 9x13. Bake it for 12-15 minutes, until it's golden brown. DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO. Your crust should look more brown than mine. I am notoriously impatient on waiting for crusts to bake, and as it was already 9:30pm, I took this out too soon.

While it's cooling, make your filling. Whisk together your eggs, add 2 cups sugar, 3/4 cup flour, and a pinch of salt. It looks suspiciously like cheesecake. But it's not! I promise I'm taking a break from cheesecake!

Carefully fold in your berries. You can see I used some strawberries because I didn't have enough blueberries and I thought it would taste good (it does).

Pour it onto your crust, make sure the berries are spread evenly. Then crumble your remaining crust mixture on top. Pop it in and bake it for almost an hour, and pull out when the top is golden brown! Pretty easy.

And pretty yummy. Here's hoping that our weeks end better than they started.

Blueberry Pie Bars
From Two Tiny Kitchens
3 3/4 cup AP flour
2 lemons
1 1/2 cups (or 3 sticks) butter
2 pinches of salt
4 large eggs
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
6 cups fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 300°. Put 1 1/2 cups of your sugar on a piece of parchment paper. Zest your two lemons onto the sugar. Using the back of a spoon, press the zest into the sugar, releasing the lemon oils and creating a lemon-infused sugar.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, pour in your lemon sugar, the butter cut into cubes, 3 cups of flour, a pinch of salt. Mix until it's dry and crumbly. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of this mix and press the rest into the bottom of a greased 9x13. Bake it for 12-15 minutes, until it's golden brown.

Let it cool while you make the filling. Whisk together the eggs. Then add 2 cups sugar, the sour cream, 3/4 cup of flour, and the pinch of salt. Carefully fold in your berries. Pour the mix on top of your crust, evenly spreading out the berries. Sprinkle your reserved crust mixture evenly over the top.

Bake for 45-55 minutes, until the top is golden brown.  Enjoy!

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake Bars

So, the Husband and I have this friend:

See him there, in the sweet velvet jacket? His name is Brandon, and he has an awesome band called Stateside Menace. You should check them out. He also loves Futurama, and making fun of me. In a nice way.

Anyway, his birthday was this this week, and he loves food. He LOVES food, like a lot. I've never seen anybody get as excited about good food as this guy.

And so, for Game Night this week I knew that I had to top myself with the Desert of the Century. He really wanted churros, but they were not feasible so I told him I would surprise him.

This desert terrified me. You know I love cheesecake. So does he. But I've never made a cheesecake like this. This is the most cook I've ever been. I altered this recipe so much it's practically unrecognizable. I'll warn you- there's a lot of crazy steps in this recipe that I was skeptical of. But you have to go with it.

Just go with it. Because this thing doesn't look like much, but when you taste it--oh, when you taste it. You will forget all about your hard work.

Your ingredients: Sugar, Light Brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, apples, apple cider (I couldn't find apple cider, had to use apple juice), cinnamon, sour cream, heavy cream, and gingersnap cookies

First, process your gingersnap cookies into crumbs. And be aware that these cookies are not going down without a fight. I've never seen my poor food processor work that hard. It's like, if you asked a Gingersnap, "Do you want to be a delicious, crumby crust?" he would say "No!" like a two-year old throwing a fit.

Mix in your cinnnamon, brown sugar, and butter until your crumbs are moist. Press them into the bottom of your foiled 9x13 and put it in the freezer while your oven preheats. Once your oven is ready, wrap the bottom and sides of your pan in foil and bake that crust for 12-14 minutes, until it's browned and set.

While it's cooling, cook your apples. Melt 2 tbsp. of your butter and cook half the apples for about 3 minutes, throwing a tablespoon of brown sugar and cooking until they're browned. Put on a plate and repeat with the other half.

Once your apples are cooked, let them cool while you make the filling. Start by beating the cream cheese until it's really smooth. Add in the sugars and beat until combined. Add in the cider, vanilla, and cinnamon and beat. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beat one minute between each egg. Finally, beat the sour cream and heavy cream in until everything's smooth and there are no lumps. It looks delicious.

Pour 1/3 of the filling onto the crust, then layer in the apples. If you have too many, you can put the rest on the top once it cools. But don't weigh down your filling. Pour the rest of the filling on top.

Then, follow the baking instructions below. It's a little complicated, but totally, totally worth it. And then, maybe later, play a board game that looks like this:

Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake Bars

Adapted heavily from Joy the Baker

Crust:

60 Gingersnap cookies

3 tbsp. light brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

8 tbsp. butter, melted

Apples:

4 tbsp. butter

3 Golden Delicious or Fuji Apples, sliced thin

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

Filling:

1 1/2 lbs. cream cheese, room temperature

3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar

6 tbsp. sugar

3 tbsp. apple cider

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 eggs

3/4 sour cream

1/3 cup heavy cream

Crust:

Line a 9x13 pan with foil with some overhanging on either end. Put the gingersnaps in a food processor or blender and pulse until the cookies are crumbs. Add in the sugar and cinnamon and pulse until mixed. Add in the butter and pulse until the crumbs are moistened.

Put the crumbs into the pan and press them into the bottom of the pan. Put the pan into the freezer while you preheat the oven. Turn the oven on to 350°. Once it's ready, take the pan out of the freezer and wrap the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil and up the sides. Put it into the oven and bake it for about 14-15 minutes, until the crust it set and browned.

 

 

Set the crust aside to cool while you make the apples. Leave the oven on.

Apples:

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet. Once it's not foaming anymore, add half the apples and let them cook for 3 minutes, turning them once. Sprinkle them with 1 tablespoon of the brown sugar and cook until they're browned.

 

 

Spoon onto a plate and repeat with the other half of the apples. Set the apples aside to cool while you make the filling.

Filling:

Beat the cream cheese for 4 minutes, until it is light and fluffy. Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, the apple cider, and the cinnamon.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating one minute between each egg. Finally, beat in the sour cream and the heavy cream. Make sure the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps.

 

 

Pour one third of the filling onto the crust. Layer in the apples- not too many, you don't want to weigh down your filling. Then pour the rest of the filling on top. Place the 9x13 into a roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with boiling water, so that it comes halfway up the side of the 9x13.

 

 

Bake for a little over an hour, until only the middle jiggles. Cut up and serve! And take a break, you deserve it.