Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars- Week 2 of 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

It's time for Week 2 of the Christmas Cookies!  I can't wait to see what everyone else has in store this week.  I chose to make Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars from my Betty Crocker Fall Baking 2009 book.  You can also find it here.

Wow!  That's all I can say about this delicious treat.  Okay, so that's not all I can say, but it's the first thing I said!  As these were baking, the whole house had the scent of fall!  As soon as they came out of the oven, I wanted to get a fork and dive in...instead I waited patiently as called for in the recipe. 

You need to make these...today!  And for every fall gathering that you may possibly have on your calendar.  Seriously...you won't regret it.  I can't guarantee that these bars will last past the first few hours!  They remind me of my favorite Cheesecake Factory cheesecake flavor: Dutch Apple Caramel Struesel.  Mmm...now I can have something similar at home anytime I want.  So let's get started:

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

1 pouch oatmeal cookie mix (I used Betty Crocker brand)
1/2 cup cold butter
2 packages of cream cheese (8 oz. each), softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 can apple pie filling
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.  Place cookie mix in large bowl, cut in butter until it resembles coarse crumbs (with pastry blender or pulling 2 knives through mixture in opposite direction).  Reserve 1&1/2 cups crumb mixture, press remaining crumbs in bottom of pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over partially baked crust.  In medium bowl, mix pie filling and cinnamon.  Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture.  Sprinkle reserved crumbs over top.  Sprinkle with pecans.
Bake 35-40 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool about 30 minutes.  Refrigerate to chill, about 2 hours.  Cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.  Cover and refrigerate any remaining bars.

I don't own a pastry blender (if I did, it would look like this in Blue Willow or Buttercup...hint, hint) so I had to resort to the two knives method which was not fun!  I must admit that I gave up on that method and crumbled it with my hands!  Much faster.  Also, the original recipe called for walnuts, but I happened to have pecans in the freezer so I used those.  They didn't really do a lot for the bars in my opinion.  I think you need a lot more of them to get a good pecan flavor, otherwise I would just leave them off next time.
They were a winner all the way around the table tonight.  C said they might be one of the best things I've made lately.  He has already flipped through this book and marked a few for the fall cooking lineup.  I can't wait to try the rest of them.  Little Man kept saying more, more!  I think we are creating a miniature cookie monster...like father, like son!
I hope your family loves it as much as mine does!
Week 2 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:

King Ranch Casserole

I was perusing Tasty Kitchen recently and found this yummy looking King Ranch Casserole.  I tried it out last night and it was as good as anticipated.  I'm sure every one has their own King Ranch recipe, but I just had to give this one a try.  It was super simple and aside from cooking the chicken and sauteing the veggies, it required little effort.  It had just the right amount of crunch from the chips, gooeyness from the cheese, and zip from the bell peppers. 
I made a few slight changes from the original recipe, which turned out nicely.  I somehow forgot to purchase Rotel at the grocery store...luckily I had a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes in the pantry.  It saved our dinner, I have no idea why I even had it, but I'm so glad I did!  I also used 1/2 of an onion instead of a whole one, too much onion can be a bad thing.  And my last modification was to up the temperature to decrease the cooking time.  I ended up at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.  I'm impatient when it comes to dinner and if it's not on the table in 30 minutes, it's not fit for me!
I should also add that this makes a heaping casserole, so be prepared for leftovers.  The casserole loses it's crunch during the subsequent days, but it still tastes delicious!

12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies!

I have decided to join in on a 12 week Christmas cookie bake coordinated by April over at AbbySweets.  Every Friday I will post a new cookie recipe for you to try out...and so will another 40+ bloggers.  Check out the pictures and links below each weeks post to see what everyone else is baking!  I'm so excited to participate.  This is my first time to do anything like it, so I hope I can keep up.  A cookie a week shouldn't be too hard, it's just the planning ahead that might trip me up!  Although I have lots of recipes to choose from, so it shouldn't be too hard finding enough.  Don't you think?

And that's not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my cookbooks (I might have a cookbook problem)!
I was a little late getting in on the first week, so I just linked up my Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies that I posted a few weeks back.  Don't be worried though, you will get 11 new recipes from me starting this Friday!  I'm so excited to share them with you.  Check back on Fridays to see what I and the other bloggers are baking!
Week 1 Twelve Weeks of Christmas:

The Shabby Shoppe Template Challenge

Last night I spent a few minutes working on my layout for The Shabby Shop Template Challenge Number 5.  Check out the information here.  You can download the free template there and upload it to the gallery.  Everyone who participates is entered to win a $25 Shoppe giftcard.  The winner is selected randomly so everyone has the same chance of winning.   Your download includes a Piece of Cake Page that has already been completed, all you have to do is insert your pictures, or if you are feeling more creative you can pick your own digital papers like I did.  Here's the layout that I made with the Sandbox kit I bought yesterday!  It turned out so cute, I can't wait to do page two for the layout.

This is my second challenge.  If you want to see the first one I did, check out my Shabby Shoppe gallery uploads here.  I am loving digital scrapbooking!