Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

 

What do you get when you combine a sweet pastry crust, apple pie filling, blobs of cheesecake, a crumb topping and caramel sauce?  Caramel apple cheesecake tart, of course!  And don’t let it’s look fool you–this is as easy as 1-2-3 and it’s not too bad calorie-wise either!

The pastry is as simple as can be–no rolling involved and entirely made in the food processor.  As to the apples, pretty simple opening a can, huh? And the cheesecake filling just has 4 ingredients, speedily mixed all together in a matter of minutes.  The most difficult things are the crumbs–kidding of course, but you do have to melt the butter and get out a small saucepan 🙂

Doesn’t break the calorie bank!

To further reduce fat and calories, you can substitute Neufchatel (now known as “low-fat cream cheese”) for the regular–but don’t use non-fat.  It just won’t set up.

Sugar-free apple filling can be used too as well as fresh apples.  Only thing I would not recommend is monkeying with ingredients in the crust nor using non-fat alternatives to the regular and reduced fat versions.  Often quite bad results occur–one day I’ll post about a “cheesecake” I made with non-fat cream cheese.  Picked it up by mistake as the packaging was almost the same as the regular.  It’s a horrid substance, but that’s another posting entirely LOL.

You can be completely decadent and serve this warmed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, or not be fancy and just serve plain and chilled.  Choice and extra calories are yours.

Just ENJOY.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart

 

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Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 15 mins

 

Author: Judith Hannemann

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• French Patisserie (real fancy, but a simple butter pastry):
• 1¼ cup unsifted flour
• ¼ cup confectioner's sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 stick (4 oz) cold unsalted butter, cut in small chunks
• 1 egg yolk (reserve the white for the filling)
• 1 tbs cold water
• Apple Cheesecake Filling:
• 1 can apple pie filling
• 1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, room temp
• 1 whole egg + reserved egg white
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 tbs sour cream
• Crumb Topping:
• 4 tbs butter, melted
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¾ cup flour
• 2 tbs sliced almonds (reserve)
• ¼ cup caramel sauce for drizzle

Instructions

1. For Pastry:
2. Place flour, confectioner's sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the "S" blade (that's the standard blade). Pulse a few times to combine.
3. Add butter chunks and pulse until mixture resembles small peas.
4. Beat egg yolk and cold water together. With food processor running, add the egg/water mixture through the feed tube, only adding enough to make dough "ball"--depending on weather conditions, you may have to add a few more drops of water.
5. Remove the dough from the food processor, wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator until ready for use. You can keep this up to 3 days.
6. Press pastry into a 10-inch quiche/tart pan, bringing pastry up the sides. You may also use a springform pan of a similar size, but only bring the pastry about ½ to 1-inch up the sides.
7. For the Crumbs:
8. Mix the melted butter, cinnamon and brown sugar well. Add flour, about ¼ cup at a time until good, firm crumbs are made. You may not have to use all the flour, or you may have to use a tablespoon or so more. Your eye must be the judge of the proper consistency.
9. For Filling:
10. Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.
11. Add eggs and beat until very smooth. Stir in sour cream.
12. Add apple pie filling to cream cheese mixture and just cut a knife through the mixture a few times--you don't want to mix it well, just "marble" it.
13. Putting It All Together:
14. Spread on top of crust in quiche pan. Top with crumbs. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.
15. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place pan on a baking sheet, preferably lined with parchment.
16. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes or until center of tart is almost set.
17. Remove from oven and cool on rack. You may serve this slightly warm or well chilled. However you serve it, drizzle each serving with caramel sauce.

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Caramel Apple Cheescake Tart