Salted Caramel Apple Cheesecake

Yesterday evening, I attended a book signing event for Jessica Merchant’s new book “Seriously Delish” at the Book Larder in Fremont.

First of all, the Book Larder is absolutely the coolest book store I have ever been in. It is filled with cookbooks and only cookbooks! They also host several events, including lunch time cooking classes. What an awesome way to spend your lunch break!!

Lets get to the star of the evening… Jessica. She began by sharing the story of how her cookbook came into fruition/ She then opened up the floor to questions and let me tell you.. there were some good ones- How do you get a picky spouse to eat your food? A: Make it the only food available and introduce “crazy” things gradually. Jessica was so sweet and absolutely hilarious.

I then got my book signed and a took a photo:

I made this special treat for Jessica. Now, I want to share the recipe with you all 🙂

I have now lived in two of the three top apple producing states in the United States; Michigan and Washington. Pretty cool, huh? I think so. I love cheesecake and apple cheesecake is a thing. Naturally, I had to escalate this traditional dessert and top it with salted caramel. Here is my recipe:

Makes 15 bars   Prep: 30 minutes   Cook: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

15 ginger snap cookies

1 cup butter

3 (8oz) packages cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

3 large granny smith apples, peeled and diced

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salted Caramel:

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, pulse together ginger snap cookies, flour and 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar until cookies are fine and everything is combined.

2. Press crust into bottom of 13×9 pan and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

3. Using a mixer, combine cream cheese, 1/2 cup white sugar, salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger until smooth. Add eggs in one at a time. Mix until smooth.

4. Make crumble topping, by combining flour, brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon.

5. Layer cream cheese filling onto of crust. Then layer on the apples and the crumble topping.

6. Bake for 50 minutes or until center is firm.

7. While cheesecake is baking, make your caramel. In a sauce pan over medium heat, mix together butter, heavy cream, brown sugar and salt. Keep stirring until it thickens.

8. Allow cheesecake to cool in refrigerator for a few hours.

9. Drizzle caramel over cheesecake. Cut bars into equal parts.

10. Enjoy 🙂