Outside The Box: Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

For those of you who use sugar cookie mixes, you don’t have to just make cookies with them anymore.  A great use for the mix is to use it as a crust for cheesecake bars.  You can use this as a moment to be creative and add additional flavors to the dough- thinking outside the box (cliché, I know).  Adding citrus zest, vanilla, or buttermilk help to take the dough from basic to unique.  For the crust, I just spread it evenly in the bottom of the pan and baked it just like I would if I was making cookies.

My obsession with apples has continued to grow over the remainder of the fall season.  At our house we currently have about 10 pounds of apples sitting on our back porch.  All of which are either being eaten, made into applesauce, or waiting to be put into that apple pie I plan on making for Thanksgiving.

The streusel topping creates a crunch before you bite into the creamy, cheesecake filling speckled with spiced apples.  Finishing your bite is a soft and chewy cookie crust

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars
Yield: 12 squares (9"x11" pan)
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Bake Time: 45-50 minutes

Ingredients:
          For Crust:

• 1 package sugar cookie mix
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk

          For Filling:

• 8 ounces package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 apples, peeled, chopped
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

           For Streusel Topping:

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 stick butter, cold
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the sugar cookie package with melted butter and buttermilk until a dough forms.  Spread evenly into a non greased pan and bake 10-15 minutes until edges are golden brown.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth.
4. Add egg, lemon zest, and vanilla. Set aside.
5. Coat apples with sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Set aside.
6. With a fork, combine light brown sugar, flour, butter, and pecans until the mixture is crumbly and coarse. 
7. After crust has been baked, spread cream cheese mixture evenly on top.  Spoon apples evenly over top the cream cheese and top apples with streusel topping.
8. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cream cheese has set and the topping is golden brown.

Make it at Home: Granola Bars

After goggling the history of granola bars, I was surprised to find that the same man who invented these snacks also invented the squeezable ketchup bottle, dental floss dispensers, and heated pizza boxes.  You learn something knew everyday.  Granola bars are great to snack on in the middle of the day or while on a hike, due to the insane amount of calories they provide.  But how healthy can granola bars be?  I can’t even pronounce the many preservatives and chemicals found in store-bought granola bars.  Last year, I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade granola bars and haven’t bought any since.  I was on a granola bar kick for a while.  It is incredibly simple; one bowl is all you need.  Everything gets tossed together and baked in the oven for 10 minutes.  What you get is a chewy, sweet, and healthy snack.

The best part about these granola bars, besides being easy to make, is that you can add anything you want to them.  I use this as any opportunity to clean out my pantry.  I usually add a handful of this and a handful of that, using anything that may be leftover from previous baking.  A handful of almond, shredded coconut, dried cranberries; usually always make it into the mix.  But you really can use any nuts or dried fruit you have lying around.  Today, I made Cherry-Nut Granola Bars.

First, prepare a 9” x 13” pan by spraying with non-stick cooking spray and cut a piece of parchment paper to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Set aside.

After measuring 2 cups of oats, add 1/2 cups of sugar.  I used regular white sugar, but you could use any type of sugar like brown or coconut.

Add in 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Next, you need to add in total, 2 1/2 cups of extras.  I added a 1/2 cup each of mini chocolate chips, dried cherries and cranberries with chopped pecans and almonds.

After measuring 1/3 cup of almond butter, add 1/4 cup of honey and 1 tablespoon water.  Then add 3 tablespoons of melted chocolate coconut butter and 3 tablespoons of melted coconut oil.

Mix together all the wet ingredients before combining with the dry ingredients.  Mix until all the dry ingredients are evenly coated with wet mixture.

It should look like this.

Spread the mixture into the prepared pan.  You may need to press the mixture into the pan to ensure that it is tightly packed together.  Bake in a 350⁰F oven for about 10 minutes.  You should begin to smell the chocolate and nuts toasting.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely; it should take about 30 minutes.  It’s better if they set up before you try and cut them, otherwise you will be dealing with granola bars that don’t want to stay together.

These granola bars will disappear in no time.  A good portion of the pan I just made is already gone!

Cherry-Nut Granola Bars

Yield: 12 squares

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Bake Time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oats
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup chopped almonds
• 1/3 cup almond butter
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon water
• 3 tablespoons coconut butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 9"x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray and cut parchment paper to cover bottom and sides of the pan.  Set aside.
3. Combine oat, sugar, salt, chocolate, dried fruit, and chopped nuts into a medium bowl.
4. In a small bowl combine almond butter, honey, water, coconut butter, and coconut oil.
5. Add wet ingredients to the medium bowl and mix together until dry ingredients are evenly coated.
6. Spread into the prepared pan and bake for 10-15 minutes, until you can smell the toasted nuts and it is golden.
7. Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Coconut Banana Bread

I am currently taking a Cookbook Development course and we were given the task of creating a recipe for cookforyourlife.org.  If you don't know, Cook For Your Life is a website for cancer patients and survivors to go for recipes.  Their mission is to provide health and easy recipes for people in any stage of cancer.

Immediately I thought about baking.  One of my favorite recipes is my banana bread but it is filled with sugar and fat, so I had to swap a few ingredients for ones that were more on the healthier side.  The best part about this recipe is that even if you don't have coconut palm sugar, you can just use regular sugar and the same goes with the coconut milk and coconut oil.  It is very customizable. Another thing I love about banana bread is that you use over ripened bananas, so it never goes to waste.  Never throw out your black bananas; take them out of the peel, put it in a bag, and store it in the freezer.  Then whenever you want to make banana bread, you can just defrost the bananas.

Coconut Banana Bread
Yield: 2 (9" x 5") loaves
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Bake Time: 30-35 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 bananas, over ripened, mashed
• 2/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup coconut, shredded
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine flour, coconut palm sugar, salt, baking soda and mix until combined.
3. After dry ingredients are combined, add bananas, coconut oil, coconut milk, egg and vanilla.  Mix together just until combined.
4. Fold in coconut and pecans.
5. Spray pan with pan release and divide the batter between 2 (9"x5") loaf pans.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Note:  If you don't have coconut palm sugar, regular granulated sugar will work just fine.  You can also substitute any nuts for pecans.