Gluten Free Caramel Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

Fall makes me think of cinnamon, apples, and caramel. How about you? This is one of my favorite desserts to make for a large gathering of people. I don’t actually make it very often because my husband is allergic to apples–so very tragic! And I like to make my husband happy, so I don’t like making desserts that he can’t enjoy. But when the opportunity comes to bring dessert to a large gathering in the Fall, this dessert always comes to my mind.

Of course, it was adapted from a recipe long ago when we ate gluten.:). Working with gluten free flour is definitely a learning curve. I have worked hard to tweak this recipe to work with my gluten free flour blend, but I would love to hear how it works with your favorite blend too. This recipe also uses my Caramel Sauce, so you will need to click on that link for the recipe. Or you can always use a store brand, but homemade is so much better.

This recipe looks so beautiful plated for a party. And because it is made on a cookie sheet, it serves about 30 people.

Caramel Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

A dessert recipe you'll Fall in love with! Homemade caramel tops these delicious gluten free apple cheesecake bars.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 40 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 30 people

Equipment

• 1 cookie sheet
• 1 silicone mat
• 3-4 large bowls for mixing
• 1 hand mixer
• 1 pastry cutter
• spatulas, spoons, measuring cups, vegetable peeler, sharp chef knife

Ingredients

  

• Filling Layer
• 3 8 oz packages of Light Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/2 C Sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Apple Slices Layer
• 2-3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and VERY thinly sliced
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 lemon juice of fresh lemon
• Crust Layer
• 3 C Gluten Free all purpose flour blend I have only tested this recipe with my gf flour blend, I would hope that most basic blends will work too
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 pinch Sea Salt I prefer Anasazi Salt
• 1/2 C brown sugar, packed
• 1 C butter ( 2 sticks) cold, cut into chunks
• 4-5 TBSP ice water start with 4-5 TBSP add more ONLY if you need it and add one TBSP at a time
• Streusel Layer
• 1 C brown sugar, packed
• 1 C Gluten Free all purpose flour blend I have only tested this recipe with my gf flour blend, I would hope that most basic blends will work too
• 1/2 C Gluten Free Quick Oats
• 1/2 C butter ( 1 stick), cold, cut into chunks
• 1/2 C Caramel Topping see my recipe for this or use a gf store brand

Instructions

 

• For this recipe it is important to make things in order.  Otherwise, by the time the crust comes out of the oven, you won’t be ready to add the layers and put it back in the oven.  This dessert can also be made the night before you need to serve it.  It is best served very cold and keeps well in the fridge for several days.
• If you are going to use my homemade caramel sauce, which I HIGHLY recommend, make that first.  This will take about 20-25 minutes and will need to cool for a while before you put it on the dessert.
  
• Make the Filling layer:  In a large glass bowl, blend the cream cheese and sugar well with a hand mixer until smooth.  Then add the eggs, one at a time, and mix.  Cover and set filing aside in the refrigerator until ready.
  
• Make the Apple Layer: In a large bowl, place cinnamon, nutmeg, and fresh lemon juice.  Stir.  Peel apples and core them.  Then with a sharp butcher knife, slice them VERY thin.  Place them in the bowl and you get them sliced.  Then stir to coat.  When these are all ready, cover and put in the refrigerator until ready.
  
• Make the Crust Layer:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your pan.  Get a cookie sheet, place a silicone mat on top, and grease the edges of the pan with butter.  Set aside.
  
• In a very large glass bowl, mix flour, xanthan gum, sea salt, and brown sugar.  Add in chunks of cold butter, and using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the mixture.  This should only take a few minutes, but you want this to resemble coarse crumbs when finished.  You need the chunks of butter to still be visible, as they create the texture we want as they melt in the oven.
  
• Then just as you would for a pie crust, slowly add about 4-5 TBSP of cold ice water and gently mix with a fork(I put way more water than I need in a glass measuring cup with ice, then only use what I need for the dough to come together).  Then with your hands gently mix the crust together still keeping it crumbly. The dough should feel uniformly slightly moist.  If it holds together when you squeeze some crust in your hands then you don’t need any more water.  If it is still too crumbly and not uniformly moist, add 1-2 more TBSP of the ice water.  Then test again.  It is important to not add too much water.  We want the dough to somewhat stick together when squished in our hand, but still be crumbly as we rub it out of our hand, and still retain some butter chunks.
  
• Press dough into the prepared pan, remember this is a thin layer- so press down and out to all the edges. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until LIGHTLY browned.  Gluten free flour doesn’t brown like typical flour, so it’s still ready when there is very minimal browning.
  
• Make the Streusel Layer:  While the crust is baking, in a large glass bowl, add the flour, brown sugar, and oats.  Mix well.  Place cold butter chunks in the crust and using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture.  If you don’t have a pastry cutter, you can use a food processor, or even your fingers.  I usually finish up with my fingers to make sure the butter is evenly distributed, but not too squished. We also want this streusel to squish together in our hand, but still crumble and retain some of the butter chunks.
  
• When the crust is done, remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before placing the filling on top
• Gently spread the cheesecake filling on top of the crust.  This will be a thin layer over the entire crust.  As it cooks, it will puff up.
  
• Then place the slices of apples in a single layer across the filling layer.  You can double layer a little bit, but mostly you are wanting a single layer.  You may have a few apple slices left over.
  
• Add your streusel topping by sprinkling over the apples.  Then put back in the oven to bake for 30 more minutes.  Leave the dessert in the oven, but turn the oven off, and turn on LOW BROIL.  Broil for 2 minutes- only 2 minutes.  This crisps up the top and gives it a golden brown color.  Again, with gluten free flour, we often don't get that true golden browning, so this helps our flour/sugar topping to achieve that golden color.
  
• Remove from oven to a cooking rack and let the dessert cool about 10 minutes.  Then top with caramel topping by gently drizzling the caramel.  Now you don’t want you caramel pipping hot, but it does need to be fairly warm to drizzle nicely.  Too warm and it will spread all over instead of staying in the drizzle lines.
  
• Continue cooling to room temperature before covering with plastic wrap and placing in the refrigerator.  If you don’t let it cool enough before placing it in the refrigerator, you will get condensation on your plastic wrap, and then that will alter your topping in a negative way. Sometimes I will even cool it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so without plastic wrap just to make sure I won't get any condensation.
• Cut into squares and serve at your next family party, baby or bridal shower, or any time you need a beautiful dessert that serves many people.
  

Notes

This will keep in your refrigerator for 5-7 days.

Keyword apples, caramel, caramel apple streusel cheesecake bars, cheesecake, dessert, fall dessert

I hope that you will enjoy making this dessert. The great thing about a recipe like this, is that you could easily omit the apple/streusel/caramel layers and bake it like that. Then add strawberries or raspberries and it would still be so delicious. I love a versatile recipe that you can alter through out the year depending on what fruit is in season.

Happy Baking!

If you want to watch me demo this recipe on Good Things Utah, click here. I did update this recipe on my blog from what they have on their website, so there are a couple minor changes. Use my recipe here on the blog.

PS My favorite silicone mats are on Amazon. And the best part is they are only $10 for 2! Yay! And you can find my favorite Anasazi sea salt here. My favorite gf oats to buy in bulk are Bakery on Main on Amazon.