On Apples with Cheesecake and Toffee Goodness

Maple up the toffee and make me Granny proud!

Toffee Apple Cheesecake Pie

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Hands do work best and just go until you feel little pea like clumps Press evenly into a 9x13 baking pan lined with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cheesecake Filling:

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar, plus 2 tablespoons brown, divided

3 large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese with 3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup white and 1/4 cup brown) in an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. Then add eggs, 1 at a time, and vanilla. (If you work too fast with your eggs the sugar will "cook" the yolk and it will not taste as nice. The brown sugar helps stop this reaction with the yolk) Stir to combine. Pour over warm crust. 

Apples:

3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1/4 tsp mace

3 tbsp brown sugar

In a small bowl, stir together chopped apples, remaining 3 tablespoons demerra brown sugar, cinnamon, mace and nutmeg. Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle evenly with Streusel topping. Bake 40-45 minutes, or until filling is set. Drizzle with toffee topping and let cool. Serve cold and enjoy!

Streusel Topping:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup quick cooking oats 

1/2 cup graham wafer crumbs

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 

In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Hands do work best and just go until you feel little pea like clumps The graham crumbs help with that texture 

Cut in butter with a pastry blender (or 2 forks) or your hands dipped in cold water until mixture is crumbly.

Toffee topping, recipe follows

1/2 cup toffee topping

1/2 cup butter room temperature

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Cook over medium heat in a heavy saucepan, I use cast iron (I have a cast iron pan for sweets and another for savouries) They do season differently.

This mixture should boil with the occasional stir using a metal spoon only, for approx 15 minutes or when you drop on an icy plate, thickens to a soft toffee consistency immediately (on candy thermometer to soft ball stage) 

Now Grandma insisted on a 1/2 teaspoon maple extract in her toffee to be stirred in at the end so "ye dont be losin any flavour" in her Scottish brogue which was hilarious. The only Maple extract company that was acceptable to her was Rawleigh which actually still exists. Amazing! Gran would be pleased! Grandma actually put this extract in porridge, ice cream and anything else she could get her hands on and if you weren't lookin she would kick in some crushed black walnuts on top of the apple cake which have the most peculiar taste. She loved them. Rawleighs has that too!

Enjoy and a big thanks to Paula Deen and the Girl Who Ate everything for bringing me back to my Grandmas Apple Cheese Pie as she called it. Oh and thanks to Rawleighs for still being around all these years.

Source: adapted from Paula Deen

by The Girl Who Ate Everything

then re-adapted by Lyndsay Zoratti of Sweet Cuppin Cakes