It’s finally time to bring out the fall decorations and make my mouth-watering Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars recipe. Even though you can enjoy these any time of the year, I love to make them when there’s a chill in the air and the leaves are turning colors. Three decadent layers with huge pumpkin spice flavor, they are like pumpkin pie bars on steroids!
⅓cupplain Greek yogurtregular yogurt, plant based or sour cream may be substituted
1 ½teaspoonsground cinnamon*
¼teaspooneach ground clovesnutmeg and ginger*
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325F degrees, line the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper, leave enough to hang over the sides.
Make the Streusel
In a medium bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, flour and salt, toss to combine. Add softened cubed butter, and using your hands or a fork, smoosh together until mixed. Place container in freezer while preparing the pumpkin squares.
Make the crust
Combine cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter together in medium bowl. Press into the bottom of prepared pan. The crust will be thick, thicker if you use an 8” pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes at 325, once finished, remove from oven and INCREASE the temperature to 350 degrees.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling
In the bowl of a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until light, creamy and smooth, about a minute. With mixer on low, add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 30 seconds after each addition.
On medium speed, beat in vanilla, pumpkin, yogurt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger. Continue mixing until combined and creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mixture will be on the thin side. Pour mixture over the hot Biscoff cookie crust and place in oven.
In order to prevent your streusel from sinking, bake pumpkin bars for 20-25 minutes, then remove and crumble streusel topping over the top. Continue baking for 25-40 additional minutes. The bars are done with when the edges are lightly browned and the center is set, cover loosely with foil if browning too quickly before setting.
Cool on wire rack for 1 hour (important), then transfer to the refrigerator to chill for 3 more hours or overnight. When ready to slice and serve, using the parchment paper lift the bars onto a cutting board and slice into 8 or 16 squares. If desired, drizzle bars with brown butter glaze .
This recipe easily doubles for a 9x13 inch pan, you may need to bake an additional 10-15 minutes.
Notes
*Replace Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves and Ginger with 2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice.Graham Cracker Crust | Use the graham cracker crust from my Key Lime Pie, it's perfectly sized!Prevent Streusel from Sinking | Prevent sinking by adding the topping over the filling mid-way through baking. Or, increase the oven temperature by 25 degrees for the first 5 minutes to set the filling before it rises too high. DOUBLE RECIPE | This recipe easily doubles to feed your Thanksgiving guests! Make in a 9x13 inch pan and bake the bars at 325 for 55-65 minutes until firm. Be sure to add the streusel topping half way through.TIP | Store your pumpkin cream cheese bars with a few saltine crackers to absorb moisture. It’s amazing how well this works!GLUTEN-FREE PUMPKIN BARS | Substitute GF butter cookies or try using GF Graham Crackers. Almond flour or other GF flours works for the topping. And don’t forget to use GF oats. The GF option is so yummy!VEGAN PUMPKIN BARS | For a vegan version of healthy pumpkin bars, substitute cashew cream for cream cheese and cashew sour cream for yogurt. Good egg substitutions include Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer or ½ a banana per egg.