A Love Song to Autumn

It's no secret (or at least it shouldn't be by now) that I take full advantage of any opportunity to bake.  I love to cook, but it's kind of the difference between eating one piece of chocolate or two.   

So when someone has a birthday, or accomplishment, or milestone, or their favorite show didn't get overtaken by some political agenda, or they put their garbage out on the right day, or someone didn't flush the toilet during their shower on a Monday, or when it was supposed to rain, but didn't...oddly enough,  well, I'll probably bake for you...   

The point is...do you really need a reason to bake and make someone just a little bit happier?

During fall it's all about apples, and caramel, and spices, and pumpkin and more spices  - any and all combinations.  I recently ran across this recipe called, "Bavarian Apple Torte" and I have to admit, it looked too tempting to pass up.  Recipes are forgiving little creatures.  They loved to be tweaked and improved according to the new founder's interpretation and tastes.  And just like that, one recipe now has ten variations and the next person that comes along gets the perk of choosing which one suits them - or they can choose to tweak it again.

Yes, I admit...I tweaked.
Honestly, this is one of those recipes that inspire you to sing a love song to autumn.

Oh, autumn with your awesome colors on the leaves
that eventually fallllllll
and then crunch under your feeet

and then all the apple farmer guys bring out the big
vats of caramellllll for the ap-ples
and start growing huge pumpkins for pumpkin spice chai latte
(which I'll feature some daaaaay) soon

Oh, autumn - i love you
and the way you inspire me to bake 
now that it's not too hot to turn on the oven 
and make my Caramel Apple Cheesecaaaaake. 

Okay, okay...I can only handle so much autumn love in one day!  Sheesh!

On with the show...Caramel Apple Cheesecake.  My tweaked version of Bavarian Apple Torte.

 You'll need flour, sugar, butter, vanilla, cream cheese, eggs, apples, cinnamon 

and a springform pan.

Start by making the cookie base...

Mix the butter, sugar, flour and vanilla together till you get small crumbs.

 Press into your springform pan.

 Now make the cheesecake.  Mix the cream cheese and sugar together.  Add in the eggs one at at time.  Make sure that they are well incorporated after each addition.  Add the vanilla.

 Making sure your cream cheese is room temperature is a good idea.  It won't have as many little lumps.  I got lucky this time and the texture didn't seem too affected by it. 

Spread the cheesecake mixture onto the cookie base.  Ooooh, it's starting to get good now, isn't it?

 Slice three cups of apples and toss with sugar and cinnamon and walnuts. 

Bake for nearly an hour or until the cheesecake is set.  

Be sure to place the pan on a lined baking sheet.  Save your poor oven from overflowing 

autumn love that may burn and stink up your entire kitchen.

   Sweet, beautiful, anything but lingering.  No, this won't last long, but you are welcome to savor it and contemplate all that the wonderful things that this season affords us.  

Yes, you must slow down and enjoy this.  Close the laptop, close the schedule book, phones must go on hold.  Let nothing interrupt this little moment just for you.

Now  you can sing your own love song to autumn....

Caramel Apple Cheesecake**

Adapted from All Recipes / Allison

Fleur de Lolly

Crust

3/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 t. vanilla extract

Cheesecake

2 8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 t. vanilla extract

Topping

3 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples

1/2 cup sugar

1 t. ground cinnamon

½ cup walnuts

Drizzle

Caramel topping

Directions

Combine the first four ingredients.  Press onto the bottom of an ungreased 9-in. springform pan. 

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time until well incorporated.  Add vanilla; mix well.  Pour over the crust.

Combine topping ingredients; spoon over filling. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-65 minutes or until the center is set.  Cool on a wire rack.  Store in the refrigerator.   When cooled, drizzle over caramel topping. 

**Tweak(s) and recommendations

Next time, I may rethink adding as much vanilla to the crust and may try and add some ground walnuts or even pecans to create a more "shortbread" style crust.

Make sure the cream cheese is room temp.

For the topping, I added in the walnuts and the caramel drizzle to the recipe.  Next time, I will nicely lay out the apple slices in a more circular design.  I'm thinking that 3 cups of sliced apples may have been too much apple because it created a lot of juice - too much juice can hurt a cheesecake.

I'll also sprinkle the walnuts on top of the apples rather than incorporating them with the apples.  More of the walnuts will be exposed to the heat that way. 

Seriously, don't forget to bake on a baking sheet.  The juices can run out of the springform pan and land on the oven element and if that happens, you'll be cleaning your oven sooner than you may have wanted to.