2014 Dessert Holiday Contest Winning Recipe: Crème Brulee Cheesecake Bars

Room for one more dessert? This recipe is the one to try. The filling has a creamy texture, not too sweet, and the cookie-pudding crust is firm but flaky. Pieces of toffee sprinkled over the top, gives this dessert a crème brulee’s sugary crunch. Serve on plates or cut into bars, your choice.

This was a perfect time to try new dessert recipes and my family and friends were more than willing to sample and comment on each dessert.

Here is this year’s winner. Congratulations to Carol Appleton of Millersville, Maryland. Carol wins a Baltimore Post-Examiner T-shirt!

Carol Appleton, “My sister made these for Thanksgiving and they are a KEEPER!”

Creme Brulee Cheesecake Bars

• 1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
• 1 box (4-serving size) French vanilla instant pudding & pie filling mix
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 eggs plus 3 egg yolks
• 2 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup toffee bits, finely crushed

Heat oven to 350.  Lightly spray bottom and sides of 13×9 inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl stir cookie mix, pudding mix, brown sugar, melted butter, one teaspoon of the vanilla and 1 whole egg until soft dough forms.  Press dough in bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of pan.

In small bowl beat together the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar. Add 1 whole egg, 3 egg yolks, 1½ teaspoon vanilla and continue beating with an electric mixer until smooth.  Spread over crust in pan.

Bake 30 – 35 minutes or until set in center.  Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle top with crushed toffee bits.  Cool 30 minutes.  Refrigerate about 3 hours or until chilled.  For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows.  Store covered in refrigerator.

Toffee bits can be found in the candy or baking section of most grocery stores. If you can’t find what you want, try making your own toffee. It’s not that difficult and the taste is delicious.

Most vintage recipes for toffee come under the heading, English Toffee. These usually call for chocolate pieces or finely chopped nuts in addition to the basic sugar and butter combination.

If you want to try your own toffee there are several recipes available on the internet but basically you’ll need sugar and butter:

Toffee

• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons water

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, about 4-6 minutes. Continue until the mixture reaches 300 degrees F. about 8-10 minutes. The mixture will begin to turn brown (brittle candy stage). The mixture will be very, very hot; don’t touch it with your bare hands or let it land on your skin. Ouch!

Pour onto a flat surface, such as a cookie sheet. There’s enough butter in the mixture to keep it from sticking on your pan, but I like to use parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Spread thin and let cool. Break into pieces.

A few more baking hints to ponder:

1. Short of pecans or nuts? Use crushed cornflakes instead.
2. Cut drinking straws into short lengths; insert through slits in pie crusts to prevent juices from running over into the oven. Permits steam to escape.
3. When pie fillings do run over into oven, shake salt onto spill-this causes it to burn to crisp for easy removal and prevents fires. However, I know from experience it will do nothing to stop the fire detector from going off!

Happy and healthy New Year to all!