(Originally Posted by Sarah – February 1, 2015)
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Parfait
- 8 oz cream cheese
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons of half and half
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 6-7 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4-1/2 cup caramel sauce, (such as this Easy Caramel Sauce recipe by the Pioneer Woman)
- Cook the apples, granulated sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg in a pan until golden in color
- Add the caramel sauce, start with around 1/4 cup and add to taste
- Cool
- Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, half and half and vanilla on high speed until well combined, scraping the bowl occasionally
- Layer cream cheese and apples, repeat until containers are full, chill
Jess and I sat tonight at dinner and talked about how a month has just flown by since the beginning of the Springdell Show and Tell on CSA365. We have really been having fun cooking, tasting and sharing fresh Springdell food. We look forward to eating our way through the rest of the year with you.
Sunday night dinner this week was pot roast cooked with Springdell onions, garlic, carrots and tomato sauce from storage. We had rice and a salad of fresh mixed greens and arugula with beets as sides. Great winter comforts tonight. But I would like to highlight desert tonight. I’m going to shine the spotlight onto the apples today. We finished off the meal with caramel apple cheesecake parfait tonight. Not a single apple was left behind, we just about licked our bowls too. This one is super easy and really delicious.
One of my favorite and biggest time saving kitchen gadgets is my apple peeler. My friend Ann, a fellow share holder, gave this to me for my birthday a few years ago. She knows I like to make apple sauce, pies, crisps etc. This little, and a bit cheezy, gadget saves so much time.
So, seconds later thanks to my peeler I had this….
I took 7 apples, peeling and cored and diced into a good sized pan to start cooking down with some sugar, lemon juice, spices.
Get those cooking away and move to the cheesecake part of this dish. Mix up cream cheese, a dash of half and half, powdered sugar and a bit of freshly grated nutmeg. Let this go for 3-4 minutes until really smooth. Be sure to stop every minute or so to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
By now the apples should be softening and bubbling away. They will lose their white color and start to lose their liquid into a bit of a sauce in the pan. Stir in the caramel to taste.
Put both of these in the fridge to cool and stay cool for a bit. When they are about the same temperature it’s time to combine them into a delicious parfait. I used little dishes but one big trifle bowl would work too. Start with the cream cheese mixture first and layer apples, cream cheese etc. ending with a dollop of cream cheese on the top.
One last touch to finish these cute little guys off. A few photos back you may have noticed a pile of apple peels. I put them in the oven at 325 degrees with a few shakes of Ben’s Maple sugar on top.
About 25 minutes later I had awesome apple chips!
The perfect final touch for the parfait.
Enjoy!
On that note, we have another foot plus of snow coming our way and we sit with bellies full of pot roast and parfait watching the Patriots play in the Super Bowl. Go Pats!!