What happens when two of our favorite desserts combine? This Apple Pie Cheesecake! It’s a fluffy, decadent cheesecake filled with apple pie flavors.
We used low-fat cream cheese and yogurt instead of full-fat cream cheese and sour cream for a lightened-up version of this apple dessert. We cooked apples folded them into the batter rather than just placed them on top. A crumb topping finishes it all off with the perfect bite! The result is an amazing combination of cheesecake and apple pie all wrapped in one wonderful fall dessert. You may also want to try Mini Apple Pies and Knafeh.
The best thing about this Apple Pie Cheesecake is that it feels special enough for a holiday or celebration, but it’s quick easy to make, so it’s also a great option for a weekday treat. Just give it enough time to set in the fridge. It’s an all-around wonderful apple recipe to have on hand and we just know you’ll love it!
Make Apple Pie Cheesecake Ahead of Time
Plan on making this cheesecake one day ahead of time so it has plenty of time (at least 4-5 hours) to cool and set in the refrigerator. This isn’t a traditional cheesecake, so it doesn’t need to be cooked in a water bath! It’s a great recipe if you’re intimidated by cheesecake.
How to Make Apple Pie Cheesecake
Start by making the graham cracker crust and pressing it into a 10-inch springform pan. We like to let the crust come up on the sides a little bit!
Prepare the cooked apples by placing apples, cinnamon, and sugar in a small pan over medium heat. They’re done when they become fork-tender!
Use a food processor to combine the filling ingredients. Pour it into a bowl and carefully fold in the cooked apples. Now it’s starting to look like an apple pie cheesecake! Pop it in the oven and focus on the crumble topping for a minute.
This is a traditional apple pie crumble topping, made from flour, sugar, and butter. Once the cheesecake is done in the oven sprinkle the crumble topping on and bake it for another 10 minutes to let everything set up!
Let the Apple Pie Cheesecake cool completely to room temperature on the counter before placing it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours or, ideally, overnight. Serve it cold and enjoy it immensely!
Apple Pie Cheesecake with Fewer Calories
While we do occasionally (or more than occasionally…) indulge in a totally decadent dessert, we’re usually pretty mindful of ingredients and love creating lightened-up versions of our favorites! For the cheesecake filling of this dessert, we used Neufchatel (cream) cheese with ⅓ less fat and fat-free or low-fat Greek yogurt.
More Apple Desserts
- Apples & Honey Semolina Cake
- Sea Salt Caramel Apple Vegan Cupcakes
- Apple Oat Bars
- Easy Baked Apples with Oat Crisp
- Apple Cinnamon Baked Vegan Donuts
- Vegan Shortbread Spiced Apple Butter
Apple Pie Cheesecake Lightened-Up
- Total Time: 1 hour 20 mins
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
What happens when two of our favorite desserts combine? This Apple Pie Cheesecake! It’s a fluffy, decadent cheesecake filled with apple pie flavors. We used low-fat cream cheese and yogurt instead of full fat cream cheese and sour cream for a lightened-up dessert with cooked apples folded in rather than just placed on top. A crumb topping finishes it all off with the perfect bite!
Ingredients
- Crust:
- 2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (about 12-14 crackers)
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tbsp milk
- Apples:
- 2 medium apples, cored, peeled and diced small
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Filling:
- 2-8oz packages of Neufchatel cream cheese (⅓ less fat cream cheese), at room temperature (see note #2)
- 2-5.3 oz containers of low fat vanilla Greek yogurt (see note #2)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
- Crumble topping
- 6 tbsp brown sugar
- 6 tbsp all purpose flour
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- To prepare the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and milk in a food processor. Pulse a few times until well combined
- Press the mixture into a 10-inch springform mold to make an even layer, so it slightly comes up the sides. Set aside
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- In a small pan, cook the apples, sugar, butter, and cinnamon over medium heat until tender, about 5-7 minutes. Set aside to cool
- Combine the cream cheese and sugar in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the yogurt and vanilla extract and pulse a more few times
- Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each one is well incorporated before adding the next
- Pour the cream cheese mixture into a bowl and fold in the cooked apples
- Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake at 350F for 45 minutes
- In the meantime, prepare the crumble topping. Combine the flour and sugar in a small bowl. Work in butter using a fork or your fingers
- Remove the cheesecake from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400F. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the cheesecake and bake for an additional 15 minutes
- Let it cool completely, and refrigerate overnight
Notes
- THIS RECIPE NEEDS AT LEAST 4 HOURS OF REFRIGERATION, BUT PREFERABLY OVERNIGHT.
- For a Dairy Free option replace the cream cheese with non-dairy cream cheese and the yogurt for a plant-based one.
- This post was originally published on October 24, 2012 - The recipe has remained the same, we have updated some images and added more information.
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 55 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 394
- Sugar: 31.6
- Sodium: 361.9
- Fat: 18.6
- Saturated Fat: 10.2
- Unsaturated Fat: 8
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 47.1
- Fiber: 2.1
- Protein: 10.6
- Cholesterol: 113
If you enjoyed this recipe, it would help us tremendously if you left us a star rating in the comments below or on the recipe card. Do you have any questions about the recipe? Do you need a swap for any of the ingredients? We are here to help, just leave us a question in the comments below.
Linda Rosenblatt
maybe I'm just not seeing it, but when do you incoroporate the apples back in (after they've cooled)? this recipe looks amazing!
mayihavethatrecipe
So sorry! Looks like we missed the step! It's fixed now. Thanks for letting us know! 🙂
Valentina Kenney (@cookingweekends)
wow, this looks delicious! and I love that colorful, vibrant cloth napkin in the pretty photos! 🙂
mayihavethatrecipe
Thank you very much! It taste delicious too! We got that napkin last year at Home Goods.
Jenny @ BAKE
this looks SOOOO good! the crust at the top just looks incredible! everything is moderation - though I'm not to good at that!
mayihavethatrecipe
The crust in definitely my favorite part! Your comment reminds me of a quote I found on Pinterest. Check it out!
http://pinterest.com/pin/157696424422276410/
juliasalbum
The combination of apple pie and cheesecake sounds wonderful! Beautiful photography!
mayihavethatrecipe
Thank you!! What better than two desserts in one? 🙂
Spesh
Hi. I am definitely going to try this cheesecake. Trivia question: How do I get a "smaller" version of your recipes that won't print up in a humungous size. The last recipe I printed up cameout on 10 pages. Thanks. Love your recipes.
mayihavethatrecipe
Thank you for visiting our site, we are so glad that you will try our apple pie cheesecake. We are in the process of re-designing our site and we will have a print this recipe option. Now, your best option is to copy and paste, or highlight the recipe and then print only the selected text. We are sorry about that