Apple Crumble Cheesecake

With this apple crumble cheesecake there is no need to choose between apple crumble or apple cheesecake because with this cheesecake recipe you get the best of both worlds. The apple crumble topping is absolutely delicious on top of this cheesecake batter and graham cracker crust. All you need is caramel sauce drizzle to take this delicious cheesecake over the top.

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about making this combination apple crumble cheesecake, thinking what if the apples are too wet and the cream cheese remains mushy in the center. But, testing the doneness near the end helped to determine if the cheesecake should cook for a little longer or not. In the end, it was cooked just perfectly.

This is a great dessert to make for Thanksgiving or Christmas gatherings.

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This Apple Crumble Cheesecake was made for my dad who celebrated his 88th birthday today. It was a great hit - everyone loved it and they were surprised with the flavor combination.
But you don't need to wait for a special occasion to make this apple cheesecake.

Ingredients to Make Apple Cheesecake

Like any other cheesecake recipe, the main ingredient in this cheesecake recipe is cream cheese, among this long list of other ingredients:

• Apples
• Cream Cheese
• Eggs
• Graham Crumbs
• Butter
• Sugar, Brown Sugar
• Flour
• Sour Cream
• Vanilla Extract
• Cinnamon
• Baking powder
• Rolled oats
• Lemon Juice

What's the Difference Between Apple Crisp and Apple Crumble?

So you might be wondering, what's the difference between apple crumble and apple crisp? They are very similar. And why not use apple crisp to top off this delicious cheesecake dessert? Let me explain the difference.

Fruit Crisp

A crisp is a baked fruit dessert topped with a crisp and crunchy layer of ingredients. The topping may include brown sugar, unsalted butter, oats, nuts, flour and a spices (e.g. cinnamon). The ingredients are tossed together and placed on top of fruit and then it is baked until the topping is crispy and golden.

Fruit Crumble

Like a crisp, a crumble is a baked fruit dessert with a layer of topping. Crumble toppings rarely include rolled oats or nuts. They do include a combination of flour, sugar and melted butter, like a pastry. However some variations may include rolled oats or nuts. Crumble toppings are more clumpy than a crisp topping.

Tips and Tricks to Making Apple Crumble Cheesecake

For this recipe, I substituted 1 cup of walnuts for ½ cup of honey graham crumbs. Doing this brought a little bit of decadence to the crust. Not to mention that the walnut flavor paired very nicely with the apples.

The star of this Apple Crumble Cheesecake were the granny smith apples. I'm so glad that I had my Starfrit apple peeler to help quickly peel apples, like the ones on the page here.  Getting an apple peeler was the best investment I ever made.

Take a deep breath because there are three parts to compiling this dessert and it's not difficult. Take each step in the process of building this cheesecake one step at a time. Each part of the cheesecake (crust, cheesecake batter and crumble) can be made on separate days and refrigerated until all of the layers have been assembled.

Instructions on How to Make Apple Crumble Cheesecake

Making the Cheesecake Crust

To properly make this Apple Crumble Cheesecake you will need at least a 9 inch spring-form pan.  If you have a 8 inch pan you can use it, however, you may need to discard some of the apple and apple crisp topping as it will overflow if you use it all. 

Take each part of making the cheesecake one at a time starting with the graham cracker crust.  Use a spoon to make it easier to press the graham cracker crumbs down onto the spring form pan.  Once you place all of the "crust" ingredients in the pan, use a spoon to press down on the crust.  A spoon can help if you use it to press down the graham crumb mixture until all of the mixture is evenly distributed and the crust has been formed.

Note that I did not grease the pan. I wondered whether this would be a problem, but in the end it didn't matter. So there is no need to butter and flour the pan.  You can skip this step.

Cheesecake Filling

It's best to use cream cheese at room temperature. When you are mixing the cheese, eggs, sour cream, vanilla and other ingredients together, it is very important to stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl every few minutes.  Scrape down the bowl until you no longer have any cheese lumps and the batter is smooth.

Be careful not to pour the cheesecake mixture on the graham cracker crust while it is hot when making this Apple Crumble Cheesecake.  If you do this, you will melt the cheesecake filling and have cheesecake soup! Wait until the graham cracker crust cools down, then pour the cheesecake batter onto crust in the spring form pan.

Some advice for you - leave peeling and dicing the apples until the last possible moment and work quickly.  Otherwise, your apples will turn brown.

Apple Crumble

Prepare the apple filling and the apple crisp topping as you would normally for apple crumble. Do not combine the ingredients until later. Set aside.

Bake your cheesecake.

Top Tip for Making Apple Crisp Cheesecake Recipe

Hint: Let your cheese cake bake for 10 minutes before pouring the apples and the apple crisp topping onto. This will prevent the apple crumble from sinking into your cheesecake.

The first image above reflects the uncooked cheesecake after I topped it with the apple and crumble and before I returned it to the oven to finish baking.  The apple and crumble was literally about to flow out of the pan.  Feel free to leave some of the apple mixture out if you think it's too much.  But, use all of the crumble.

Substitutions and Variations for Apple Crumble Cheesecake

If you don't like apples or apple crumble, you are probably wondering what you can substitute the apples with in this recipe. Here are some ideas:

• Apples - substitute the apples with cherries, strawberries or blueberries
• Graham Cracker Crumb - substitute the graham cracker crumbs with almond meal or another nut meal or do half and half
• Caramel Sauce - try using salted caramel instead.

If you have other ideas, go ahead and try them to make this cheesecake your own.

Try something less complicated like this Apple Strudel recipe or this Cherry Cream Cheese Strudel recipe or this Crockpot Apple Cobbler by Slow Cooker Living.

Equipment Recommended to Make Apple Crumble Cheesecake

Equipment plays a large role in creating any dish. For this cheesecake, it is highly recommended that use a spring form pan, an apple peeler, and a cutting board. Parchment paper also comes in handy for quick removal and transfer of your cheesecake from the spring form pan to a serving dish.

Storing Your Apple Cheesecake

This cheesecake  refrigerates and freezes very well if you have leftovers.  Before your freeze, just pre-cut the slices then freeze. By doing this, you can thaw out a slice as you need want it.  Otherwise you would need to thaw out the entire cheesecake before you can slice it.

Drop me a comment if you decide to immediately top the cheesecake batter with the apple and crumble topping at the time of baking.  I'd like to know how it turned out.

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Recipe Details

Apple Crumble Cheesecake

AmyG

With this apple crumble cheesecake there is no need to choose between apple crumble or apple cheesecake because with this cheesecake recipe you get the best of both worlds. The apple crumble topping is absolutely delicious on top of this cheesecake batter and graham cracker crust. All you need is caramel drizzle to take this cheesecake over the top.

4.50 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Course Desserts and Snacks

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Calories 654 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Graham Cracker Crust

• 400 g graham crumbs
• ½ cups butter melted
• 3 tbsp sugar

Cream Cheese Filling

• 750 g cream cheese
• 1 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp flour
• ¾ cups sour cream
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

crumble

• ⅓ cups flour
• 2 tbsp butter melted
• ⅓ cups rolled oats
• ⅓ cups brown sugar
• ¼ tbsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp baking powder

apple topping

• 3 granny smith apples
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• ¼ cups brown sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp salt

Optional:

• Caramel Sauce

Instructions

 

• Graham Cracker Crust
• Heat oven to 350°F. If you are going to substitute a cup of graham crumbs with a cup of chopped walnuts, do so at this point. Take the walnuts and use a mini food processor to chop them. The walnuts should be still coarse, remember you are not making nut butter.
• Place the graham cracker crumbs, and chopped walnuts if you are using them, sugar and melted butter in a bowl. Use a fork to mix everything together. Place the graham cracker crumbs in an 9" spring form pan and press them down with a spoon.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden and slightly crisp to the touch. Remove from oven and let sit until completely cool.
• Cream Cheese Filling
• In a bowl fitted with a mixing attachment, soften the cream cheese. Add the sugar, flour, and the eggs, one at a time. Remember to scrape the bowl.
• Add the sour cream and the vanilla extract. Mix well. Scrape bowl and beat the mixture again to ensure that there are no lumps. Pour mixture over cooled graham cracker crust. Set aside for now until all other components are ready. Heat oven to 450°F while you prepare other components.
• CrispIn a medium bowl, combine flour, rolled oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder and melted butter.. Set aside.
• Apple Filling
• In a small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. (Dry ingredients) In another small bowl combine lemon juice, and vanilla extract. (Wet Ingredients)
• Peel and cut the apples into cubes. and place them in a medium bowl. Pour the wet ingredients on the apples and toss. Pour the dry ingredients on the apples and combine well. Set aside
• Assembly and Baking
• Bake cheesecake for 10 minutes at 450°F. Remove cheesecake from oven. Reduce oven to 350°F. Carefully spoon the apples in the center of the cheesecake - you can press the apples down a little. Continue spooning the apples onto the cheesecake working your way around in a circle, leave half to one inch diameter free of apples around the edges of the pan. Return the cake to the oven for 30 minutes. Now carefully spoon the crumble on top starting in the center and working your way to the outer edge of the pan.
• Remove the cheesecake from the oven and this time using your hands sprinkles the apple crisp topping over the center working your way around the pan leave about a half inch of apples free of the topping. Return the cheesecake to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. Test the done-ness as you approach 20 minutes of baking. Do this by pushing a skewer close to the middle of the cheesecake.
• Let cool and refrigerate for 3 hours.
• Serve with caramel drizzle (optional)
• Remember that the apples are going to let out moisture, so don't insert the skewer directly in the middle, but maybe 1 inch from the middle. If it comes out and it's not sticky or really wet, it's done! If it is sticky and very wet, let bake for another 10 minutes and test again.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/12 of CakeCalories: 654kcalCarbohydrates: 69gProtein: 9gFat: 39gSaturated Fat: 21gPolyunsaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 144mgSodium: 568mgFiber: 2gSugar: 42g

Keyword apple crisp, apple crumble cheesecake recipe, caramel, cheesecake

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