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Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
Errrrmerrrrgerrrrrd! I want these pumpkin cheesecake bars in my life at all times. All hours. All minutes. All seconds. I love them so much. And I think my husband loved them even more. He asked me to make more as soon as these were gone. But I held off. The last thing I need in my house is extra cheesecake bars just sitting around while I work from home. It’s a dangerous game. And I lose every time. So the hubs will just have to wait until Thanksgiving to have these again. Just kidding. We’ll be at a wedding on Thanksgiving day. Living our best life in New Zealand.
Did I mention we’re going to New Zealand? Oh. I’ve mentioned it about a million times already? My bad.
Does it feel too early to already be talking about Thanksgiving since Halloween still hasn’t officially hit? Or have you already planned everything you’re going to make for Thanksgiving? I feel like every year I’m thinking about Thanksgiving earlier and earlier since I’m usually cooking everything for the blog pretty early on. I’ve honestly already made some Christmas cookies for the blog and it’s not even November yet. Jeeeeeez.
The holidays are weird this year. We are going to NZ for Thanksgiving, having Christmas here in Colorado and going to Cabo for New Year’s. I’ve always wanted to celebrate holidays while on vacation and I think this is the closest I’ll ever get. My husband is pretty big into holiday traditions so Christmas on the beach in Aruba isn’t appealing to him. It’s his one flaw. Along with not shutting his dresser drawers.
I’m sorry but can we swing back around to New Zealand? Just because yesterday we officially paid to bungy jump while we are there. And every time I think about it, my hands and feet start sweating. I was always an adrenaline junky when I was younger, but the older I get, the less risks I like to take. I don’t even like taking risks when it comes to the stock market. No thank you. This is what I signed up for. I can’t even watch the entire video. I’m not joking, my hands are drenched in sweat. Why do we like the feeling of adrenaline? Not everything is adrenaline filled there luckily. We will also be doing wine tours, golf, flying over milford sound, going to casinos, hot springs, hopping on a jet boat, and eating all the food. We have 10 days there and I honestly wish it was longer. I’ve never heard one bad thing about New Zealand and I feel so lucky to get to go.
Since I’ll be in NZ watching my friends get married on Thanksgiving day, can you make these and have one for me? I’m not sure I can get these through customs.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 9 hours
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 package of Simple Mills Crunchy Pecan Cookies
- 3 tablespoons ghee
For the cheesecake:
- 16 ounces almond milk cream cheese*, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup maple sugar
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 eggs
For garnish:
- coconut milk whipped cream
- dusting of cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8×8 glass baking dish with parchment paper and spray with coconut oil spray.
- Add cookies to a food processor and pulse to break down. Then add ghee and pulse to combined until a crumbly mixture is created. Place crumbled mixture in the baking dish and press down until evenly throughout the entire dish.
- Add softened cream cheese to a bowl and use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese until smooth. Then add sugar, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, pumpkin pie spice and beat for 1 minute. Lastly, add each egg one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating for one last minute.
- Pour cheesecake mixture over crust and smooth throughout. Place in oven to bake for 45 minutes until the edges have slightly browned and middle of cheesecake is only slightly jiggly. Then turn off the oven, crack the oven door open, and let the cheesecake rest for 1 hour in the oven. After an hour, remove cheesecake from oven and let cool completely. Then cover and place in the fridge overnight before slicing into 16 bars and topping with coconut whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon before serving!
Notes
*I used Kite Hill almond milk cream cheese
___________
I Need More Pumpkin!
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
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52 thoughts on “Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars”
My husband and I went to New Zealand and Australia last year and it was the trip of a lifetime. I hope you have an amazing time. Queenstown in NZ is the best and from what you describe you are going there! It has the best downtown area and restaurants. The Milford Sound is amazing with tons of waterfalls. We were there on Christmas Day last year. Have a fantastic time.
so so excited!
Are you flying in to Queenstown? Make sure you get a window seat if you are – even if you have to push some old lady out of the way, you won’t regret it! Depending on which way the wind is blowing, it’s the most stunning approach ever.
I know you were joking about taking the cheesecake bars with, but if you haven’t already, read up on customs and quarantine – they’re some of the strictest in the world, and they aren’t joking around – declare everything, including sports shoes.
yes i am flying to queenstown!! and good to know about customs. that’s so weird!!
Haha, it’s a small isolated island, they have to protect it from all sorts of pests and invasions! I got stopped by the sniffer dogs once because I’d had a banana in my handbag a couple of days before! The info is here: https://www.mpi.govt.nz/travel-and-recreation/arriving-in-new-zealand/items-to-declare/
Just have your sports shoes on top (they will probably want to inspect them to make sure there’s no dirt or grass on them), and declare any food (even commercially prepackaged stuff – they don’t care about it, but you have to declare it). And don’t bother taking anything honey related, it will be confiscated. They’re generally pretty nice about it, as long as you read the declaration carefully and are honest.
Seriously, what is it with husbands and dresser drawers?!?!?
PS, these look amazeballs!
RIGHT?! it’s so easy to push them all the way in. i do it every day
My palms started sweating too when I was watching the video and I’m not even doing it! Haha.
I did however lose a bet to my boyfriend and my “punishment” is that I have to go skydiving. He hasn’t brought it up for a couple months so hopefully he forgot about it! 🙂
skydiving is super fun!! i did it when i was 18 and loved it!
Oh hell no!!! I’m sweating just form watching that video. Please get this on video.
Oof. I need a chiropractic adjustment after watching that video ???? The girl looks totally stoked afterward, though ???? and the most memorable experiences I’ve had in life have also been the ones I was most afraid to do/try. Think of it this way…the actual jump and retrieval is only a few minutes total, but you’ll have this memory forever. And if you can jump off a perfectly good platform, I think you can do just about anything that life throws at you!
ooooh that’s a good way to look at it!!
So instead of maple sugar, i was able to find “organic maple flakes”. Is that pretty much the same thing?
i’ve never used maple flakes, but i think if you break them down in a food processor, it would be just as good as maple sugar
I ended up using the flakes and they were just find, no need to even break them down, the flakes were teeny tiny already. YAY!
P.S. I couldnt find kite hill and so i used a coconut based cream cheese instead and it was an epic fail. Total goo on top, but they were still edible lol
someone else mentioned using a coconut cream cheese and it totally failed haha it must be a weird mixture for it to not bake at all
Whoops that last comment was actually referring to the muffin recipe, but might apply to these bars as well.
She links the maple sugar in the recipe.
I need to make these today!!! They look delicious!
What is the * for by the cream cheese? I don’t see a note anywhere.
sorry, that * is suppose to be for *i use kite hill brand. i’ll update that!
the hardest part about the bungee jumping is just jumping. Dont think about it, just look straight out in to the distance and jump… sooooo worth it!!!
i will definitely do my best at not looking down and immediately crying
Um, no. Bungee jump would not happen for me! You are brave!
lol i don’t think brave is the right word. maybe stupid?
New Zealand is amazing. I’m sure you’ll love it. I did a different jump by that company down in Queenstown and it was great. The free fall is scary , but once the rope catches it’s nice and the views are pretty. That company is super professional too so you’re definitely in good hands. Have a great time!
You’ll love NZ – great food & wine all around! The South Island has an amazing thing called real fruit ice cream where you choose whatever frozen fruit you like & they blend it up with either ice cream or frozen yogurt & it comes out deliciously blended like soft serve. So many options!!!
Enjoy! The flight is looooong so be prepared (whiskey helped me through it) ???? but totally worth it.
I’ve been trying to figure out what to bring to my gym potluck this weekend and then you come along and post these! Definitely making these!!
do itttttt
Oh my goodness, my mouth was watering reading this. I will definitely be making these for Thanksgiving! Of course, I’ll need to make them a few times beforehand for taste testing purposes 😉
of course 😉
NZ is the MOST amazingly beautiful country! You will have an awesome time. So envious.
Thanks for all you do for the Paleo world. It’s because of YOU that I was able to make the switch to being Paleo two years ago and stick with it. So thank you.
thanks for the love Jennifer!
Is there a substitute for the ghee or maple sugar? I usually don’t use either of them. The bars look amazing and oh how I miss my cheesecake! Thanks
butter or coconut oil. and you can use coconut sugar, it will just change the color a bit
I lost a bet with my husband and had to do the Nevis Bungy as punishment. It was by far the most adrenaline I’ve ever experienced in my life! I definitely screamed my face off so hard I puked a little. Also my knees buckled as soon as I was on land again. Buutttt… they are an incredible company, they pump you up, no-one has ever got hurt unlike those shady ones in Africa. You’ll scream a lot but then feel amazing. I second the comment above, don’t even think about the jump, just swan dive the sh*t out of it. And then rejoice when you are back on land and drink heaps of cocktails to celebrate your badassness.
lol i don’t want to scream so much that i puke hahahah but that still sounds absolutely amazing!
I made this recipe last night and they turned out FANTASTIC!!! My husband’s first reaction was “wait, are these paleo?” before destroying the slice ???? #betterhimthanme Thank you!
yayyyy!! so glad you guys both liked the bars!
I hate you for making me love these. I crave them all day/all night. My store only had choc chip cookies from simple mills so I used those and they did not disappoint. This will ???? be a dessert at Thanksgiving!
saaaaame! i crave them so bad!
First, can I get an “Amen!” for Kite Hill cream cheese? Thank you God, Baby Jesus and Juli for Paleo cheesecake! Second, do not fear the bungee jump. I PROMISE the worst part is making yourself jump. I have an 11 minute video of me standing on the edge of the bridge trying to convince myself to do it (I jumped from a bridge in the middle of a jungle in Costa Rica and I am NOT someone who takes chances and does crazy stuff). You won’t cry. You won’t puke. Just put your game face on and go without fear. It is the most exhilarating feeling EVER – plus the best chiropractor adjustment of all time. No pain, no falling feeling, just all the good stuff. ENJOY (and thanks for being awesome)!
right?! love their cream cheese so damn much!! so pumped for the bungy jump. just hoping not to pee myself
These are in the oven right now! I’m so excited! And the cream cheese filling was sooo yummy when I licked the spatula 😉 I’m wondering about trying it with flax eggs (egg alternative) for vegan family coming to Thanksgiving. Thoughts???
i’ve never tried flax egg so i can’t say for sure
Could I use normal cream cheese if I do not have the almond one? Or is there some other type of substitute? thank you!
absolutely! i just wouldn’t recommend using coconut cream cheese. i’ve heard some other people use that and it has been a disaster haha but dairy cream cheese should be great!
Hi Juli, any ideas for a different GF cookie to sub for the base? I’m thinking about making for Thanksgiving but some of the little kiddos are nut free. Thank you!
i haven’t tried any other gf crunchy cookies, so I can’t say for sure. I’m sorry!
Hi! I’m planning to make these for Thanksgiving and wondering how long they will keep? We are traveling several hours and I was planning to make them on Tuesday to serve Thursday.
they should still be good by then if kept in the fridge in a closed container
For whatever reason, I missed the video link last year when I looked at this – just watched it today and I totally was sympathy sweating for that girl in the video!! Holy crap did you really do that, Juli?????
Also, I am excited to share these bars at this year’s TG feast at our friends’ house! Thanks.
I am absolutely obsessed with these & have devoured them many times (myself) since making them! Quick question- could I double the recipe or do something with it so that I could bake it in a springform pan to serve a bunch of people/for a holiday display? You know, the high & deep ‘I’m not a paleo cheesecake’ look…😉😘
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