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
______________
Click Here To Get All My PaleOMG Recipes Into Your Meal Planner With Real Plans!
I may be compensated through my affiliate links in this post, but all opinions are my own. This compensation helps with expenses to keep this blog up and running!
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?