Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie

I always love a good dessert mash-up, especially when it involves cheesecake. Have you seen this pecan pie cheesecake or these coconut cheesecake brownies before? Today we’re talking all things apple. This recipe is as if I started making an apple crisp or salted caramel apple pie, then threw in a cheesecake. It’s very layered, textured, rich, and undoubtedly tasty. During testing and photography, my team and I made about 8 of these pies… and neighbors were literally leaving notes on our doors to bring them more. (Yes, that really happened!)

Why You’ll Love This Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie

A “people pleaser” dessert—satisfies the cheesecake lovers and apple pie lovers No water bath or pastry pie crust needed A magnificent use of dessert’s favorite condiment, homemade salted caramel Tons of texture in every bite It’s a lot of steps and layers, but each is quite simple to make A great make-ahead recipe because it needs time to chill

Start With a Graham Cracker Crust:

Grab These Ingredients for Filling & Topping:

Cream Cheese: Use 12 ounces (339g) of full-fat brick cream cheese. Make sure you’re buying the bricks of cream cheese and not the tubs of cream cheese spread. Brown Sugar: We’re using brown sugar in the cheesecake filling, like we do in this pecan pie cheesecake. Brown sugar also goes in the caramel apple and streusel layers. Sour Cream: Makes for a smooth and velvety texture, and gives it that lightly tangy flavor we all love in cheesecakes. Pure Vanilla Extract: Pure vanilla extract adds flavor, especially homemade vanilla extract! Egg: The egg provides structure in this baked cheesecake pie. Apples: I like to use a mix of tart & sweet apples in baking, like 1 Granny Smith and 1 Honeycrisp or other sweet variety. Peel and slice them really thin, then chop the slices into bite-size pieces. If your apples are too thick, they won’t soften enough when the pie bakes. Lemon Juice: I usually include lemon juice in a cheesecake filling, but in this pie, let’s add it to the apples. Tossing the chopped apples in lemon juice helps prevent browning, but we also want to give them a head start on softening before we layer them in the pie. Cinnamon: Apple’s favorite spice! Homemade Salted Caramel: Have you ever made this liquid gold before? This recipe for salted caramel is surprisingly simple. Use some in the filling and then as much as you want when serving the finished pie. If you want regular caramel (and not salted), reduce the salt in the caramel recipe down to 1/2 teaspoon. Oats: Use old-fashioned whole rolled oats. If you don’t want oats in the streusel topping, try halving the crumble topping used on this apple crumble pie and use that instead. Flour: Just a little bit in the streusel topping, for structure. Butter: Cut cold, cubed butter into the dry streusel ingredients, until you have a crumbly topping. You also use butter in the crust. (And in the homemade caramel!)

Again, there are a lot of layers. Go slow, and read through the recipe and watch the video tutorial before you begin. I categorize this as an intermediate baking recipe. All this recipe testing led to today’s truly delicious dessert—are you ready for it? Bake the crust by itself for 10 minutes, so it can set its shape before filling the pie. It’s ideal if the crust is still a tad warm when you add the filling (so it adheres nicely to the base).

Let’s Assemble the Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie

In the printable recipe below, I encourage you to start with the crust, then move on to the toppings before you make the cheesecake filling. Make the streusel first, and then chill it in the refrigerator or freezer as you work on the other layers. The colder the streusel, the better it will hold shape in the oven. A pastry cutter makes this step easy, or you can try cutting in the butter using 2 forks: Spread the filling into the slightly warm pre-baked crust, and then top with the apple layer, a couple Tablespoons of salted caramel, and then the cold streusel topping. The cheesecake filling is a snap. It’s a slightly reduced version of this cheesecake pie filling. I reduced the amounts because we’re topping it with so many layers. Here is the pie before & after baking: The caramel apple cheesecake pie needs about 45 minutes in the oven. Around the 30 or 35-minute mark, I loosely tent it with aluminum foil to prevent the top and crust from over-browning. The pie filling may seem a little wobbly when it’s done, but it will finish setting up as it cools and chills. Totally worth all of the prepwork! Since you used only a few Tablespoons of the caramel sauce in the pie, you’ll have plenty leftover for serving. Besides this pie, the salted caramel is fantastic on ice cream, pancakes, oatmeal, and so much more—find 50 ways to eat salted caramel here. I love gifting jars of it around the holidays!