A combination of so many things that I love: apples, cinnamon, cheesecake, caramel (I used homemade Dulce de Leche, or try this Caramel Sauce), and a buttery, slightly sweet oat topping. A perfect end to a Thanksgiving meal- a perfect end to just about any meal!
The recipe is long, but not complicated. While there are a lot of ingredients, each layer is easy to put together. Just make sure you have all of your layers ready to go before putting things into the pan.
For a more pronounced caramel flavor, you could drizzle individual servings with additional caramel sauce at serving time.
I used a Cream Cheese Pastry recipe for the crust, but you could also use any basic pie crust. I bake this in a tart pan (mine has an 11” diameter). You could also use a deep dish pie pan, but you might want to reduce the amount of streusel topping and increase the baking time to make sure cheesecake layer sets.
Cheesecake layer on the bottom.
A caramel apple filling made with apples, brown sugar, dulce de leche or caramel sauce, and cinnamon. Use a spoon to gently and evenly distribute apples over the cheesecake filling. Try to not mix the two layers together.
A chunky streusel topping with a nutty oat flavor gets sprinkled over the apples.
Cover edges of tart with a pie crust shield. I do not own one that fits my tart pan, so I make my own out of foil. See How To…Make Your Own Pie Crust Shield. Since the tart pan has steeper sides than a regular pie plate, when you are tracing the circle to cut out, be sure to cut a circle that is about 1/2” smaller than the outside edge of the tart pan. 
Bake until center is set (it will still jiggle just a little in the center, but will continue to set as it cools) and streusel is golden brown. I leave the foil on for all but the last 5 minutes of baking time. 
The hardest part: keeping little fingers (and a few big ones) from picking at the streusel topping while the tart cools completely.
RECIPE:
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Tart
Cream Cheese Pastry Crust:
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
4 oz (½ pkg) cream cheese, softened
1 Tbs powdered sugar
½ tsp kosher salt
1 ½ cups flour (divided)
In a food processor, combine butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and salt. Process until smooth. Add ½ cup flour. Pulse just until flour is incorporated (do not overmix). Repeat with another ½ cup flour. Scrape dough from sides of bowl and repeat with the last ½ cup flour.
On a floured surface, flatten dough into a ½” thick disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, or until firm enough to roll. Dough can also be frozen for later use.
Cheesecake Layer:
12 oz (1 ½ pkg) cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
Combine all ingredients and beat until smooth with a mixer.
Apple Layer:
4 cups peeled and sliced apples (about 3-4 apples)
½ cup Dulce de Leche or Caramel Sauce
3 Tbs brown sugar
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp ClearJel or cornstarch
½ tsp cinnamon
scant 1/8 tsp nutmeg
pinch salt
Combine all ingredients.
Streusel Topping:
6 Tbs butter, melted
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup flour (white or whole wheat)
2 Tbs brown sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp kosher salt
Combine all ingredients. Mix until crumbly.
ASSEMBLY:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Move oven rack to lowest level.
Remove pastry dough from refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a circle 1” larger than a 10-11” tart pan. Transfer to ungreased tart pan. Crimp edges, if desired.
Pour cheesecake filling into crust. Carefully top with apple layer. Sprinkle with streusel topping.
Cover edges of tart with a pie crust shield or aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30 minutes on lowest rack of oven. Reduce heat to 375°F, move tart to center rack, and bake for 15-25 additional minutes, or until just the very center (not the edges) jiggles when shaken lightly. Cover entire tart with foil if streusel begins to brown too much. Cool completely on a wire rack.
NOTE: This can be made into bars by cooking in a rectangular baking pan (put crust on bottom of the pan only, not up the sides). A 7×11” pan will give you about the same thickness as the tart, or use a 9×13” pan for slightly thinner bars.
NoEmptyChairs.me
No Empty Chairs 
Very nice receipt and look great. I use for my topping last month Musli Honey Oat Nut cereal.
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I love apple pies and this looks so yummy. Thanks.
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I just found your site by googling “Make your own pie crust shields”. Thank you for the great idea! Also, I’ve already prepared my Thanksgiving dinner for this year, but the suggestion of making the stuffing and keeping it warm in the crockpot will save me so much time/stress next year!
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Made this for Thanksgiving, Big Hit! The crust was wonderful, flaky but held together nicely. I will use the crust with other pies. The only change I made was to the topping. I changed it to a tradition crumble with butter, sugar, flour, baking soda and baking powder. To that I added chopped peanuts to give it that taffy apple taste and when it was out of the oven I drizzled a small amount of caramel on top. Very sweet but worth it.
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Your topping sounds great! Hope you had a fabulous Thanksgiving!
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Do you have to have a food processer for the crust? I want to do this for my job BC they are doing a contest and I think I can win with this one! It looks so yummy! 🙂
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You do not need to use a food processor. You can use a pastry cutter or two knives to incorporate the butter and cream cheese into the sugar and flour, similar to making any pie crust. Good luck!
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OK thank you!
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