With most people still on a sugar-high from Halloween, you would think I’d be sharing a light, wholesome, vegetable-packed dinner recipe, but no. I’m sharing a butter-packed, cookie-bottomed, creamy-pumpkin-cheesecake recipe. Because there are only so many days before Thanksgiving for me to get in all of the amazing baked goods I prepped for you guys! Hopefully Kate will balance me out with some actual meal-food around here. If not, well you can always check out the thousands of recipes in our archives!
So. These bars. They’re delicious. Remember a few weeks ago when I made homemade pumpkin butter? That was for this recipe. I spotted these on the cover of this Fall Baking magazine (those get me every time) and made them right away. These are casual enough for a fun plate of goodies to share with neighbors, and special enough to serve after Thanksgiving dinner. I love versatile recipes like that.
These start with a buttery cookie crust that will be both the bottom of the bars, and also the streusel topping.
Once it’s mixed up, you’ll reserve a portion for the topping and then press the rest into the pan and pre-bake it.
While the crust is baking, prepare your filling. A creamy cheesecake layer is poured on
and then dolloped with pumpkin butter. You can buy a jar of pumpkin butter, or whip up a batch of this super quick and easy homemade one.
Use a knife to swirl it in and don’t worry if it doesn’t look like a beautiful art piece; it’s going to get covered with cookie-streusel anyway.
When it’s all layered up, go ahead and pop that beautiful pan back in the oven.
You’ll want to let them cool to room temperature and then you can slice them, or chill them for later.
The best thing about cheesecake desserts is that you can make them early and keep them in the fridge overnight. You can serve these chilled or at room temp (but not gonna lie, I even sneaked one warm and it was pretty dang good.)
Pumpkin Cheesecake Oatmeal Cookie Bars
Description
A soft oatmeal cookie crust, layered with creamy cheesecake, pumpkin butter swirl, and streusel topping.
Ingredients
- 2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, divided
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional, I made without)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
- 2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons cream or milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 9-ounce jar pumpkin butter (or 1 batch homemade)
Instructions
- 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 inch baking pan with foil, letting excess extend over sides of pan; spray foil with cooking spray.
- 2. In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, pecans (if using), salt, pie spice, and baking soda. Add butter, and beat with a mixer until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1 1/2 cups oat mixture in a small bowl; press remaining oat mixture into bottom of prepared pan.
- 3. Bake until set and just barely golden, about 15 minutes.
- 4. Meanwhile in the same large bowl, beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, cream or milk, and remaining 1 tablespoon flour with a mixer at medium speed until craemy, 2-3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape sides of bowl. Add eggs, one and a time, beating well after each addition. Pour mixture onto prepared crust and spoon pumpkin butter by tablespoonfuls onto cream cheese mixture. using a knife, swirl mixtures together. Sprinkle reserved oat mixture on top.
- Bake until top is golden brown, 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Using excess foil as handles, remove from pan before cutting into bars. Cover and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
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Questions & Reviews
They are perfect for thanksgiving!
My girlfriend will love them!
Thanks for the inspiration.
I made this for a tailgate party last night. It was wonderful. I followed the directions exactly and it turned out great. Very rich, if I could have cut the bars smaller that would have been better. Delicious! Thank you.
This is amazing! do you know how much grams is for 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter?
I don’t, but you could probably google it 🙂
I made these last night, they were fantastic! I agree with Kate on nutmeg, so I left it out of the pumpkin butter and the pumpkin spice, so good! I’m making again for Thanksgiving for sure! Thanks for another wonderful recipe.
Thank you for the feedback. I’m planning on making these for a get-together tonight and wanted to see if anyone else had made them already.
These look really good! Have you tried freezing them? I’m wondering how far in advance I can make them for Thanksgiving. Thanks!
I’ve never frozen them but I’m sure they’d be great!
These look gorgeous! How can I get your print recipe to actually show the picture? I selected yes for image on two different recipes and it didn’t print with the recipe….
It’s done that to me all along, no matter the settings…I’m wondering if it’s our own printer settings but I haven’t found anything to make a difference yet. I’d love an answer to this too!
Oh it actually just worked this time! I clicked on more printer settings and selected background image and it popped up in the preview! And printed a tiny image up by the title. Thanks for encouraging me to try again!
Wow those look good!