Pecan Pie Cheesecake Squares

I know it's a little early, but I'm already in the Fall baking mode! Here's a new recipe I've just finished that will be great for the upcoming Fall months.  I've been having fun with the Great San Saba River Pecan Company products, and this is another example of what you can do with one of them. 

Lookie... it's loaded with pecans!

 

 

Here's the "How To":

 

First up, prepare the baking dish.  Generously spray a 9 x 13 with non-stick cooking spray. 

 

Now, for the crust layer. Combine the following 3 ingredients into a medium bowl and work together with a fork until all the crumbs are moistened, then press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish and up the sides just a bit all the way around.

 

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 stick melted butter

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

 

 Tah-dah!  Done with that part. Easy... and no need to prebake it... just set it aside for the moment!  Is there some official way to spell "Tah-dah"?  Hope I didn't get it wrong.  It might be "Ta-da" or "Tuh-dah", or even some no-dash variation.... anyway.... back to the recipe.

 

Time to make a mixture with the Pecan-Pie-In-A-Jar! 

Ingredients for this mixture:

 

1 jar of Pecan Pie In A Jar (1 lb. 13 oz.)

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

 

Whisk the eggs well, until there is no separation of whites and yolks.

Pour the entire jar of that pecan pie stuff, along with the whisked eggs, into a heavy-bottomed medium sauce pan and stir together until well incorporated before you turn on the heat.  Add the butter and cinnamon, then turn on the heat to medium high, stirring constantly, until it begins to bubble.  Turn heat down to medium, and continue cooking and stirring constantly until it thickens.  You want the level of thickness to be beyond what will pour off the spoon.  It should "plop" off the spoon.  It takes about 15 minutes or so. When you get it to the plop stage (I'm pretty sure that's not an actual culinary term used to describe the readiness of anything), remove from the heat and set aside, allow to cool.

 

It's time now to preheat the oven to 350 degrees!

 

There's one more mixture to put together... the cream cheese mixture.  Here's what you need:

 

2 bricks (8 oz.) softened (room temperature) cream cheese

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

 

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together at medium speed until smooth.  Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a separate bowl, then add to cream cheese and beat again until smooth.  Scrape sides and bottom of the bowl just to make sure it's all well mixed. 

 

Add cooled pecan pie mixture (it's ok if it's warm, you just don't want it to be hot), to the cream cheese mixture, and beat by hand until well mixed.   

 

 

 

 

 

Then, as seen above, spoon onto, then gently spread evenly over the entire crust layer.

 



Bake until set, which should be around 35 to 40 minutes, depending on your oven.  There will still be a slight jiggle, especially in the center. 

 

Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating for at least 4 hours before cutting into squares.  Keep refrigerated.



 

Here's how they should look.  Don't be surprised if you get some uneven edges when you cut, because the knife will be running into pecan halves, but who cares, right?  There's one sure fire method for getting rid of the ones you don't feel are perfectly cut enough.  Eat them, quick, before anybody discovers some of them weren't perfect.  Works every time for me.....