" Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars" by Asia M

One of my favorite hobbies is cooking and baking. I like to make different things in my freetime, and I do a lot of baking specifically during this time of the year because my family gets together more for the holidays. For most of my family events like Thanksgiving and Christmas my family looks forward to seeing what kind of dessert I decide to make. On Thanksgiving I'm always in charge of making the sweet potato pie and for the other holidays I make different things, from pie to cake. One of the things that I make a lot for my family is sopapilla cheesecake bars because it is easy to make and it’s something that everyone likes, including my sister who is a very picky eater. This doesn’t last more than a couple days at my house because everyone eats it up very quickly since it’s one of the only desserts that everybody in the house likes to eat.

Ingredients:

2 (8 oz) cans of pillsbury crescent roll dough

2 (8 oz) packs of (softened) cream cheese

1 ½ cups sugar

1 tbsp vanilla

½  cup of (melted) butter 1 tbsp cinnamon Optional toppings:

Frozen strawberries (thawed) Ice cream

Directions:

First preheat the oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, take one of the cans of crescent roll dough, completely unroll it, and then place it on the bottom of a glass baking dish making sure that it completely covers the bottom, pressing it down. You would want to grease the baking dish with cooking spray or butter if using a non glass baking dish to keep the dough from sticking to the bottom after it’s been cooked making it impossible to take out. Next, in a medium sized bowl combine 1 cup of the sugar with the cream cheese together using a hand mixer until it is completely smooth, making sure that everything is combined before mixing in the vanilla. Then, take the filling and spread it evenly on top of the crescent dough and cover it with the second can of dough making sure that the seams are pinched closed leaving no gaps and press the corners into the side of the dish. It helps also to gently stretch out the ends of the dough before placing it on top to ensure that it fits better over the top without leaving any gaps. Place the butter into a microwave safe container on 10 second busts until melted and our the melted butter on top of the second sheet of dough, evenly coating the dough by using a spoon or spatula to spread it around. This will help make the sugar mixture stick onto the dough. To make the sugar and cinnamon mixture mix together in a small bowl the rest of the sugar with the cinnamon and then sprinkle it over the melted butter making sure to spread it around covering the entire surface to create the crust. Place the baking dish into the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the cinnamon sugar mixture has created a crust and the dough is cooked all the way through. Take out of the oven once done and allow about 15 minutes to cool before cutting and eating.

When I make this for my family, we like to take frozen strawberries and set them out to thaw them to put on top with vanilla ice cream. You can use fresh strawberries instead, but we like the frozen container of strawberries because it has the strawberry juice in it. If you don’t like strawberries you can use a different fruit like blueberries or just use ice cream, it is also very good to eat by itself. The sugar caramelizes on top making a crispy, crunchy topping that complements the creamy cheesecake filling.