Cran-Apple Cheesecake Bites
What better way to eat your way through the holidays than with anything cranberry! The great thing is that cranberry recipes start at Thanksgiving and carry on through the entire holiday season until the new year! I’ve combined all the favorite flavors of the holidays into one delicious bite, cranberries, apples and cheesecake! All of that goodness wrapped up in a flaky pie crust.
Ingredients:
-1 box Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust dough
-2 green apples chopped
-1 Tablespoon sugar
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 Tablespoon butter
-2/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1 brick cream cheese (room temperature)
-1 7.5 oz. jar marshmallow fluff
-1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
-1 egg white for basting with egg wash
-Sprinkle of sugar on top of egg wash
Tools:
Muffin tin
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Step#1
Roll out your pie crust dough and using a round cookie cutter, cut discs out. Gently stretch a bit and place one at a time in muffin tin sprayed with non-stick spray. Press down around sides to form a cup. This will make 10 pie crust cups.
Step#2
Using the remainder of the dough, use the same disc shape cookie cutter, place flat on a cookie sheet and poke some holes on top with a fork.
Step#3
Beat egg white and baste a thin layer on the flat disc. Follow with a sprinkling of sugar. Bake both the pie cups and flat tops together at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes until golden.
Step#4
While that bakes, peel and dice apples. Sauté in a pan with butter, sugar and cinnamon for 10 minutes until tender. Add cranberries just to combine.
Step#5
In a separate bowl, combine room temperature cream cheese, entire jar of marshmallow fluff, pumpkin pie spice and cooked apple and cranberry mixture. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step#6
Once your pie crust and tops are baked and cooled, you can fill crust cup with filling and top with flat disc. Top off with whipped cream and enjoy!
FUN FACT: Native Americans were the first to introduce cranberries to our dinner table, but did you know they were also used for their medicinal properties as well as color dye for Native American textiles.
