This Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie brings together three irresistible flavors in one cozy fall dessert. A creamy cheesecake layer meets sweet, cinnamon-spiced apples and a rich caramel topping, all nestled in a delicious pie crust.
Every slice has a perfect balance of creamy, fruity, and buttery flavors that feels right at home on a Thanksgiving or holiday dessert table. It is simple enough for a weekend baking project and special enough for sharing with family and friends. Serve it chilled or slightly warmed with an extra drizzle of caramel for an unforgettable fall treat.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The ultimate compromise: This easy caramel apple pie cheesecake hybrid solves the eternal dessert debate.
- Zero fussing: You do not have to mess with a water bath, which remains my personal baking nemesis.
- Pantry friendly: This recipe uses those apples slowly wrinkling in your crisper drawer.
- Looks impressive: The layers look fancy enough to trick people into thinking you have your life together
Tools You’ll Need
Nothing fancy, I promise.
- Food processor: Use one to obliterate the graham crackers. A zip-top bag and rolling pin work if you have some rage to work out.
- 9-inch pie dish: Use a deep dish, or you may scrub burnt caramel from your oven floor.
- Pastry cutter: Use one for the streusel, although two forks or your aggressively cold hands will also work.
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs – If you buy them pre-crushed, you are my kind of lazy.
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar – Just standard white sugar.
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter – Melted. Salted is fine too, we are not running a Michelin star restaurant here.
For the Streusel Topping
- 1/3 cup old-fashioned whole rolled oats – Do not use instant oatmeal packets, I learned that the hard way.
- 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour – For structure.
- 3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar – Light or dark, whatever you have.
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon – Because it is a fall cheesecake pie, obviously.
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter – Cold and cubed. Keep it in the fridge until the very last second.
For the Apple Layer
- 2 cups apples – Peeled, thinly sliced, and chopped. Use Granny Smith if you like tartness.
- 1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar – More sugar, because why not.
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice – Keeps the apples from turning a depressing brown color.
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon – Yes, more cinnamon.
- 2-3 Tablespoons salted caramel – Store-bought is completely fine, no judgment here.
For the Cheesecake Filling
- 12 ounces cream cheese – Full-fat bricks only, tub cream cheese will betray you.
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar – The secret to the deep flavor.
- 3 Tablespoons sour cream – Adds tang and covers up a multitude of sins.
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract – Measure with your heart.
- 1 large egg – Room temperature, or it will curdle and look terrifying.
How To Make Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie
Patience is legally required here, but the oven does most of the heavy lifting.
- Make the crust: Grind the graham crackers, mix with sugar and melted butter, and press into your pie dish. Do not pack it down with the force of a thousand suns, or you will need a jackhammer to cut a slice. Bake for 10 minutes at 350°F.
- Mix the streusel: Whisk the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour, then cut in the cold butter until it looks like coarse crumbs. Shove this bowl straight into the fridge—warm streusel melts into a sad puddle in the oven.
- Prep the apples: Toss the chopped apples with brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Make sure they are chopped pretty small, or you will have raw apple boulders ruining the texture of your caramel apple pie recipe.
- Whip the filling: Beat the room-temperature cream cheese and brown sugar until smooth, then mix in the sour cream, vanilla, and finally the egg. If you forgot to soften the cream cheese, microwave it for 10 seconds, I won’t tell anyone.
- Assemble and bake: Spread the cheesecake filling over the warm crust, top with apples, drizzle with caramel, and sprinkle the cold streusel over everything. Bake at 325°F for 45 minutes. Tent it with foil at the 30-minute mark so the top does not turn into charcoal.
- Chill out: Let it cool on the counter for an hour, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Slicing this while warm will result in a delicious but visually horrifying soup.
♥ The Misfit Tips!
- Respect the chill time: I once served this directly from the oven because I have zero patience. It flowed like lava across the dessert plates. Give it the full chill time.
- Plan ahead: If you are making this caramel apple cheesecake pie recipe for Thanksgiving, bake it two days in advance. The flavor improves by day three.
- Shortcut the caramel: A good-quality jar from the grocery store works beautifully and saves you from burning sugar onto your favorite saucepan.
- Use lemon juice quickly: Toss the apples with lemon juice as soon as you cut them to slow browning.
- Use full-fat cream cheese: Brick cream cheese creates the smoothest filling.
Make It Yours
- You can use Granny Smith apples for a sharper flavor or Honeycrisp apples for a sweeter bite. You can add chopped pecans to the streusel if you want more crunch. You can also drizzle extra caramel over each chilled slice before serving.
- That final drizzle creates the best apple cheesecake pie with caramel drizzle, especially when you serve the pie with vanilla ice cream.
Perfect Pairings
These go perfectly with:
- A cold glass of milk, obviously.
- Strong black coffee the morning after, because pie for breakfast is a human right.
- Vanilla bean ice cream, if you want to completely abandon all restraint.
- A quiet house after everyone else has gone to sleep.
How to Store
❤
- Fridge: Store the tightly covered pie for up to five days. The streusel softens, but the flavor stays excellent.
- Freezer: Freeze the pie for up to three months. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator, although the crumb topping will lose its crunch.
- Reheat: Eat this pie cold from the fridge. Microwaving melts the cheesecake layer into a puddle.
- Note: Cut apples do not love sitting around, so toss them in lemon juice immediately..
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie
This caramel apple cheesecake pie combines a graham cracker crust, creamy brown sugar cheesecake, cinnamon apples, salted caramel, and buttery oat streusel. The layers create an easy caramel apple pie cheesecake hybrid that solves the apple pie versus cheesecake debate in one chilled slice. You can serve it as an apple cheesecake dessert on a quiet evening or prepare this caramel apple cheesecake pie recipe for Thanksgiving two days ahead.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Have your ingredients ready and salted caramel prepared.
- If you’re starting out with full graham crackers, use a food processor or blender to grind them into fine crumbs. Stir the graham cracker crumbs and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl, and then stir in the melted butter. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy.
- Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie dish. With medium pressure using your hand, pat the crumbs down into the bottom and up the sides to make a compact crust. Do not pack down with heavy force because that makes the crust too hard.Simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumby/crumbly.
- Tips: You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help press down the bottom crust and smooth out the surface, but do not pack down too hard. And run a spoon around the bottom “corner” where the edge and bottom meet to help make a rounded crust this helps prevent the crust from falling apart. For more shaping technique tips, see the graham cracker crust recipe page.
- Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Continue with the next steps as the crust bakes.
- Whisk the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a pastry cutter or 2 forks (or even with your hands) until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Place the bowl of streusel in the refrigerator to chill while you continue with the next step.
- Mix the thinly sliced & chopped apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside. (The caramel will be layered on top of them when you assemble the pie.)
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and brown sugar together on medium-high speed in a large bowl until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla extract, and then beat until fully combined and very smooth. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed to combine you don’t want any large lumps.
- Add the egg and beat on medium speed just until combined. If you still see some lumps at this point, switch to a whisk and whisk by hand just until you break up the large lumps. Some small lumps are OK.
- Assemble the layers: Spread the cheesecake filling into the crust. The crust can still be warm at this point. A small offset spatula makes spreading easy. Spoon apples in an even layer on top of the cheesecake filling. Drizzle salted caramel over the apples. Sprinkle cold streusel evenly on top.
- Lower the oven temperature to 325°F (163°C) and bake the pie for 45 minutes, or until the center is almost set (it will still be a bit wobbly in the center—that’s OK). To prevent burning the crust edges, tent the entire pie with aluminum foil or use a pie crust shield for the last 10–15 minutes of baking.
- Set the pie on a wire rack and cool for 1 hour at room temperature. Then place it in the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days before serving. The pie will continue to set up as it cools and chills. (Cover if chilling it for longer than a few hours.) The topping softens the longer it sits.
- To serve, drizzle chilled pie with more salted caramel. Salted caramel solidifies as it cools, so warm it back up to drizzle it. For neat slices, use a clean sharp knife, and wipe the knife clean between each slice. Tip: The first slice is never pretty! Much easier to slice after that first piece is out.
- Cover and store leftover pie in the refrigerator or freezer for up to 5 days.