Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

Remember the joys of early air travel? You know, those days where they showed you a movie that you could hear without having to pay for ear buds, stowed your luggage without a fee and actually fed you a free meal on any flight that was longer than two hours? I’ll admit, the food wasn’t exactly fine dining, but depending on the airline, it wasn’t bad. I remember flying to Rome on Alitalia many years ago and being served a pretty darn tasty veal cannelloni and a nice Pinot Grigio to wash it down with too. Oh, yeah. Those were the days…

Now, all you get for free is a plastic cup filled with watered down soda or juice, and a choice of peanuts or cookies. Seriously! Have you seen those tiny packets of peanuts? They’re miniscule! The cookies are a much better bet. At least you get two full-sized cookies. And, they’re really, really good cookies too. In fact, those cookies have become so popular, that the company that makes them now imports them all over the world – including my very own local supermarket.

Biscoff Cookies are made by Belgium-based Lotus Bakeries. They are crispy, crunchy little spiced cookies, very similar to gingersnaps. And, I’m telling you people, they are addictive. They also make a very nice piecrust, which is where I was going with this story.

Now that we’re firmly entrenched in Autumn, I was looking to make something with pumpkin – maybe a pie or a cheesecake. Since I had several boxes of cookies lying around, I figured that I could use some of them to make the crust. I ended up deciding on Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with a Biscoff cookie crust.

The recipe for these bars is super easy and virtually foolproof. I essentially took a basic pumpkin pie recipe and tweaked it by adding cream cheese and maple syrup to the filling, and of course, by using my Biscoff cookies for the crust. I also saved a little time and minimized the clean up by mixing up both the crust and filling in my food processor. Who wants to wash a bunch of extra dirty bowls?

I loved, loved, loved these! The bar format worked out great. I could cut them into any sized squares I wanted and decorate each square individually. They were also neater and easier to eat than a pie or cheesecake because you didn’t really need a fork. And, the taste? My, oh my, did these taste amazing! They were like a silky, smooth pumpkin cheesecake laced with spice and a hint of maple. Topped with a splotch of whipped cream and candy corn, these bars are a perfect little Halloween treat!