Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Salted Caramel Swirls

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These pumpkin cheesecake bars with salted caramel swirls are the ultimate decadent fall dessert. Creamy, flavorful pumpkin cheesecake on graham cracker crust swirled with sweet and salty salted caramel sauce. These fall dessert bars will impress your friends!

Oh my. These bars. These puppies are dangerously amazing.

Pumpkin cheesecake on a brown sugar – graham cracker crust, swirled with homemade salted caramel…I’m drooling just typing this.

Lots of people tend to shy away from making your own caramel sauce. It sounds tricky and dangerous and finicky and you think you need fancy equipment like a candy thermometer and a wizard’s hat.

But this sauce is so easy to make you will be thrilled. And no fancy equipment is needed! Your waistline will hate you once you figure out how easy it is to make these.

Make these bars.

Make a lot of them.

And then give some away because you will probably eat them all.

And if that should indeed happen, just accept it.

How to make these easy bars

These bars are really easy to make. For the full set of directions, make sure you scroll down to the recipe card below.

Make the salted caramel sauce.

1. In a medium saucepan with tall sides, combine the water and sugar. Heat over medium-low heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally.
2. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to boil without stirring.
3. Being very very careful, use a wet pastry brush to wipe down the sides of the pan, removing any sugar crystals stuck there (these could make your sauce grainy).
4. Boil the mixture 5-6 minutes, until a deep amber color.
5. Remove the pan from heat and very carefully whisk in the cream (adding the cream will cause the mixture to bubble vigorously.)
6. Whisk in the vanilla (it will bubble again) and then stir in the butter and salt.
7. Transfer to a glass jar with a lid and allow to cool (it will thicken as it cools).
8. Store in the fridge for several months, if it lasts that long!

Click here for more information on salted caramel sauce!

Make the crust.

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8×8 pan with foil and spray with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the ingredients for the crust.
3. Press evenly and firmly into the bottom of the pan.

Mix the cheesecake filling.

1. In a medium bowl combine the ingredients for the filling (omitting the salted caramel) and mix until combined. Don’t over mix.
2. Pour the filling over the crust.

Assemble and bake.

1. Drizzle the salted caramel sauce in several parallel lines over the filling.
2. Use a knife to draw lines perpendicular to the caramel (go first one way, then the other) to create the swirls.
3. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the center is set with a tiny bit of jiggle and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out mostly clean.
4. Cool the bars for 1 hour on a wire rack.
5. Place the bars in the refrigerator to cool for 2 hours or up to overnight before slicing into bars and eating!

Storage Information

Store these cheesecake bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 or 5 days. Enjoy cold!

Try these other pumpkin recipes:

• Pumpkin Cinnamon Bread Pudding
• Pumpkin Pasties
• Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake
• Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

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Recipe inspired by Averie Cooks