Oatmeal Cheesecake Cranberry Bars

My mother (seated) made this for Thanksgiving dinner in 2005. She did so largely because it was in a magazine announcing that this recipe had won the $400 first prize in some bake-off contest and she wanted to see if it was worth $400.

I don't usually make or eat dessert, but it was a hit and I liked it so here it is, more-or-less as published.

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Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups quick cooking oatmeal
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter softened (two 4 oz. sticks)
16 oz. of cream cheese (two 8 oz. packages)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1 16 oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce
2 tsp. cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease a 13" x 9" baking pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, oats, and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Reserve 1 1/2 cup of the crumbs for the topping.

Press the remaining crumbs onto the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes at 350° F.

Meanwhile, in the same large bowl, beat cream cheese and granulated sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy (Bob's note: a mixture of solely cream cheese plus sugar can never be "light and fluffy", so good luck). Beat in eggs, lemon juice and vanilla. Spread over baked layer.

Stir together cranberry sauce and cornstarch; carefully spoon over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle with the reserved 1 1/2 cup crumbs.

Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 or until set. Cool on wire rack. Cover and chill at least 3 hours. Cut into bars.

Makes 36 bars.

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