Apple Cheesecake Burritos

I know what you're thinking: cheesecake burritos? Gross/weird/why/etc. I thought the same thing when Tim proudly announced that this was the dessert that he wanted for his birthday this year. He had never tried them, but after reading through the ingredients, thought they sounded tasty, and oh boy was he right. It is well documented that Tim's all-time favorite dessert is Apple Pie. He does, however have an adventurous spirit, and loves to experiment with things, so he tends to enjoy several variations on the standard, all-American version. He is not loyal to apple pie in it's original form, only to the apples, butter, sugar, and cinnamon. There are so many places you can go with this, and that is why every year for his birthday, and on a lot of other occasions, he gets a dessert of his choice, and he always picks some form of apple pie. I do not remember him ever requesting a standard apple pie; always something a little quirky, and a little surprising. A pie just like him. This recipe, like several others on this blog, comes from Apple Pie Perfect, and it is in the Pie On The Fringes Category.

Here is what you will need for this culinary adventure:

3 Oz Cold Cream Cheese
1 Tblsp Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Lemon Juice
2 Whole Graham Crackers
2 Tblsp Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (omit if using cinnamon grahams)
1 Tblsp Unsalted Butter
1 Golden Delicious or Other Firm Baking Apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2-inch chunks
Two 8- or 9-inch flour tortillas

Glaze:
1 Tblsp Unsalted Butter, Softened
Granulated Sugar

Put the cream cheese on a small plate and mash with a fork. Add the granulated sugar and lemon juice and mix well. Refrigerate.

Break up the graham crackers into crumbs. You can use a rolling pin or a food processor. I just used my hands and it worked just fine. I like to have some texture in my food.

Put the crumbs in a medium bowl and add brown sugar and cinnamon. mix well and set aside.

Melt butter in a medium sized skillet. Add the apples and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until heated through and crunchy (not smooshy). This should take about two minutes.























Add the apples, getting all of the butter from the pan, into the bowl with the graham cracker crumbs. Mix well and set aside.




















Preheat the broiler.

Warm one of the tortillas in the skillet for a couple of minutes. Just until it is flexible. Remove the tortilla from the pan and lay it flat. Spread half of the cream cheese mixture in the center, leaving room around the edges so that it does not ooze out when you roll it up. Spoon half of the apple mixture on top of the cream cheese.




































Roll it up like a burrito and repeat with the second tortilla and the remaining fillings.





















Place the burritos in a shallow, buttered baking dish with the seam side down. Smear softened butter and sugar on the top. I actually omitted the granulated sugar topping and used some extras from the graham cracker/cinnamon/brown sugar mixture as the topping. This was really good.




















I love brown sugar.

Broil burritos (about 2-inches from broiler) for 2 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Watch them to make sure that they don't burn.

Cut in half diagonally before serving.



























You may notice that there is a high tortilla-to-filling ratio. I was nervous about this when I first cut them open. I ended up being grateful for the extra tortilla though, because without it these may have entered into the "too sweet" category. Extra tortilla made it perfect.


The book did not specify whether to eat them warm or cold. We ate them cold, thinking that since it was cheesecake-like it may be gross warm. I think we made the right choice.

This makes 2-4 servings depending on whether you want to eat a whole burrito or half of a burrito. We split each burrito in half, and that ended up being good because they are very sweet, and half was just the right amount. It also made them last a whole extra day! I won't judge you if you eat a whole one though. Promise.