Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

Fall is officially in full swing here, and it is the best.

Even here in Georgia, we're getting some seriously gorgeous weather, the first of the Honeycrips have arrived, and I am so ready.

I decorated the house for Halloween today (even thought I'm a couple days shy of October 1st, which is generally when I deem it acceptable, but oh well) and I'm getting ready to really pumpkin it out this season, but before we do all that, it's time to appreciate apples.

As a celebration of fall finally getting good down here, I baked these.  They are rich, sweet, indulgent little apple pie/cheesecake combo treats.  I'm pretty sure they're a hit.

Pancake Cupcakes

I did something awful.  Really really bad.  Like bad in the best way possible.  Sweet sweet pancake breakfast in a cupcake.  That's what.  The cupcake part technically IS pancake batter, so it's dense and not overly sweet.  Which makes the sweet maple buttercream frosting even more complementary.

But pancake breakfast isn't pancake breakfast without the bacon, right?  It's cool.  I sprinkled it on top.  The saltiness of the bacon really ties everything together and makes the whole thing the best decision you ever made.

Honey Beer Bread

Just look at that buttery crust.  That dense crumb.  Oh man.  How do people do Paleo?  

As you may be aware, I've made a lot of beer breads in my day.  It is oft-requested, always tasty, and seldom leftover.  

So in a celebration of September taking it's sweet sweet time to get here and all that is autumn beer, I used Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale in this one, and threw in some of the delectable new raw honey I bought for good measure.

I, of course, in typically brilliant fashion, slathered it with my super non-photogenic, somewhat chunky, hastily mixed honey butter.  Yes, even more honey.  It was as delicious as it is ugly.  And oh.  It's ugly.