Cherry Chewbilees

By Mcnite

(Christmas Party Cheesecake Squares) This is from an old Crisco brand cookie cookbook. I make it in a 13x9 inch pan but some people make them in little small individual cup cake papers.

Ingredients

• Crust
• 1 Cup walnut pieces divided
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter flavor Crisco
• 1/2 cup flaked coconut
• Filling
• 2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 can (21 ounces) cherry pie filling

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13x9x2 inch pan with butter flavor Crisco. Chop ½ cup nuts coarsely for topping. Set aside. Chop remaining ½ cup walnuts finely.
For crust, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter flavor Crisco until fine crumbs form. Add the ½ cup finely chopped nuts and coconut. Mix well. Remove ½ cup of the mixture and set aside. Press remaining crumbs into bottom of the pan. Bake this at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes until edges are lightly browned.

For filling, beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla in small bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until smooth. Spread over hot caked crust. Return to oven and bake 15 minutes longer.

Spread cherry pie filling over cheese layer. Combine reserved coarsely shopped nuts and reserved crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over cherries. Return to oven, bake 15 minutes longer. Cool. Refrigerate several hours. Cut into bars.

This was everybody’s favorite especially Aunt April and Uncle Clem. Dad too. This was from a 1990 Crisco recipe book and we used it every year after that. It was great! We used to make two of these and have some left over for us the next day.