Pecan Cranberry Cream Cheese Squares

Pecan Cranberry Cream Cheese Squares

I recently attended a Williams Sonoma Technique class that featured their cranberry relish with apples and oranges. They made a recipe similar to this using yellow cake.  I pulled this recipe out from 2001.  As just cream cheese bars, they were good, but adding the cranberry relish makes them an awesome Thanksgiving and Christmas treat. 

Ingredients 
1/4 c brown sugar
1 pkg white cake mix

3/4 c finely chopped toasted pecans (or walnuts)

1/3 cup melted butter
1 - 8oz cream cheese
1 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 oz cranberry sauce/relish 

Directions
1. Preheat oven 375. Grease 13x9 cake pan

2. Toast pecans in a pan over medium heat. As soon as they smell fragrant, remove from heat.3. In a bowl, mix brown sugar, pecans, cake mix and warm melted butter.
4. Save 1 1/4 cup of the mixture; pack the rest of the crumb mixture firmly but not too hard (or your crust will stick) in bottom of cake pan
4. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light color. Don't overcook. Let it cool.
5. Beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Fold in cranberry sauce/relish. Spread on top of packed crumbs, then sprinkle the rest of the crumb mixture on top.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until light golden.
7. Cut into squares.