My friend, Kathleen, made this Saturday night for Connie's birthday celebration. Wow! What a delicious dessert. She uses a can of apples and adds her own sugar and spices, rather than pie filling.

BAVARIAN APPLE TORTE
 
Crust:  ½ cup butter, softened
          1/3 cup sugar
           ¼ teaspoon vanilla
           1 cup flour
Filling:  1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
             ¼ cup sugar
            1 egg
            ½ teaspoon vanilla
Topping:  1 can Comstock apple pie filling
               Sliced almonds
               Pumpkin or apple pie spice mix or cinnamon
 
 
Cream butter and sugar for crust until light and fluffy.  Stir in ¼ t. vanilla and then blend in flour.  Press this mixture into a bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.  Work the crust gently up the sides of the pan about 1 inch.
 
Combine cream cheese and ¼ cup sugar well and blend until smooth.  Add the egg and the ½ teaspoon vanilla.  Spread the filling evenly over the unbaked crust.
 
Place the apple pie filling slices in a decorative pattern over the top and sprinkle with spice.  Toss on a few sliced almonds.
 
Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.  Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue baking an additional 25 minutes.  Allow to cool at least 5 minutes before removing the sides of the pan to serve.  You can also cool pan, cover with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator until serving.
 
Variations:  I substitute the vanilla extract with almond extract.  To lower the caloric content, I use a can of NO SUGAR ADDED Comstock apple pie filling and add apple or pumpkin pie spice to the slices.  
 D