Sopapilla Cheesecake Bars

So, it has been a while since I blogged, but I have a few recipes to post to catch up! The first is sopapilla cheesecake bars. Last night, we had a wedding shower for Cath and Trone- it was fiesta themed so I wanted to put a little bit of a Mexican spin on the desserts! I came across this recipe from AllRecipes.com and thought it would be perfect for the occasion. Also, they had such good reviews that I figured they would be a safe decision.
They turned out great! They definitely aren't the most healthy option, which became clear as I was pouring half a cup of butter over them... But apparently they were a crowd pleaser because there was only one left at the end of the night (which got eaten quickly the next day...)! I made 2 small modifications to the original recipe by leaving out the almonds and I replaced 1 package of regular cream cheese with reduced fat (healthy, right?!?) The recipe as I made it is below:

INGREDIENTS

* 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
* 1 (8 ounce) package reduced fat cream cheese, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 (8 ounce) cans crescent roll dough

* 1/2 cup melted butter
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F .
2. Beat the cream cheese with 1 1/2 cups of sugar, and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth. Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape the each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough.
3. Drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top of the cheesecake. Stir the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar together with the cinnamon in a small bowl, and sprinkle over the cheesecake.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 45 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares. (I refrigerated them overnight before cutting so they were really easy to cut cleanly).