French Apricot Cream Cheese Bars

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8 oz Pkg. cream cheese,softened
1/4 c Granulated sugar
1 ts Vanilla extract
1 lg Egg
12 oz Jar apricot preserves*

* I used Bing Cherry Preserves and they were delicious.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease 13x9-inch pan. In a large
bowl, combine cake mix, butter and egg; Mix only until crumbly. Gently
spoon 1 1/2 cup of the crumbled mixture into a mixing cup; set aside for
topping. Press remaining crumb mixture on the bottom of the greased pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a smaller mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla
and egg; beat until smooth. Set aside.

Spread preserves evenly over hot crust. Then spread cream cheese mixture
evenly over preserves.

Sprinkle reserved topping mixture over cream cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for an additional 30 minutes or until topping is
light golden brown. Cool to room temperature, then chill until serving.
Store in refrigerator.

Note: The dough must be crumbly. I had to add a bit more flour to the
reserved 1 1/2 cups to get the proper consistency as I mixed it beyond the
crumbly stage and a smooth dough started to form. You don't want balls of
dough, but lumpy CRUMBS!

From the recipe files of suzy@bestweb.net

Recipe by Cathy Luchetti's Hot Flash Cookbook
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest by SUZY on Jun 05, 1998