Cinnamon Sopapilla Cheesecake - modified and lightened

The base recipe for this dessert can be found all over the internet.  When I made it I substituted Sucanat for refined white sugar.  When you substitute with Sucanat the molasses turns things darker. In this case it is a cream cheese filling that turns brown.  It will still taste great, but it changes the color and may not be as appetizing to some people.  Because this batch was made for a Christmas Party, I only substituted half of the sugar. 

My modifications include fat-free and reduced fat cream cheese in place of full fat and half the butter most recipes call for. Most recipes call for a full 1/2 cup of melted butter to pour over the top.  That's a full stick!  In this batch I used half of that, only a quarter, and felt like I could have used even less, perhaps only 3 tablespoons.  In the batch pictured above I melted 1/4 cup (4 T) and found there to be a lot of butter puddles over the crescent rolls half way through the process.  So, I stopped putting it on one half of the batch and added the rest to the other half to give it the equivalency to using just over half the recommended butter. I wanted to see how much difference it made. In the picture the half with more butter on top is the lower half from left to right.  Finally, I don't use as much sugar as is called for on the top.  You just don't need it.

The recipe below is my modified version. I haven't tried it with reduced-fat crescent rolls because I haven't seen them in the stores lately. Hand mixing is probably the standard method for the the cream cheese, butter and vanilla mixture. Whipping the cream cheese in a stand mixer will fluff it up and make the filling thicker.

2 8 count packages of crescent rolls
1 8 oz package, fat-free cream cheese, softened
1 8 oz package, reduced fat cream cheese, softened
1 c. sugar (or Sucanat or blend)
1 t vanilla
3-4 T butter, melted
2-3 T sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

DIRECTIONS :
1. Lay out one can of crescent rolls at the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

2. In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, mix both packages of cream cheese and sugar.  Add vanilla and mix until well blended.  Spread mixture over crescent rolls in the pan.

3. Lay second can of crescent rolls carefully over cream cheese mixture. 

4. Spread melted butter evenly over top of rolls.

5. Stir together 2-3 T sugar and cinnamon (amount listed is appx). Sprinkle over top.

In the future I will be attempting a slight reduction in the sugar for the cream cheese mixture. Perhaps even a sugar and stevia combination to reduce the overall sugar content further.