Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars
After writing up and then re-reading what I said in my Snickerdoodle Ice Cream post, I started to feel like a bad big sister. Afterall, my sister and her husband were driving 5 hours to come see us on their holiday weekend and I couldn’t even save them some ice cream that I had made with her in mind… So instead of feeling bad about it, I set out to make something else that they would enjoy.
When I saw this recipe in Google Reader with a star next to it, I knew it would be a winner. Not only does my sister love snickerdoodles, her husband loves cheesecake. So really, these bars are the perfect dessert to make for them. In fact, they’re pretty perfect to make for anyone.
Everyone who tried one couldn’t get enough of them. The same batter is used for the base of the bars as for the drops of snickerdoodle on top. You’ll notice that it’s ingredients are eerily similar to those of snickerdoodle cookies.
The cheesecake layer is a pretty standard cheesecake filling. No frills there, which makes it the perfect compliment to the cinnamony snickerdoodle components to these bars.
For the dollops of snickerdoodles on the top, I used my tiny cookie scoop to portion out dough. Dropping those little balls of dough “randomly” is harder for this engineer than I was expecting. I kept wanting to line them up in perfect formation.
I’m glad that my sister’s visit encouraged me to try this recipe. I think it’s one that going to be repeated in my house (and hers) in the future!
Four Years Ago: Chocolate Strawberry and Vanilla Ice Cream Cupcakes and Coconut Raspberry Ice Cream Cupcakes
Five Years Ago: Blueberry Lemon Cookies and Stuffed Tomatoes
Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars
The perfect marriage of snickerdoodles and cheesecake, in the ever popular bar format!
Yield: 16 bars
Ingredients:
For Cinnamon Sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
For the Cookie Base
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg (optional)
For the Cheesecake Layer
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp flour
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F.
For the Cinnamon sugar
Mix in a bowl until cinnamon is fully incorporated into sugar.
Butter an 8-x-8-inch baking pan. Use 1/8 cup of cinnamon sugar, place at the bottom of the pan, then rotate the pan around so that the cinnamon sugar sticks to where the butter is. Whatever cinnamon sugar is left, set aside.
For the Cookie Base
Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add egg and beat until fully incorporated. Scrape down bowl and beat for another 30 seconds.
Add dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.
Divide cookie dough so that 3/4 of the dough goes into the bottom of the pan, the remaining 1/4 will go on top. Place the remaining 1/4 dough into another bowl and clean out the mixing bowl to use for cheesecake. Press the cookie dough into the pan to make an even bottom layer. Sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar from when you prepared the pan.
For the Cheesecake Layer
Using the stand mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until fully incorporated and smooth.
Add flour and beat until fully incorporated and smooth.
Pour cheesecake batter on top of cookie dough in prepared pan.
Take the remaining cookie dough and roll into small balls. Roll them in the remaining cinnamon sugar and place them randomly on top of the cheesecake batter but make sure they are not touching.
Bake for 25-30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack to room temperature. Then put in fridge for 1 hour.
Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
What a great flavor combination! And now I’m officially hungry.
beantownbaker — May 29th, 2013 @ 11:45 am
Ha – sorry to make you hungry! We all REALLY enjoyed these. I like snickerdoodles enough, but these were just awesome.
These are so genius! I love snickerdoodles but combined with cheesecake, its even better!
beantownbaker — May 29th, 2013 @ 11:45 am
You should definitely make these, they’re as delicious as they look!
Love the “random” dollops of cookie on top. They look like mini cookies. Snickerdoodles are the best, I love the way you’ve made them shine in this cheesecake!
beantownbaker — May 29th, 2013 @ 6:45 pm
Ha, I tried to make them random, but I pretty much failed at it 😉
I havn’t baked anything sweet for a lonnnggg time now (been living in a campervan and now I have an oven once more been on a bread baking / savoury kick) but Ive been looking for THAT recipe to get me back into sweets. I think this is it! I tried snickerdoodles once and looovvedd them, yours look so so pretty, I cant wait!
beantownbaker — May 30th, 2013 @ 9:12 am
I think this would be the perfect recipe to get you back into baking sweets!
This looks wonderful 🙂 I love snickerdoodles alone, so I imagine this cheesecake tastes heavenly!
oh boy, you may have outdone yourself with this one 🙂 sounds like it was the perfect treat for your sister and her husband!!
daughter came over last night and she lovveessss Snicker Doodle so I made this…she took the whole dish home…that is how much she enjoyed it…it tasted just like snickerdoodle ..I love your recipes…keep them coming…
beantownbaker — July 14th, 2013 @ 4:18 pm
Thanks 🙂 So glad your daughter enjoyed them. My snickerdoodle loving sister sure enjoyed them as well…