Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
When I sent a picture of these bars to Hubby at work to show him what I had done during my day off, his response was simple “YES PLEASE”. As I’ve mentioned, Hubby is a HUGE cookie dough fan. As much as he claims not to be a big sweets/dessert guy, he will never deny his love of cookie dough. So when I saw these pop up in my Google Reader, there was no doubt that I had to add them to my must-bake list.
And due to that love of cookie dough, these bars jumped right to the top of that must-bake list. And boy am I glad they did. In fact, I think everyone who got to taste these guys is glad they made it to the top of the must-bake list.
These bars start with a base of a graham cracker crust with mini chocolate chips in it. Yes please. Next comes a cheesecake layer. Yes please. And last, but definitely not least, comes a layer of cookie dough crumbles. Yes Please.
The combination of these three layers results in amazingly delicious cookie bar that you will not be forgetting about any time soon. You get a great crunchiness from the graham cracker crust, then a great creaminess from the cheesecake layer, and then the delicious crumbliness from the cookie dough. I this this cookie dough recipe would be great to mix in to some ice cream. Like I mentioned, it yielded large crumbles of cookie dough, as opposed to the smooth cookie dough frosting that I’ve used on brownies and mini cupcakes.
A couple notes, I doubled this recipe since I was baking for a large group. I used a 9×13 pan and had to bake them for about double the baking time listed. I have shown the recipe below as a single batch. The original recipe has a chocolate drizzle over the top. I left it off literally because I forgot about it, but it would add another layer of indulgence to these bars.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
Yield: 16
Ingredients:
For the Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 Tbsp butter, melted
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
For the Cookie Dough
5 Tbsp butter, room temp.
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips
For the Cheesecake Filling
10 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325.
For the crust
Grease a 8x8 pan with butter, line pan with parchment paper and butter the paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides.
Crush graham crackers into crumbs to make 1 & 1/2 cups. Add to butter and stir until crumbs are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips.
Press crust mixture into bottom of pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.
For cookie dough
Using mixer and the paddle attachment, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth. Adjust mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.
For cheesecake
Using mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.
Pour batter into cooled, baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.
Bake about 30 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Place in the refrigerator to chill several hours.
Recipe adapted from Bake at 350
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. 
I can’t barely bake so the idea of finding a creative way to use leftovers astounds me. This looks AWESOME!
Gorgeous truffles!
I love red velvet… these look amazing.
I’ll have to remember this… I often have leftover cake too. They looks so pretty!
This is a very good recipe…thanks and happy new year, ciao Flavia
These are so pretty! Great for valentine’s day:)
These look so wonderful! Love the vibrant red!
These look so good. Wonderful idea.
Okay this is just hilarious! My grandma purchased a frozen Cheesecake Factory Red Velvet Cheesecake for Christmas. I took the remaining pieces home to make into balls, which we served at my new years eve party. SO good!
Amazing as usual! I tagged you on my blog to answer some questions:
http://bigmamashomekitchen.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-weekday-morning-routineand-ive-been.html
Have a great day! Rhondi
you are a genius! Such a great idea to use leftover and maintain portion control.
oh they look so yummi!!!
xoxo from rome
K.
http://kcomekarolina.blogspot.com/
Such a good idea, these look so good! I love the red velvet and cheesecake combo. You’re blog is awesome 🙂
Wow, these are so beautiful! Best way to use leftovers EVER! And who knew you could do so much with red velvet!
Sues
It’s not over-indulging because you’re able to stop at one. I would probably have eaten half a dozen of them, they look so good! What a great way to jazz up ‘leftovers’!
What a FANTASTIC idea!!!! These look beyond amazing!!
I remember the post about that cake. I really want to make it some day! The idea of turning some leftovers into truffles is pure genius! 😀
ooh, what a creative way to deal with the cake 🙂
I’m picky about what I bring in to work too. It bugs me when people bring in things that are clearly gnawed on, you know? This is the perfect way to reportion leftover cake into easily sharable treats.
Wives always know best! LOL
Glad you made him “eat” his words, so to speak. The truffles are so adorable and perfect for Valentine’s Day.
They’re adorable!!! They’d make a perfect Valentine treat too!!
So…. Don’t mean to appear ignorant, but some of us have NOT made cake balls from left over cake, please be more specific in your discourse, please.
ummm this cake failed. We followed the recipe to the t and it deflated and tasted bad. This recipe was extremely watery and gross and soggy. It fell apart quickly. Thanks!