June 21, 2011

Almost Too Good To Be True

This past weekend, I was perusing one of my favorite time-wasters, Pinterest, when I stumbled across this lovely image:
                                                Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
I needed a dessert for our Father's Day cookout, and this combination of cheesecake and cookie dough seemed like something that would be perfect for me my lovely husband and father.  I usually prefer to try new recipes from sites such as Allrecipes who already rate the recipes (it makes it pretty foolproof you know...I mean, if 500+ people rate the thing as 5 stars, how bad could it be?), but this picture and combination were just way too tempting...
And let me tell you...they were absolutely DELICIOUS!  I followed Brandy's recipe exactly, but here it is for you to see:

Ingredients: 
Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup flour
2/3 cup chocolate chips

Cheesecake Filling:
10 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions: 
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8" square baking pan with parchment paper or foil allowing a little overhang and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. Mix the melted butter and graham cracker crumbs until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes. Remove pan to a cooling rack. Leave your oven on while you prepare the dough.
3. While the crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate chip cookie dough.  Beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly combined, about 1 minute. Mix in the flour on low speed, and mix until just incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips. Set aside.
4. In a separate bowl, cream together the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Mix in the egg and vanilla on low speed just until incorporated. Pour the cheesecake batter into the prepared crust. Using your hand to form clumps, distribute the cookie dough onto the top of the cheesecake batter in teaspoon-sized clumps. Be sure to use all of the dough. 
5. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the top feels dry and firm (the cookie dough) and the entire pan looks set if given a gentle shake. Move bars to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. Chill in refrigerator overnight or for at least a couple hours.
6. Lift the bars out by the overhang and cut into squares for serving.


And just in case, the above picture wasn't tempting enough for you, here's my final creation:
Seriously, amazing!  Like do yourself a favor, and make these as soon as you can...I promise you won't be disappointed.


1 comment:

  1. Suh-WEET!!! And holy cow, I think I have all of the ingredients! Yippeee!!!
    Thanks girlie.
    xoxo,
    Kim

    ReplyDelete

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