I’ve been doing a lot of baking lately with my friend Jeannette. Jeannette lives in Texas, and I’ve never met her in “real life,” but I still consider her a great friend and I always have a blast chatting with her via Twitter as we mess around in our respective kitchens. Usually when we decide to bake something together, we go back and forth for a while trying to come up with a recipe we’re both interested in and for which we both have all of the ingredients in our pantries. There was none of that with these cheesecake chocolate chip cookie bars; we were both immediately on the same page about how good they sounded – maybe not terribly surprising, could you really go wrong with cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies in one dessert? The bars are made with ingredients you’re likely to have on hand most of the time too, which makes them especially dangerous.
This dessert is essentially a chocolate chip cookie bar with a layer of cheesecake in the middle, and it’s just as tasty as it sounds. The bars are a little tricky to assemble, but in a really fun way. Half of the cookie dough is pressed into the bottom of the pan, the cheesecake mixture is poured over the top and then the remaining cookie dough is shaped into discs and scattered over the cheesecake (I explained this more fully below and included a photo that should help). In the oven, the cookie dough spreads and puffs, covering most of the cheesecake, leaving just enough visible to give the top a bit of a marbled look. The bars are stored in the fridge and they’re deliciously chewy when chilled. Another fun baking project for Jeanette and I, and though she hasn’t posted hers yet, I think she was just as big a fan as me.
Cheesecake Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
from Heat Oven to 350 (who adapted from King Arthur Flour and Jill)
{I know some people don’t like to use shortening and I do plan to try this recipe using all butter at some point – I’ll update this post with my results after I do.}
Cookie Dough
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Cheesecake
8 oz (1 block) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 13×9 pan with cooking spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, shortening, both sugars, vanilla, salt and vinegar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Beat in the egg until well combined. With the mixer on low, add the baking soda and flour and beat just until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips. Press half of the dough into an even layer over the bottom of the prepared pan (I found it easiest to use my fingers to do that). Set aside the other half of the dough.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium until smooth and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla and beat just until incorporated. (I rinsed the bowl of my stand mixer & used it here but you could also do this with a hand mixer in another bowl if you’d rather.)
Pour the cream cheese mixture over the cookie dough layer in the bottom of the pan and spread to the edges. Use the second half of the cookie dough (that you set aside earlier) to top the cream cheese. The easiest way to do that is to grab pieces and flatten them into discs between your hands then place them around the cream cheese layer. You don’t have to cover the cream cheese layer completely (you can see what mine looked like here).
Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is brown and cooked through (the bars will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan slightly). Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool to room temperature then store in the refrigerator.
I’m ready to eat lunch. This in an appropriate meal, right?
Yours turned out beautiful! I’m so glad you liked them. Great idea to include the picture of the bars before baking – I forgot to include that and you’re right, it can be a little tricky to assemble.
@Erin – I hope so because they keep taunting me when I open the fridge looking for other lunch ideas!
Cider Vinegar, not gonna lie, that sounds interesting. What does that do? Now I’m really curious and need to try these, not just because they looks SO flippin good, but b/c this cider thing is really intriguing me 🙂
@Julia – Oops, meant to mention the vinegar in my post! You’ll be able to smell it in the dough, but won’t detect the flavor once the bars are baked. I’m not entirely sure why it’s in the recipe, but if I had to guess I’d say it helps with leavening when it reacts with the baking soda.
Looks like heaven on a plate!
I really like this idea. I’ll have to give it a try!
These will be served in heaven and will have zero calories. I’m convinced!
These look AWESOME!
OMG, heaven on a plate! I will have to try these next time I have to bring a dessert. I don’t dare make them until I can be sure I have to move them out and not into my mouth. Yum.
Oh, my gosh, these look fabulous! I need to take these to a neighborhood Race Day/Memorial Day party (I was assigned salad!) as a bonus treat. I couldn’t stand to have these tempting me in my kitchen 🙂
Wow! I am not a huge fan of cheesecake by itself. BUT you mix it with a chocolate chip cookie, and I am all over that! I thank you, my scale does not!
Tracey, these look awesome! There’s no going wrong with chocolate chip cookies + cheesecake 🙂
Wow, you are the second person this week (at least according to the blogs I do follow) to blog about chocolate chip cheesecake cookie bars. Maybe this is a sign that I need to try one 😀
I’ve been seeing so many awesome recipes lately with cheesecake and it is making my mouth water! These look like an awesome treat! I think I’ll give these a go next time I have a party or something. 🙂
Cookies and cheesecake in one bite?! YUM! You are a genius! :]
I made these bars. OMG there are fabulous. Went together well. What a great combination. thank you
Your baking adventures with Jeannette sound like a blast! I can see why you guys picked this recipe. I would love one right now as a little snack before I go to bed.
Thank you Tracey, for the wonderful delicacy!
Wow, those really do sound (and look) good! I would have a difficult time not eating them until I feel sick (one is too many, a thousand never enough…)
You are too sweet! I consider you a very dear friend of mine as well and I can’t wait until you can come down here one March and take a break from the snow and I can come up there one winter and enjoy the snow for you!! 😉
These bars were too good. I had two in one day then decided that I’d better get rid of them so I made up my mind to pack the rest up to give to my mother in law to take to work. SO good!
I think I might try these with all butter today, as I need some goodies to give to the hubs for work. 🙂 Won’t be until later though. Maybe 3pm, if you’re not busy 😉
These look really temping! It is a pain to layer bars, but with a little patience, it usually turns out and they look good in the end.
Love the center! Yum!
these sound so good! Love the cheesecake center 🙂
i read the instructions a few times to see where you’d add the cider vinegar in the mix and could not find it. i assume you add that in with the wet ingredient, right? cider vinegar sounds like such an odd thing to add. 😉
You’re right! I forgot to include the vinegar when I typed up the recipe but I just fixed it. It’s definitely a bit of an odd ingredient, and I’m not sure what it does, but you won’t be able to detect it in the final product.