Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars

The bars are awesome, wonderful, amazing! If you love chocolate chip cookies and you love cheesecake then this dessert is for you. Think chocolate chip cookie and a cheesecake had a love child - IT WOULD BE THESE! I adore cheesecake and would love to have it everyday (in fact, I know I can eat a whole 6 inch even a 10 inch cheesecake in a day, maybe even an hour). If you can't tell my love for cheesecake runs deep then you are not paying attention yet, I don't feel any shame for this....

Onto the dessert, these are great little bars that are worth making at least once and the good news (or would it bad news?) that the recipe is made in a 8x8 pan so there are not a ton of bars. I would say enough to space out for a week or if you are me, just a couple of days.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
Recipe Adapted from Beantown Baker

Take a 8x8 pan and prepare it as you will. I put down parchment and used my CK Pan Grease but you can butter the pan and it should work fine.

I made the cheesecake first and put it in the fridge while I made the crust and then the cookie dough.

Cheesecake Layer:
10 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla

Using a mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar together until creamy and smooth. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing until everything is combined. If you make this first, I would put it in the fridge but you can also choose to make this last.

Crust:
1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs
5 Tablespoons of butter

Stir the crumbs and butter together, making sure all of the crumbs are moist. Press the crumbs down into the prepared pan. Put the pan in a preheated 325 oven for 6 minutes. Place the pan on a cooling rack to cool.

Cookie Dough:
5 Tablespoons room temperature butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
3/4 cup AP flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Using a mixer, mix the first 5 ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Slowly add the flour making sure to not over mix. Mix in the chocolate chips.

Once the crust is cool, add the cheesecake layer and then drop/place teaspoon size portions of the cookie dough on top. Bake for 30 minutes or until it set. Place on wire rack to cool.

Don't be like me and be impatient and cut into these while they are still warm. Still delicious but the picture would have been better. I have to learn to be patient, which is impossible when it comes to anything cheesecake.