Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Caramel

Cheesecake

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Insane!

I may have slightly overdone it with this one 🙂  These are very sweet.

I found this recipe link on Pinterest.  Myself and so many others I know are spending a lot of time on pinterest…I’m pretty sure that more time is spent pinning awesome things than actually making awesome things.  We’ll just call it a pinterest learning curve!  You can find and follow my boards HERE.

The original recipe was just chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake but I only had about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips so I threw in some butterscotch chips.  I also had some caramel “apple wraps” (thin flat sheets of soft caramel for making caramel apples) that I thought would be great underneath the cheesecake layer.  If you can’t find the caramel sheets anywhere, go ahead and make the recipe without the caramel layer, they’ll still be delicious!

If I make these again I will be skip the butterscotch chips and use dark chocolate chips.  I often forget that I’m not a fan of the butterscotch chips, then I use them and remember!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars recipe from heat oven to 350 (makes 24-36 bars depending on how you slice them)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Cheesecake layer

• 1 cup (8oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 sheets of caramel (Caramel apple wraps)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 9X13″ pan with non stick spray or line with parchment paper.

Mix together the cookie dough:  Cream butter, shortening and sugars together until light and fluffy.  add the vanilla,egg and vinegar.  Mix in the flour, baking soda and salt then stir in all of the chocolate chips.

This part is tricky (and sticky)  Spread a little more than half of the cookie dough in the prepared pan and set the rest of the dough aside.

Prepare the cheesecake.  Cream the cheese until smooth, add the sugar, egg and vanilla and beat until smooth (you could also do this in a food processor)

*if using caramel sheets, lay them over the cookie dough layer

Pour the cheesecake over the cookie dough.

To top with the remaining cookie dough, use wet hands and place flatted bits of cookie dough on top of the cheesecake layer covering up most of the cheesecake.  You’ll still see white bits, that’s okay as it bakes up pretty firm.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cheesecake appears to be set in the middle.

Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Store in the fridge.

Enjoy!