Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cookie Bars
It's that time of year again. The time of year when thousands of cheesecakes simply must be consumed if you celebrate the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
Shavuot is next weekend. So I gotchu covered. First with these salted caramel cheesecake cookie bars, and next week with another cheesecake miracle.
I should really just stop right here. I mean, SALTED CARAMEL CHEESECAKE COOKIE BARS! How good does that sound already?? Do you really need me to go on?
You know I will, either way.
Lemme break these bars down for you. Starting with the base, the cookie layer.
Here’s what you’re getting: a soft, gooey chocolate chip cookie dough. A real cookie dough. That you're gonna make all by yourself. With butter and sugar and flour and mini chocolate chips and all that other chocolate chip cookie stuff.
And you're gonna spread that rich and tasty and vanilla-y chocolate chip cookie dough into your pan. And set that pan aside.
Then comes the second layer, the filling. This is where the cheesecake makes its appearance. A classic, creamy, rich, sweet (slightly, slightly tangy thanks to a hint of lemon juice) cheesecake filling.
You're gonna be making that creamy cheesecake filling all by yourself as well. Just cream that cream cheese and sugar, blend in the rest of the cheesecake filling ingredients, and pour that filling over your cookie dough that you made all by yourself earlier.
And now is where the bars make their way to the oven to bake. You may have to help them make their way to the oven though. You may even have to carry them there and place them inside. But after that they'll bake all by themselves.
And then there's the final layer, the salted caramel drizzle for the top. Just to REALLY take things to the next level.
A salted caramel that, you guessed it, you're gonna make all by yourself in a pot by melting sugar with butter and heavy cream and vanilla and salt. Those are all the ingredients for the salted caramel, by the way. But they're not all put into the pot at once.
Oh, and you’ll probably have some extra caramel left over if you make the full recipe below, unless you DOUSE the bars in the caramel. But you can keep the extras in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks. So just make the whole recipe. And use the leftovers for two blissful weeks of caramel-drizzled-everything.
Now, I get it. I Know. Three steps - a cookie dough, a cheesecake filling, a salted caramel -that seems like a lot of work and time.
But actually, these cheesecake bars aren't all that time consuming. Because the cookie dough and the cheesecake filling each take about 5 minutes to make. Mix together the cookie dough in one bowl, cream together the filling in one machine. 10 minutes total.
And the salted caramel takes one pot and 10 minutes to come together. You could always use store-bought caramel though. Or, dare I say it, you could even skip the caramel drizzle altogether. Is the salted caramel recommended? Yes. Is it absolutely essential? No.
Your call.
Here's what's my call: make these salted caramel cheesecake cookie bars if you don't want to have any regrets in life.
Salted Caramel Cheesecake Cookie Bars
Yield: about 20 bars
Cookie base:
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup oil or melted butter
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups packed flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup mini chocolate chips
Cheesecake:
8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
½ cup granulated sugar
1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk, room temp.
1 cup sour cream, room temp.
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
Salted Caramel:
1 cup granulated sugar
½ stick (2 oz.) chopped butter, room temp.
½ cup heavy cream (do not substitute milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1. Cookie Base: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving some excess hanging over for easy removal later.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar and butter/oil. Whisk in egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt until just combined. Mix in chocolate chips last. Dough will be greasy. Press into bottom of prepared pan evenly. Set aside.
3. Cheesecake: In a food processor or electric stand mixer, cream the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add in rest of cheesecake ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour batter over cookie dough.
4. Bake bars for about 30-35 minutes, until cheesecake is just set and edges are barely golden brown.
5. Let bars cool at room temperature for about an hour, then place pan in fridge for several hours before slicing bars and drizzling with salted caramel.
6. Salted Caramel: Pour sugar into a medium saucepan and place over a medium flame. Stir frequently with a high heat rubber spatula. Sugar will start clumping and then melt into an amber liquid.
7. Once sugar is completely melted, add in chopped butter right away. Take care, because caramel will bubble rapidly. Stir till butter is melted.
8. Once butter is melted, pour in the heavy cream slowly while stirring caramel. Caramel will bubble rapidly again. Allow to cook for about 60 seconds and then remove pot from flame.
9. Stir in vanilla extract and salt and then let caramel cool and harden a bit before using. You can transfer caramel to a bowl and place in fridge to speed up cooling process. You can store the leftover caramel in the fridge in an airtight container for up to two weeks. To liquefy the caramel again, just warm it up for a few seconds in a pot/microwave.
