Cheesecake Cookie Bars

 This cheesecake cookie bar recipe is so easy and disappears quickly whenever I bring it anywhere.  It's the perfect dessert to make when you want to satisfy your sweet tooth, but aren't a fan of overly complicated recipes.

This is a recipe from Gaby Dalkin - one of my favorite food bloggers - who seems to have a gift for churning out very attractive recipes that also draw you in with its ease factor.  I don't know how she does it, but I love everything she makes, and how she makes you feel like you can cook anything.

It's as easy as making the cookie dough, pouring the cream cheese mixture over half of the dough in a pan, and then dropping pieces of the rest of the cookie dough over it.  Bake it, let it cool in the fridge long enough so that you're able to slice into it cleanly...and you're all set to have a dessert to bring to that next get-together!

I especially love these because they are a versatile contribution to any type of party or event: a bake sale, 4th of July, baby showers...literally anything you can think of!

CHEESECAKE COOKIE BARS

Makes 12-16 bars (depending on how you cut them)

INGREDIENTS

For the cookie dough:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1.5 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 2.5 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips (or a little more, if you like more choco chips in your bars!)

For the cheesecake layer:

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream butter and sugars with an electric or stand mixer
2. Add the eggs and vanilla extract.  Add the rest of the ingredients until well combined.  Add about a 1/4 cup of chocolate chips to the dough and mix.  Put dough in the fridge to chill for a bit while you make the cheesecake part.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Mix the cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla together with an electric mixer (or I just use the same stand mixer after removing the cookie dough).
4. Line a 9x13 pan with tin foil (make sure it's enough to hang over edges so you can easily lift the bars out of the pan, once cooled) and spray with non-stick spray.
5. Original recipe calls for using 1/2 the cookie dough for the bottom layer; I find that I need to use more like 3/4 of it in order to cover any bare spots and make an even layer.
6. Pour the cheesecake mix over the cookie dough layer.
7. Sprinkle bits of the remaining dough all over the cheesecake layer and toss the rest of the chocolate chips all over, too.
8. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the cookie dough becomes golden brown.  Let it cool for half an hour, then place in the fridge to continue chilling for at least 2 hours.  Once set and chilled, take out and slice away!  Enjoy!

Original recipe found here