Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Yeah..... you know you want one...

That's right... there's three layers... graham cracker crust studded with mini milk chocolate chips...topped with a smooth and creamy cheesecake that been studded with buttery chocolate chip cookie dough baked right inside and finished with a ribbon of creamy semisweet milk chocolate drizzled over the top..... pure bliss!

.....awww yeah...

...Mmmmmmmmmmmmm....

While we waited patiently for a table at dinner last night I get a call from my friend to remind me of the barbecue following our son's baseball game at the coaches house the next day. I immediately start firing off questions: "Do we have to bring anything. Was I volunteered for a specific type of dish? What time is the event?" I got the details I needed and started thinking.

Over dinner my son and I discuss a few options and eventually settled on me making another cake using melted ice cream, but flavored with Cherry Garcia. On the way home I stop at the store to pick up the ingredients but quickly get sidetracked when I walk past a display table filled with various cookbooks. Without hesitation I flip through The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook and land upon these bad-boys. I get so sucked in by this book that I have to take it over to the indoor furniture area to sit down and leaf through it. I was in a trance....

 So many times I get suckered into buying cookbooks like this. You know the ones. They have gorgeous, dreamy pictures of each recipe, looking so beautiful, so unbelievably scrupulous, you just have to buy it. Only later you find out the recipes don't turn out right or the book is filled with too many that are unappealing and it just sits on the shelf, year after year. I decide to resist the urge to impulse shop and do a little experiment instead: I would test drive a recipe first! Brilliant! I pull out my pad and paper and decide to copy (gasp! steal?) down the recipe. I decided then and there if the recipe came out, I'd buy the book. Guess what? I'm buying the book as soon as I'm done posting this entry! :-)

These bars were a huge hit! Everyone loved them at the barbecue, adults and kids alike.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Yield: I was able to get 20 1"x 1" bars from my 9" pan
 by Elinor Klivans (author) & Kirsten Strecker (photographer)

Crust
1 & 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325°F. Butter a 9″-square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides. Butter the parchment paper.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Press crust mixture into bottom of pan. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool.

Cookie Dough
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Using an electric mixer, mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

Filling
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar just until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended. Pour batter into baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling.

Bake about 30-35 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack.

For chocolate topping, melt 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. (Tip: put the chocolate chips into a zipper bag and heat on 50% power for a few minutes. Cut the corner off the bag and squeeze the bag to make drizzling less messy). Use a teaspoon to drizzle chocolate over top of bars. Cool bars in pan completely, about an hour. (Stick the bars in the freezer for 5 minutes to set quickly if you're in a hurry).

Using the edges of the parchment paper, remove bars from pan. Cut into bars (clean the knife after each cut) and serve.