Monster Cookie Cheesecake Bars

I still had Reese’s Pieces left after I made the cute bunny cookies. I wanted to try something different, and I came across these cheesecake bars. Monster Cookies and Monster Cookie Bars are not unusual, but I did a search and I haven’t made anything in this family of baking, which I thought was strange. I knew I could use the Reese’s Pieces in this recipe, as it was already peanut butter-forward.

Since I was making a peanut butter variation, I decided to use peanut butter chips in place of the traditional chocolate chips. I only had about half a cup (and not the 1 cup that the recipe requested) but that didn’t seem to make a difference. I also substituted Reese’s Pieces for the M&Ms. You can add additional Reese’s Pieces on top of the bars after they have baked, but I tried and all the extra Reese’s Pieces fell off when I cut them into bars.

There are a lot of ingredients in these bars, including 4 eggs! I planned to make these earlier in the week but I didn’t have eggs or aluminum foil. Then I was half-way through making the bars and I realized I had less-fat cream cheese and I don’t use that for baking. A quick trip to the store and I was sorted, and then the bars came together. They are very substantial, but even so they cut very easily. They have a perfect peanut butter flavor, and the cheesecake layer adds a lovely tang.

Monster Cookie Cheesecake Bars
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup oats
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
3/4 cup Reese’s Pieces

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. On medium, mix in the peanut butter. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and oats. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour/oat mixture and stir until a dough forms. Fold in the chips and Reese’s Pieces.   

Divide the dough into halves. Press half of the dough into the prepared pan. The remaining dough will become the topping.

Bake the bottom crust for 5 minutes. While the bottom crust is baking, prepared the cheesecake layer: in a mixer bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, and eggs. Mix until the batter is smooth and any lumps of cream cheese have been incorporated.

Once the cookie base comes out of the oven, pour the cream cheese mixture over the base and smooth the top. Crumble the remaining cookie dough over the cheesecake layer.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the cheesecake is set and the bars are browned along the edges. Chill for several hours before cutting into bars.

Recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Strawberry and Cream Cookies

I was looking for summery cookies to bake and when I start looking, I can find all sorts of interesting recipes that I want to try! I have to balance my desire to bake with the fact that I have more free time and also the fact that the house is fairly warm. I try to find recipes that I can bake first thing in the morning, before it is too hot, and that will only use the oven for a short time.

These strawberry and cream cookies sounded perfect for summer, which was exactly what I had been looking for. There is an abundance of fruit in the summer, but it is difficult to use fresh fruit in cookie baking as fruits contain so much liquid. Once in a while you can make a quick jam with fruit, but that’s about it. These cookies use freeze-dried strawberries, which are now readily available at the store. They add the flavor of strawberries without some of the other complications.

I ended up making half a recipe (again, making sure the oven wasn’t on too long), and you do want to note the freeze-dried strawberry quantity. The half recipe used the smaller bag that I got at the store, about 25 grams. It seems like it should weigh more but it doesn’t, and you don’t want to have too many strawberries. I also had slightly less than the quantity of cream cheese, as I thought I had more on hand than I did, but it didn’t make much of a difference. These cookies are soft, but the flavor of the strawberries can’t be beat!

Strawberry and Cream Cookies
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1 1/2 cups freeze-dried strawberries (about 45 grams)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter on medium until smooth. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula and add the egg and vanilla, stirring to incorporate.

With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until the dough almost comes together. Add the white chocolate and the freeze-dried strawberries and turn the mixer on and off to distribute them into the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Scoop the dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon balls of dough and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until the cookies are slightly browned along the bottom edges. Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction

Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars

If you follow this blog at all, you will likely know that snickerdoodles are my favorite thing to make. It was the first cookie I recall baking, and that is something that is good to start with. Some folks are very protective about their favorite recipe, but I grew up with the recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook. They aren’t fancy but they taste exactly the way they should taste.

Over the years, there have been many variations of snickerdoodle recipes. Sometimes, I feel like anything that contains cinnamon sugar is name “snickerdoodle” and that doesn’t feel right. Usually, I expect snickerdoodles to contain cream of tartar. Again, that is what I am used to baking. These bars don’t contain cream of tartar, but they smelled like a classic snickerdoodle while baking.

I have made snickerdoodles with white chocolate filling, but never a cheesecake filling. I was a little surprised that I hadn’t made something similar to this, as the flavors naturally go together so well. You have to pay attention to the recipe, as you make parts then wait until you assemble the bars. I didn’t make a very solid layer of snickerdoodle dough on my bars, maybe covered about 60%, but this made no difference once the bars were baked. They smelled great baking, and they are great! The creamy center paired with the snickerdoodle cookie is so good. I cut the bars, and had mainly edges left and all cookies were consumed quickly.

Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Bars
16 ounces cream cheese
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt

2-1/4 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

Make the cheesecake layer: in a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium until light. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt and mix again on medium until combined.

Make the snickerdoodle layer: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until combined, then stir in the eggs and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

In a separate bowl mix together the 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Press about half of the snickerdoodle mixture into the prepared pan and sprinkle with half of the cinnamon sugar. Pour the cheesecake batter over the dough and spread evenly with a spatula. Break up the remaining dough into small pieces and top the cheesecake layer. Do your best to cover the bars as much as possible. Sprinkle the bars with the remaining cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until set along the edges but slightly jiggly in the center. Cool for 15 minutes on the counter and then refrigerate to cool completely. Cut into bars when completely cool. If desired, store the bars in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Delish Christmas Baking, 2023

Chocolate Cookies with Cream Cheese Chips

In trying to use the cream cheese chips that I have in the cupboard before all the holiday craziness begins, I decided to use the last of the chips in these chocolate cookies. They were originally called inside out chocolate chip cookies, as they are a chocolate cookie with white/cream cheese chips rather than a blonde cookie with chocolate chips, but I thought that didn’t really describe these cookies very well. I simply called them chocolate cookies with cream cheese chips. Yes, white chips were originally called for in the recipe and of course would be great.

These cookies aren’t difficult, but they do take a little extra time since you must chill the dough. As with almost any chocolate cookie, the dough is very sticky and chilling helps reduce some of that stickiness. They were still a little tricky to roll into balls, and I had to wash my hands a lot. That’s good hygiene anyway, right? It never hurts to be a neat baker (and I am, most of the time).

This makes a petite batch of cookies, which is ok since I have so many other things planned for the near future. This made a little more than two dozen. It’s critical that you save some extra chips to top the cookies when they come out of the oven. I only topped half of the cookies with extra chips, and they looked great. These taste a lot like a chocolate chip cookie, with a little more chocolate flavor. There is something homey about these cookies that can’t be beat!

Chocolate Cookies with Cream Cheese Chips
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
⅓ cup cocoa powder
1 cup cream cheese chips

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir on medium to incorporate. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cocoa powder. Mix on low until the dough begins to form. Finish the mixing with a spatula as you fold in the cream cheese chips.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Scoop the dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-11 minutes. Once out of the oven, you can press additional chips into the tops of the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Alpine Ella

Browned Butter, Cranberry, and Oat Cookies with Cream Cheese Chips

I recently got a large supply of baking chips and a few other ingredients, so I knew it was time to clean out the chips I had and discard anything that was too old. Many chips needed to go, and some others I couldn’t tell what the date was. Why put some abstract code on the chips that you can’t interpret? It is so annoying! In my treasures, I was reminded that I had cream cheese chips, which came out last year. I vowed to use them in a recipe!

The only recipe I could find easily for cream cheese chips is the recipe on the package. I’m sure they are good but not super interesting. I went looking for cookies with white chocolate chips, and then determined if the flavors would pair with cream cheese. I found two recipes, and I started with this one. I suppose cranberries are edging towards the holidays, but we are getting there anyway!

At first, I wasn’t going to brown the butter, but I did. I browned 3/4 of the butter and then melted the remaining cold butter into the browned butter. This caused the mixture to bubble up and spill all over everything, so next time I will just brown all of the butter. Otherwise, these cookies are easy to make. Of course, you could use white chips if that is what’s available. I think the combination of flavors in this cookie is incredible and I got many compliments when I took them to work. Sadly, all of the cookies I left at home are already gone, so I guess I need to make them again!

Browned Butter, Cranberry, and Oat Cookies with Cream Cheese Chips
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg + 1 yolk
1 cup oats
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup cream cheese chips
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a small saucepan, cut the butter into pieces and place them in the pan. Heat on medium low, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter melts and begins to brown. Remove the butter from the heat, transfer to a different bowl, and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the cooled butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Mix on medium to combine. Add the egg and egg yolk and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. When the mixture is almost cohesive, fold in the cream cheese chips and dried cranberries.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2 tablespoon balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the dough balls slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Serena Bakes

Chocolate Hazelnut Tassies

If you have followed my blog for a long time, you will know that I adore hazelnuts and I love making cookies in mini muffin cups. They look so perfect, and I think hazelnut is one of the best flavors out there. I hadn’t made anything with Nutella recently, and it was time to do so. I had taken a photograph of this recipe in a magazine, which typically means I will forget about it. This time, I wrote up the recipe right away, so it’s been waiting to be made.

I halved this recipe. The quantities given here are the original, and said it made about seven dozen cookies. These cookies are small but that is still a lot of cookies! I ended up making two dozen with the half recipe. I did have some dough left over, but two dozen was plenty. I didn’t change anything else otherwise, but I didn’t have hazelnuts to use as a garnish. They really didn’t need anything extra.

Since you shape the cookies and roll them in sugar, I was able to use my tart tamper to spread the dough up the sides of the cup. After baking, I reshaped the cookies with the tart tamper dipped in sugar. It worked great. I was afraid the cookies would be brittle, but they were fine! For the filling, I think I could have added slightly more liqueur, as the filling was a challenge to pipe. These cookies are SO GOOD. I don’t know how you could beat the fantastic flavor of Nutella, but in this tassie is the best.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tassies
2/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup Nutella
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
Sugar

¾ cup Nutella
3 ounces cream cheese
3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 teaspoons hazelnut liqueur

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Have several (4 dozen+) mini muffin cups ready.

In a large mixer bowl beat the butter and Nutella until smooth. Add the sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir on medium to incorporate. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, mixing until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into 48-72 balls and roll in sugar. Place each ball into a mini muffin cup and press into the bottom and up the sides of the mini muffin cups.

Bake for 8-9 minutes, until firm. Reshape with a teaspoon if necessary. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl, beat the Nutella, cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until light. Gradually add the powdered sugar and then enough hazelnut liqueur to reach piping consistency. Place the filling in a piping bag and fill each cookie cup.

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookies

Ginger Sandwich Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling

Welcome to my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies! Leading up to Christmas I will post 12 different cookie recipes that you or your family may enjoy. I tend to stick with flavors that I connect with the holidays: ginger and similar spices, mincemeat, candied fruit, peppermint, and eggnog. I will say that because of needing to post on my blog, and the fact that I bake a couple of traditional items for the holidays, I started baking my Christmas cookies a while ago. It’s never too early for mincemeat, right?

The ingredients in these cookies are quite standard, and you may already have them in your cupboard. Lemon extract is the most unusual ingredient, but you could use the juice of a lemon or some other substitute. After reading the reviews, I did cut back the amount of lemon extract and powdered sugar. The original recipe called for 2 teaspoons of lemon extract, and that is likely too much for any recipe.

The dough chills for quite a while, and since it contains shortening, it never gets as hard as other doughs I have made. While baking, they look a lot like peanut butter cookies since you make a crisscross pattern which is traditional with other cookies. These cookies would be a good choice for any type of cookie stamp that you may have. This particular cookie, with its combination of ginger and lemon, bridges the gap between a fall cookie and a Christmas cookie, and it couldn’t be any better.

Ginger Sandwich Cookies with Lemon Cream Cheese Filling
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2-1/4 cups flour
3 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sugar

3 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large mixer bowl, beat the shortening and brown sugar on medium until light. Mix in the egg and molasses. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar. Flatten with a fork in a crisscross pattern.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until set. Allow to cool before forming into sandwich cookies.

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter and mix on medium until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar, lemon extract, and vanilla. Beat until the filling is smooth, but is strong enough to sandwich the cookies together. Match the cookies up by size and spread the filling on half of the cookies, then pair them with a similarly sized cookie.

Recipe from Carol Walston via Taste of Home

Italian Cream Cake Cookies

I have been digging through some recipes that I have pinned, and it seems like if I don’t make a recipe soon after I pin it, I forget that it exists and sometimes by the time I go back to check the recipes the links don’t work anymore. This recipe isn’t all that old, but I did pin it a bit ago. I have wanted to make these for a long time, and this week was the right time.

This is a version of a thumbprint cookie, but quite a bit different. This cookie is simple and crumbly, mainly butter, powdered sugar, and flour. You do need to mix them a bit to have the dough come together, but they are affable to shaping. You roll the cookies in chopped pecans and coconut. The dough isn’t super sticky, so you have to work to get that to stick. You’ll have more pecans and coconut than you need, but it’s like frosting: I’d rather have too much than too little.

These are small cookies, but they bake low and slow. They don’t turn golden brown, so you just need to check and see if they are set. You do need to cool the cookies before filling, but that only takes 15 minutes for that to happen. The filling is, again, simple just cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar. I whipped the filling a lot, so it was the consistency I wanted. Piping the filling is the easiest way to finish these cookies, and they are so petite that to spoon in the filling would be nearly impossible. I love these cookies, so crumbly, but simple and beautiful with the cream cheese filling.

Italian Cream Cake Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup flaked coconut

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and powdered sugar on medium until light. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour and cornstarch, stirring until the dough comes together. You may need to do the last bit of shaping with your hands.

Place the pecans and coconut in a small bowl. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and then roll in the pecan/coconut mixture. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand and then make an indentation in each cookie with your thumb or similar tool. Reshape the balls as needed.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until set and barely browned. Allow to cool before making the filling

In a large mixer bowl, bear the cream cheese and butter on medium until combined. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the powdered sugar and vanilla. If the filling is too stiff, add 1-2 teaspoons of milk to thin. Transfer the mixture into a piping bag and pipe the filling into the indentations of the cooled cookies.

Recipe from Something Swanky

Crème Brûlée Sugar Cookies

I have had this recipe pinned for a while. I really love Crème Brûlée. I see all sorts of different flavors out there, and sometimes I give those a try. What’s funny is that I don’t like flan, which is very similar to crème brulée, but somehow it is different. I love the warm, crunchy top of the crème brulée, and it’s fine that the rest of it is cold. I can only think of one time that I didn’t like this dessert, and it was an occasion where the top wasn’t broiled, it was burned. That occasion had all sorts of other issues, too.

To see a cookie version of one of my favorite desserts was hard to pass up. There are differences, but I was curious how it would translate to a cookie. The cookie itself is a relatively standard sugar cookie. You add a little cornstarch to add to the chewy nature of the cookie. It is then topped with cream cheese frosting. I haven’t made cream cheese frosting in ages, and I forget how good it can be.

What makes these similar to crème brulée, is that after frosting the cookies, you dip them in granulated sugar and then brulée them. This does take a little time, but it makes for an interesting cookie. I have a small kitchen torch, which is what you need for this recipe, but it is hard work to use my torch. It takes a couple of moments to brown the top, and my hand was getting so sore! These cookies have great flavor and remind me a lot of crème brulée. You don’t get the hot/cold of the original, but these are very tasty.

Crème Brûlée Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and stir again on medium to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring just until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until barely starting to turn golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until smooth. Place the sugar in a small bowl.

Frost the top of each cookie, then press into the sugar, coating the frosting with sugar. With a small kitchen torch, caramelize the sugar and allow to cool before serving.

Recipe from Lindsay Conchar via Delish

Lemon Blackberry Cheesecake Bars

Do you make cheesecake often? I think that cheesecake can be very challenging, and I have yet to make a cheesecake that didn’t have some sort of crack in the top. Some folks say that is completely normal, but I don’t see cracks in professionally made cheesecakes. I’ve tried so many things, water baths, etc. and nothing seems to help. I know many who make cheesecakes and that’s their thing. That isn’t the case for me.

The closest that I can successfully create is a cheesecake bar cookie, but I hadn’t made that in a while. There are less errors with a bar cookie, but the flavors are about the same. I came across this recipe and thought that lemon cheesecake combined with a berry topping would be great. The original recipe called for raspberry pie filling, but I had blackberry jam that my friend had made, so I chose to use that. I think any sort of berry topping, or even anything that works with lemon would be a good choice.

These bars take a little longer to bake than some cookies, but they are not nearly as involved as a cheesecake. They bake in two stages, but you can prepare the filling while the crust bakes. The swirl on top can be as simple as you want. I find that if you swirl in the jam/pie filling too much it becomes too uniform, and you don’t want that. The bars still jiggle in the middle when they come out of the oven, but the firm up as they cool. These bars are quite thick, and you could likely make them in a 9” pan for a slightly thinner bar. These are sweet, but have the tanginess of cheesecake mixed in, which is very nice.

Lemon Blackberry Cheesecake Bars
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter, melted

16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
Zest of 1 lemon
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup berry jam/pie filling

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.

Bake for 8 minutes. Make the filling while the crust is baking.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, sour cream, flour, and vanilla on medium until smooth. Add the eggs and beat again to combine. Spread the mixture over the partially baked crust.

Spoon the berry jam/pie filling over the cheesecake layer in small dollops, and then swirl with a knife to make a decorative pattern.

Bake for 35 minutes. Allow to cool before refrigerating. Refrigerate for 2 hours before cutting into bars.

Recipe from My Incredible Recipes

Gingerbread Bars

I bake a lot with ginger, since it is such a favorite of mine. This time of year, I make a number of different cookies with ginger and molasses. I don’t use molasses all that much the rest of the year, so it’s a nice ingredient to use in December. When I was sorting recipes early in the season, I was absolutely shocked that I have never made gingerbread bars. I had a couple of different varieties marked and ended up making these.

The original recipe called for twice the amount listed here and baked in a 9” x 13” pan. When I baked these, I had also baked some fruitcake bars and peppermint meltaways, plus I had a few other cookies on hand that I had made before that! Needless to say, this recipe was chosen as it was easy to divide in half and I baked the bars up in an 8” square pan. Thankfully, when I delivered Christmas presents recently, I was able to share some of my baking with my friends!

These cookies were easy to make, although the darkness of the bars makes it difficult to tell when the cookies are baked through. When they are baked, the edges start to pull away from the pan and the edges are slightly taller than the baked bars. The icing is a lovely cream cheese frosting, which adds a beautiful tartness to the spiced molasses flavor of the bars. The frosting remains soft as long as the bars are at room temperature, so if you plan to travel with these make sure that they are properly refrigerated.

Gingerbread Bars
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1-1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Decorative sprinkles

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and molasses on medium until combined. Stir in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour/spice mixture. 

 

Spread the dough in an even layer in the prepared pan.

 

Bake for 14-17 minutes, until set. Do not over bake. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat until light. Spread over the cooled bars and top with decorative sprinkles, if desired. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Cooking Classy

Apple Cheesecake Bars

 

It’s fall and I’m ready for fall baking! We have had a couple of warm days, but our house doesn’t seem to get very warm, which is a relief. I think we have turned the corner and it’s back to cool and rainy days. I guess I should change my closet back to clothes for cooler weather. With the new norm of working from home, I wear a lot of jeans and hoodies now! Maybe I should enhance my hoodie collection!

This recipe highlights apples, which are always wonderful in baking. This bar cookie has a cheesecake filling, and the tartness of the cream cheese offsets the sweetness of the apples. The original recipe added a caramel drizzle after baking, but I didn’t feel that this was necessary. If you served this more as a dessert than a bar cookies, then you could simply drizzle caramel on each serving.

The recipe called for three medium apples, and I used two large apples because apples in the store are so big.  The trick is to chop the apples finely, no more than a ½” dice or smaller. They are easier to distribute evenly when then are chopped small. I also used a food processor to cut in the butter to mixtures- it’s so much neater. There’s no need to wash your food processor between the crust and the streusel. Make sure these are nice and cold when you cut them, it’s much easier. These are so very tasty, with the perfect combination of sweet and tangy.

Apple Cheesecake Bars
2 cups flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup cold butter, cubed

16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 large apples, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
1/3 cup cold butter, cubed

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Make the crust: in a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, and ¾ cup cold butter. Process, using short pulses, until the mixture is crumbly. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.

While the crust is baking, make the cheesecake filling: in a large mixer bowl beat the cream cheese, ½ cup sugar, and vanilla on medium until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Set aside.

In a small bowl combine the chopped apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Once the crust comes out of the oven, spread the cream cheese mixture over the crust and top with the chopped apple mixture.

Make the streusel topping: in a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and 1/3 cup butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the bars.

Bake 25-30 minutes, until the filling is set. Cool on a wire rack for one hours and then refrigerate for at least two hours before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Katherine White, Taste of Home

Biscoff Cookie Butter Bars

Because I am not taking cookies to work, I sometimes chat with my friends about cookies that I have made. This week, I noted that I made these bars, originally called Speculoos Cookie Butter Bars, and she wasn’t sure what cookie butter was. She had eaten Biscoff cookies, and I explained it was a spread made of those. It’s very tasty! A few years ago, Biscoff cookies and cookie butter spread were not available anywhere, but now they’re easy to find.

You even have options. This recipe used the version sold at Trader Joe’s, where they sell the Speculoos cookies and cookie butter spread. I don’t always make it to Trader Joe’s, and recently there’s been a long line when I go by, so I bought the “original” Biscoff cookies and Biscoff spread at the store. Either product works fine. The weights of the packages are nearly equivalent, so they are interchangeable. I was thrilled that the Biscoff cookie package was slightly more than 7 ounces, so my husband and I each enjoyed a cookie.

These cookies require little baking, which is good as the weather may be warm where you live. There isn’t a lot of baking in this recipe, but you do make the topping/frosting. Store-bought frosting just isn’t good, so it is best to make your own. I made these in stages, when I had a few minutes here, a couple of minutes there, which was great. The bars are very good, but the base is slightly crumbly, so make sure that you store them in the refrigerator to keep them together!

Biscoff Cookie Butter Bars

7 ounces Biscoff/Speculoos cookies

¼ cup butter, melted

14 ounces Biscoff/cookie butter spread

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a food processor, process the cookies until finely crushed. Transfer the mixture to a separate bowl, reserve two tablespoons of crushed cookies for the topping. Mix the remaining cookies with the melted butter and stir to combine. Put the crumbs into the prepared pan and flatten with the bottom of a measuring cup to create an even layer.

Bake for 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the base to cool.

Once cool, spread the cookie butter over the cooled base. Place the cookies in the freezer while you make the topping.

To make the topping, place the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and 1 cup powdered sugar into a large mixer bowl. Mix on medium until combined. Add the second cup of powdered sugar and beat on medium until smooth. Spread the topping evenly over the cookie butter layer. Sprinkle the bars with the reserved cookie crumbs. Refrigerate for at least an hour, until the bars are completely firm. Remove the bars from the pan and cut into squares. Store the bars in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Foodness Gracious