These Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars combine two favorites in one pan: chewy chocolate chip cookie bars and creamy cheesecake. The recipe starts with a homemade chocolate chip cookie dough layered with a simple cheesecake filling and more cookie dough on top. This is the from-scratch version. The idea was inspired by an old Pillsbury recipe made with refrigerated cookie dough.
Pillsbury Cookie Dough Bars
This packaged cookie dough bars version calls for a 16 ounce package of Pillsbury chocolate chip cookie dough. It's very good, but if you have some basic ingredients around, you can make the dough from scratch. The catch with these bars is they need plenty of time to chill, so you have to make them several hours or even a day in advance. Once they are firm, they slice neatly and are quite pretty. They're also rich, so even though they're made in an 8 inch pan you can cut them into fairly small pieces.
Here's what they look like before going in the oven.
I probably should have taken an "after" picture so you could see what they like when they come out of the oven. They really puff up quite a bit to the point where you may question whether or not an 8 inch pan was the right size, but don't worry -- they settle back down as they cool. Recipe below.
Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons softened butter (120 grams)
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar (100 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (190 grams)
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Filling
- 8 oz softened cream cheese (230 grams)
- ½ cup sugar (100 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8 inch square metal pan with nonstick foil or line with regular foil and grease it.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Beat in both sugars, vanilla, salt and baking soda and continue beating until well mixed, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg.
- Add the flour and stir by hand until mixture is well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Empty mixture onto a flat surface and shape into a log. Cut off about ¼ of the log and save for future cookies.
- Cut remaining log in half and press half into the bottom of the lined pan.
- Prepare filling. Beat the cream cheese and sugar until smooth, then beat in the vanilla and the egg. When smooth, stir in the chocolate chips. Pour this mixture over the chocolate chip cookie dough base.
- Break off very large marble size pieces of remaining dough and flatten. Lay the pieces over the cream cheese mixture, spreading evenly, until you've used all the dough. Cream cheese mixture will not be completely covered.
- Bake on the rack just below the center of the oven for 30 minutes or until golden. The bars will puff up quite a bit, but will sink somewhat as they cool.
- Let cool completely, then chill for at least 3 hours. Lift from pan and cut into squares.
Anna says
Sue, thanks for the review! I haven't made these in a while and need to.
Sue says
I made these for a gathering and they were a HUGE hit! I heard adjectives like “phenomenal”, “killer”, “outrageously good”, etc. Thanks for the great recipe and for making me look so good! Five stars!!
Anna says
Chocolate cream cheese? I didn't know there was such a thing! Neat.
rose says
I've made these many times in 2014. I have also used chocolate cream cheese instead of white and they were just wonderful.
Sue says
I'm glad you mentioned these. I can't wait for an excuse to try them.
Anna says
Diana, thanks for the report! I may make a double batch this week for a party. Thanks again for experimenting and reporting back :).
Diana says
I made this and doubled the recipe. Baked it in a glass 9x13 for approx. a hour. BIG hit, my family loves it.
Anna says
I haven't tried it, but it would probably work. If you try it, let us know! I think the worst that could happen is that the bars would be slightly underbaked in the center.
Diana says
Do you think that you could double this recipe and bake them in a 9x13 pan?
Cynna says
Anna--Yes, good points! Either way, the bars were delicious!
As for baking, I think so much depends, too, on weather, geographical climate, and the oven. I live on the east coast in PA near the Delaware river and always had to adjust my my recipes when we had a winter home in Scottsdale.
Anna says
Cynna, thanks ! That's good to know since I mostly use metal for bars. I find that glass holds heat really well, so unless the temperature is lowered, the edges or the part of the batter that touches the glass tends to cook a little more and in some cases, forms a crust. With this recipe, that extra bit of heat the dough gets from the glass is probably a good thing.
Cynna says
If it helps, I used a Pyrex (glass) pan to bake these bars, and set the temperature at 350. I almost always bake bar cookies in Pyrex as it seems to distribute the heat more evenly. (Thanks for the temperature tip, too!)
Anna says
Hi Lori, I think it will work. The general rule of thumb for using a glass pan is to subtract 25 degrees from the heat and bake a little longer if needed. In this case, that means 325 F.
Lori says
Can I use an 8x8 glass pan? I don't have a metal one that size.
Cynna says
I made these on Thursday, refrigerated them until Saturday, when I served them at a party. Yum! I did make a few minor changes to the recipe and was thrilled with the results. In the dough, I added a 1/4 teaspoon of instant coffee, and cut the salt to a 1/4 teaspoon. For the filling, I cut the sugar to a scant 2 tablespoons and cut the chocolate chips to 3/4 cup. Everyone at the party loved them!
Nancy says
I've had these made with the Pillsbury cookie dough (which I generally do not like), and they were soooo good! I'm sure yours are even better!
Nancy says
I've had these made with the Pillsbury cookie dough (which I generally do not lik), and they were soooo good! I'm sure yours are even better!
Karen Schmidt-Dill says
Oh boy! We are having a mini-blizzard today, all the schools are closed. There is hardly any snow falling but the wind is blowing 30-40 mph and no one wants to go outside! I know what I can make now. Thank you, Anna!
Carolyn says
These look ridiculously good.
Beth says
These look great! I know what I'm making next!
Ashley @ Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen says
These look great! This would be perfect for my MIL who always wants cookies AND cake. Ha!
Stephanie @ Plain Chicken says
I would eat the entire pan of these! They look SO good!