Chocolate Cheesecake Bars

I have been in a ridiculous cooking-mode all week. I guess I missed baking and cooking a lot more than I thought while I was at college. 



Chocolate Cheesecake

• 1-1/2 cups finely crushed Oreo cookie crumbs (about half the package) 
• 3 tbsp. melted butter 
• 2 8oz packages of softened cream cheese 
• 3/4 c. sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa (1.38 oz) 
• a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips 

Preheat your oven to 325 F.
Line a 9x9 baking dish with tinfoil, then coat it with cooking spray.

If you don't have a food processor (like me), place your Oreos in a plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin until they're good and crumbly. They don't have to be perfect and small chunks of cookie are fine. After crushing the Oreo cookies, mix them with the melted butter and press into the bottom of the pan tightly. Cook crust for about 10 minutes.

Mix the cream cheese, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl on medium (or with a hand mixer) until creamy, then mix in the cocoa until everything is combined. Pour cheesecake batter into the prepared pan with crust and spread evenly. Coat top of cheesecake with chocolate chips.

Bake 35-40 minutes, until set. Let cool on a wire rack and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours before slicing into bars.

Halloween Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

I got the chance to bake I was at my mom’s house, picking up a few things. I had to make something for Halloween, since I do every year, and with all the Halloween Oreos I’ve been eating, I figured I might as well incorporate them into something.

Notes: The oreos I took cream out of were the ones that went in the batter. Instead of “coarsely chopping” them, I crushed them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, until they were pretty much just crumbs, about the consistency of sand. I left a few with cream, chopped into about 1/8in bits to crumble on top before I put them in the oven.

Halloween Oreo Cheesecake Brownies

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup dark cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped Halloween Oreo cookies (about one row from a package)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Cover an 8x8 baking pan with tinfoil (this will make lifting the brownies out easier when they’re cool) and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Whisk until combined and set aside.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Whisk in sugar and bring to a boil, whisking frequently; boil for 1 minute. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

Take the cream out of about six Oreos. In a small mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and Oreo cream until well combined, about 1 minute.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, until combined. Whisk in melted butter-sugar mixture until combined. Stir in flour mixture until just combined, followed by Oreo cookies.

Spread half of brownie batter into baking dish, followed by cream cheese layer; dot the top with remaining brownie batter, and spread evenly, as best as you can. Run a knife through batter to make “swirls”.

Bake for 23-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out semi-clean.
Cool on a wire rack to room temperature before slicing.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars with Oreo Crust

Cheesecake is probably my favorite dessert, if you can’t tell by how many I make. And chocolate and strawberries is one of the best combinations ever, right? So after making oreo cheesecake bars, combining the two was the only option I could think of. Well maybe not the only option, but it sounded good at the time. If conditions were more favorable, this probably would have come out a lot better. I think I overcooked the crust, but that’s what happens when you’re in a rush, trying to cook things at 1am while your mother is asleep, and you’re whacking Oreos into crumbs with a rolling pin while still trying to not wake the whole neighborhood up. All in all, it still tasted pretty damn good.

Strawberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars with Oreo CrustFor the crust:

• 23 Oreo cookies
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

For the cheesecake (recipe via mykitchensnippets):

• 2 package (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup strawberry jam

For the (optional) strawberry topping:

• about 6 or 7 strawberries, sliced (you may need more or less, depending on the size of your berries)
• 1/3 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease and line an 8” x 8” square baking with parchment paper with leaving an overhang on both side (for easy removal of your slices later).
If you have a food processor: place the Oreos in the bowl of your food processor. Process, pulsing, until the cookies are finely ground. Add in the melted butter and pulse until the cookie crumbs are moistened. If you do not have a food processor: place Oreos in large ziploc bag, and beat with a rolling pin until finely ground. Transfer crumbs into a bowl and add in the melted butter, mixing until moist. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan. Press the crumbs into an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then set aside while you prepare the filling.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and lemon juice in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition, just until blended. Pour over crust. Heat up strawberry jam slightly in the microwave. Gently drop jam by small spoonfuls over top of batter. Cut through batter several times with knife for marble effect. Bake 40 min. or until center is set. Cool. Slice strawberries and heat up the additional 1/3 cup jam in the microwave. Layer your strawberries over the cheesecake, then drizzle the warm jam evenly over the berries and top of the cake. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight before slicing.