Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

Yesterday was one of my coworker Nancy's last day of work, and in her usual form, she brought in several trays of baked goods to share with us all. What a sweetheart. One of the treats were these amazingly tasty cheesecake bars. I usually am not a huge fan of cheesecake (because there isn't enough chocolate) but these mix the best of both worlds: cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies. Enough said.

What's in it

Your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough recipe

16 oz cream cheese (room temp)

3/4 C sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

How it's made

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9x11 baking pan.

Whip up a batch of your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough (I recommend Martha Stewart's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from her "Cookies" book, or the back of the Nestle Tollhouse bag). Press a little more than half of the cookie dough into the bottom of the baking pan evenly with a rubber/silicone spatula. Set aside remaining batter.

In a bowl whip together sugar and cream until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and cream until mixed well. Pour on top of cookie layer in baking pan.

With the remaining cookie dough batter, press handfuls of batter flat in your palms, then drop on top of cream cheese mixture in the pan. Repeat until evenly distributed across the top.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 45-60 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean and cookie dough is golden on top. Let cool then slice into bars.