Sunday, September 8, 2013

Peanut Butter and Nutella Cheesecake Bars

Ingredients:
  • 2 cups graham cracker crumbs (15 cracker sheets; Keebler is best)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 16 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs, at room temperature
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ¼ cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup Nutella
  • 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.


Directions:

Line an 9x9 pan with foil (to easily remove bars after cooking), grease the foil, and set aside.

Crush 2 cups of graham crackers, preferably with a food processor, and put in a small bowl.  Add sugar, salt, and butter and thoroughly mix everything together.  Then press the crust evenly into the bottom of the pan. Bake crust until set, approximately 12 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla, and beat until combined. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture into a separate large bowl and set aside. Add Nutella to the remaining half of the cream cheese mixture. Beat until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

Clean your wire beaters. Add the peanut butter to the reserved half of the plain cream cheese mixture. Beat until smooth and creamy.

Spread the peanut butter cheesecake mixture carefully over the cooled crust. Next, gently pour the Nutella cheesecake layer on top of the peanut butter layer and spread evenly.  When spreading the Nutella cheesecake layer on top of the peanut butter layer, it’s helpful to gently drop spoonfuls of the batter onto the layer in various spots and then smooth using a spatula. This prevents pooling in the center and ensures that both layers are even in thickness.

Bake for about 35 minutes, or until the center jiggles slightly when the pan is gently nudged. Cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before cutting into 16 bars.

Myrtle's Note:  I am not an Oreo fan, so I switched the crust base to graham cracker.  In fact, whilst making this with my friend Marie, we made the base half Oreo and half graham cracker.  If you wish to use Oreos, mix 2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 2 full rows of cookies in a standard package) with 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted.  We were also not interested in cooling our dessert for 3 hours, so we put the bars in the freezer to finish setting.

Yield 12-16