S'more's Cookie Bars

Hey everyone!  I am so happy to share this phenomenal recipe with all of my followers (or anyone that happens upon my blog), as I LOVE S'MORES!!!  They remind me of childhood, camping, fun, laughter, and relaxing by the fire...there is something so nostalgic about roasting a marshmallow over the fire on a stick.  So, the other day I was perusing one of my favorite food blogs, Crepes of Wrath, and I saw this recipe...I just knew I HAD to make it.  Let me tell you all, run, do not walk to make this recipe, you'll be glad you did.  Enjoy!

S'more Cookie Bars

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 extra large chocolate bars that are large enough to fill an 8" x 8" pan--I used Hershey's chocolate

1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff--about one jar

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and/or line an 8" x 8" brownie (square) pan.

2.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Sugars and butter

After eggs and vanilla 

3.  In a small bowl, whisk the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt.

4.  Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.  

Finished graham cracker dough

5.  Divide the dough in half and press half of the dough into an even layer on the bottom of the pan.  If it seems thin, that's okay, the dough will rise during baking.

6.  Place chocolate bars over dough in an even layer.

7.  Spread the marshmallow fluff over the chocolate bars.

8.  Top the fluff with the remaining dough by forming the dough into sheets with the palm of your hands and laying it down.

9.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until lightly browned.  You can cover the top of the pan with foil if it is browning too quickly.

10.  Now, here's the hard part...Let it cool completely before cutting, because they will crumble when you try to cut them if you don't.

ENJOY!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

Well, once again, I have been seriously lacking in blogging...I blame it on my new internship and adjusting to life after school (in addition to juggling multiple other responsibilities)! Well, I made this cheesecake back in May as one aspect of Pat's birthday dinner, so I've had the pictures for quite some time! Ha. I have to admit that this is one of the best cheesecakes I've ever had (and made).

The first part of making this cheesecake was to make the chocolate chip cookie dough (recipe from Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking). Now, if you're considering making this and don't want to make the chocolate chip cookie dough yourself, by all means, buy store bought cookie dough. I made the cookie dough using the recipe she recommend, however, feel free to use your favorite CC cookie dough recipe.

Tender, Buttery Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup room temperature unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups chocolate chips or coarsely chopped semisweet chocolate

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Cream butter and sugars until very smooth (3-4 mins).

3. Add vanilla and eggs and blend well.

4. Fold in flour, baking soda, and salt and mix well (2-3 mins).

5. Add chocolate chips.

6. Put onto baking sheets and bake for 10-13 mins. for smaller cookies or 14-18 mins. for larger cookies.

Now, I clearly didn't cook these cookies, because I needed the dough for the cheesecake, but if you wanted to do that, you could :) Instead, I cut them into 1 inch chunks and set them aside for use in the cheesecake.

Onto the cheesecake! Here are the ingredients:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

Crust

1 1/2 cups shortbread cookie crumbs (I used Lorna Doone cookies).

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

Cheesecake

1 batch of chocolate chip cookies

2 pounds of cream cheese at room temperature

1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. Toss crust ingredients into an ungreased 9 or 10-inch springform pan and press into pan bottom.

3. Blend cream cheese with condensed milk, sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, and whipping cream. Blend until smooth, about 4-6 mins.

4. Pour half of the batter into the pan; scatter most of the chocolate chips and half of the cookie dough chunks into the batter.

5. Top with the remaining batter, cookie dough chunks, and remaining chocolate chips.

6. Bake in a water bath for approximately 45 mins. to 1 hour, remove from bath, and place on a cooling rack. Make sure your pan is wrapped in a double layer of tin foil before you place in the water bath.

**Note: this is a deviation from the original recipe. I prefer to bake my cheesecake in a water bath, while the author of this recipe prefers to bake for half of the time with the oven on, then reducing the temperature and finishing in a reduced temperature oven. Finally, she turns off the oven and opens the door, letting the cake cool in the oven for an hour.

7. Refrigerate overnight then enjoy!