Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cheesecake Bars

by Vedika

You won’t be able to stop eating these gooey peanut butter chocolate chip cookie cheesecake bars oozing with melted chocolate!

I rarely make the same thing twice.

But I made these twice.

And I’ll be making them again, and again, and again.

Forget birthday cake; I’d prefer to blow out the candles on these peanut butter chocolate chip cheesecake bars, stacked on top of each other any day.

I love cheesecake- it’s something my father asks me to make every time we have people coming over, or any time I consult him for desserts, for that matter. “That’s the one thing you make really well,” he’ll say, “It always comes out good”. More often than not, I won’t listen to him because I’d rather try something new.

Today cheesecake is ubiquitous- although I do feel like – ‘cheese’ and ‘cake’ sound slightly odd. There’s no question for why it’s become so common. Cheesecake is luxurious in a sense- tall, creamy, sweet with a slight sour hint that comes with cream cheese. Topped off with blueberries or strawberries? I love it.

I also love Pinch of Yum. Lindsay has a way, not only with photographs but also with words. By the time I reach the end of a post, I want to try the recipe out. So when I came across this one- a combination of three things I most likely wouldn’t be able to live without- peanut butter, cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies, I wanted to taste it. Just once. But I’d rather have these peanut butter cookie cheesecake bars more often.

Because the list of ingredients made the recipe seem so rich, I decided to make the bars and take them on a field trip. A group of us were going on a Journey for a Lifetime day trip. We’d raised over 15,00o Polish Złoty which is around 5,000 USD for children with terminal illnesses. The organization, Coalition for Kids, International is similar to the Make-A-Wish foundation, except people are allowed to personally deliver the gifts and meet with the families. We’ve created a relationship with the organization and were able to go on a day-long trip and meet with two lovely children who lived close to Warsaw.

We left the campus at around 7:30 am and returned at 11 pm—a long day. Most of our time was spent on the bus, so we played a lot of Heads Up! and ate these. I offered everyone one, and then put the rest back in my backpack. My friends finished them up when I wasn’t looking.

I don’t blame them.

These bars are slightly crumbly, incredibly soft and have a nice texture from the oats. The combination of chocolate and peanut butter alongside cheesecake accounts for their incredibly rich flavor. I do like a plain cheesecake, but I love these. So much more. The oats give these bars a little chew- that extra little touch that makes them extraordinary. Oats are also healthy, so um. yeah.

I wouldn’t recommend adjusting this recipe very much because it’s quite flawless the way it is- the perfect ratio of cheesecake to cookie dough. You could use M&M’s instead of chocolate chunks, but I enjoyed the slight bitterness of chocolate, especially when the bars were warm and the chocolate oozed out. I did do one thing differently- I changed the ratio of brown and white sugar because I like brown sugar better. Personal preference.

I also recommend making these peanut butter cookie cheesecake bars for people – you know, share the decadence- because if you don’t, you’ll eat them all. That’s a guarantee. I wanted to taste them just once.

Yeah. I’ve had a lot of ‘tastes’.