Red Velvet Cheesecake Bars

A guest post from my fellow baker friend and roommate, Katie Bill!

Happy Valentines Day! I figured what better time of year to totally indulge in chocolate, and better yet, a red velvet recipe!  With the deep red of the cake and creamy white cheesecake topping it seemed like the perfect, festive dessert to make for my friends and family.  The recipe sounded super easy and contained pretty basic ingredients, so I decided to give it a whirl! (pun intended, see below…)

They turned out great, but were slightly less sweet than I had expected them to be.  Next time I might try adding more sugar to the cheesecake layer, because the cream cheese was just a little overpowering.  Another recipe that I read instructed to add 1 cup rather than 2/3 cup, so if you have a sweet tooth as big as mine, going with the full cup might be a good idea.  Also, I baked them for closer to 40 minutes than 35, because after 35 the cheesecake hadn’t quite set.  Below is the exact recipe that I used.

Ingredients:

For Cake Layer

·      1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

·      4oz dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

·      2 cups granulated sugar

·      4 large eggs

·      2 tsp vanilla extract

·      1 tbsp red food coloring

·      1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

·      ½ tsp salt

For Cheesecake Layer

·      2 8oz blocks of cream cheese, room temperature

·      2/3 cups granulated sugar

·      2 large eggs

·      1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1.    Preheat oven to 350 F

2.    Line a 9 x 13 in baking pan with aluminum foil and lightly grease.

3.    Melt butter and chocolate together in a saucepan over low heat.  Stir until combined and very smooth.  Afterwards, set aside to cool for a few minutes.

4.     In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and food coloring (for cake layer).

5.    Add chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.

6.    In a separate bowl, sift together flour and salt.  Once combined, add dry ingredients into batter and stir until no streaks remain.

7.    Pour cake batter into pan and spread into an even layer.

8.    To prepare cheesecake mix, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg and vanilla extract until smooth.

9.    Drop dollops of cheesecake batter onto prepared cake batter.  Gently swirl two batters with a knife, as pictured below.

 

10. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until bar and cheesecake are set. A knife inserted into the cake mixture should come out clean and the edges will be lightly browned.

11. Cool in the pan before slicing and serving, either at room temperature or chilled. Enjoy!!