Stuff Cookie Bars With Cheesecake For The Ultimate Dessert

Don't get us wrong: We love a good chocolate chip cookie recipe. The simplicity of the ingredients, the ooey-gooey chocolate chips, the slightest bit of crispiness — it's all good. However, a regular chocolate chip cookie doesn't always check all the boxes for the perfect dessert. Sometimes you need a little something extra to break up all the sweetness.

And this is where the cheesecake cookie bar comes into play. You get all the same sweetness of a chocolate chip cookie but balanced out by the tanginess of a delicious cheesecake recipe. You get the usual crispiness of a cookie, but offset by the creaminess of cheesecake. It's a win in every way imaginable.

Even better, you can mix and match your favorite cookie dough varieties and cheesecake recipes in endless combinations. A red velvet cookie with cheesecake in the mix? Yes, please. A double chocolate chip cookie with mint chocolate cheesecake? Say no more.

As you can imagine, the process of making cheesecake cookie bars begins with mixing up your cookie dough. For instance, you might whip up a batch of cookie dough using a lemon shortbread cookie recipe. Press about ⅔ of the dough into a baking pan to form the bottom layer of your cookie bars.

As for the cheesecake filling, you can prepare whatever kind suits your fancy — perhaps following a classic New York cheesecake recipe, as the lemon zest included in this recipe will pair well with the lemon in the cookie. Add the filling to the baking pan, topping it all off with the last third of the cookie dough. You can press this final layer as well, or you can leave it chunky to give the bars a fun texture.

Notably, it's also possible to stuff your cookie bar with more than one kind of filling. (For a non-citrusy example, you could take a page from PB&J's book and place both peanut butter-flavored cheesecake and homemade jam between layers of oatmeal cookie dough for a sweet take on the classic sandwich.) Bake as usual, making sure that your cookie layers are cooked to your personal preference and that your cheesecake layer is set. Once cooled, you can cut pieces as large or as small as you'd like. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.