These cheesecake bars are so much easier than baking an entire cheesecake. No water bath, no cooling in the oven with the door slightly open to prevent cracks. And although I love baking a classic cheesecake, what I don't love is waiting for it to cool over night before eating it. These cheesecake bars have none of that. I just used my standard cheesecake recipe to create these and made it up as I went along and they were perfect. So scrumptious and definitely satisfied my Nutella craving. I can't wait to give the rest away to friends for treats. Here is what you will need to make these too:
For the filling:
12oz of cream cheese, 1.5 packets (at room temperature)
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup of cane sugar
1/2 cup of Nutella, for swirling
In your food processor, blend on high your graham crackers until you have fine crumbs. Then add in your sugar and your melted butter and blend again. Press this in to a brownie sized pan and then bake this for 10 minutes to set the crust.
While you are baking the crust, start your cheesecake filling. In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk together your room temperature cream cheese, (this is very important it is room temp otherwise you will have lumpy cheesecake), your sour cream, egg and sugar with vanilla extract on a high speed until combined and light and fluffy. Don't over mix this. You want it to have just come together.
The crust should be baked by now and you can spoon out the filling on to the crust and smooth it out carefully. Then dollop on your Nutella around the cheesecake and start swirling, careful not to touch the crust at the bottom.
Pop these in to your oven for 30 minutes and bake. Once they are ready, take them out and let them cool on the side completely then put them in to the fridge for about 1-2 hours until they are perfectly cold and ready to serve.
Enjoy on their own or with some fresh strawberries for desert.
This is the easiest and tastiest cheesecake recipe ever!